How to Choose a Domain Name: Rules for Length, Spelling, Arabic Names and Trademarks

A good domain name passes three tests: someone can hear it once and type it correctly, it clearly belongs to your brand, and nobody else has a legal claim to it. This article turns those tests into concrete rules, with special attention to a problem almost every Egyptian business meets: writing an Arabic name in Latin letters.

The technical rules

• A domain may contain the letters a to z, the digits 0 to 9 and hyphens; no spaces, underscores or symbols.
• It cannot start or end with a hyphen, and two hyphens in the third and fourth positions are reserved for internationalised names, which begin with "xn--".
• Each part between the dots can be up to 63 characters long, although a usable name is far shorter.
• Domains are not case-sensitive: NourDental.com and nourdental.com are the same address, so capital letters only help readability in print.

Length: the phone test

Say the name to someone over the phone and ask them to type it. If you have to spell it out, explain where the hyphen goes or mention a doubled letter, the name will lose you visitors and misdirected emails every day. As a rule of thumb, aim for one or two words and roughly 6 to 15 characters before the extension. Shorter is better only while it stays meaningful; a random abbreviation such as "egtcs" is short but hard to remember.

Writing an Arabic name in Latin letters

Most Egyptian brands are Arabic words, and there is no single standard way to write them in Latin letters. The same name can appear as elnour, alnour or elnoor, and a customer who only heard it will guess one of them. To reduce the guessing:

• Use the spelling your customers already see, for example on your shop sign, social media pages and official papers, and keep it identical everywhere.
• Avoid Franco-Arabic digits such as 3 for ع, 7 for ح or 2 for ء. They feel natural in chat, but almost nobody types them in an address bar.
• Decide on "el" or "al" once, and consider registering the other form as a redirect.
• Watch letters with several Latin forms: ق as q or k, ou or oo, and doubled letters such as mm or ss.
• Register the one or two most likely alternative spellings and redirect them to the main domain.

Arabic-script domains: useful, but not as the main address

Domains can also be written entirely in Arabic, and Egypt has an Arabic-script country extension, .مصر. Technically these are internationalised domain names: behind the scenes they are converted into a Latin form that starts with "xn--". They read naturally to Arabic speakers, but they have practical drawbacks: visitors must switch keyboard to type them, some apps and email programs show the xn-- form instead of the Arabic, and email addresses in Arabic are still poorly supported. A sensible approach is to keep a Latin domain as your main address and, if you like, add an Arabic domain that redirects to it for campaigns and print. For the technical side of Arabic websites, see our guide to hosting Arabic websites.

Brand name or keyword name?

A domain that matches a search phrase, such as cheap-furniture-cairo, gives little or no ranking advantage today; search engines rank pages on their content and reputation, not on the words in the domain. Keyword names are also hard to protect and age badly once the business expands beyond its first product. A distinctive brand name, with a short descriptive word if needed (nourdental rather than best-dentist-in-cairo), is easier to remember, easier to register as a trademark and easier to grow with.

Hyphens, numbers and hidden words

• Hyphens: they are easily forgotten when the name is spoken. Use one only if the name is unreadable without it, and then register both versions.
• Numbers: "4" or "four"? Whichever you choose, some visitors will type the other. Avoid digits unless they are part of the brand itself.
• Hidden words: joining words can create new, unintended words at the boundaries. Read the joined name in every possible split before buying it.
• Doubled letters at the join: names such as smartteam invite typos; see whether a different word avoids the double letter.

Check trademarks and history before you pay

Registering a domain does not give you a right to the name. If it matches a trademark that someone else owns, the owner may be able to take the domain through a dispute procedure; for generic extensions this is the UDRP process, and country extensions have their own rules. Before buying:

• Search Egypt's official trademark records and, if you will sell abroad, an international database such as the WIPO Global Brand Database.
• Search the commercial register, social media handles and search engines for businesses already using the name in your field.
• If the domain was registered before, look at its past content in a web archive and check that it is not on spam blocklists; a bad history can follow the name.
• If the brand matters to your business, register it as a trademark too; the domain alone does not protect it.

A final checklist

• Can someone type it correctly after hearing it once?
• Is it under about 15 characters, without digits or Franco-Arabic letters?
• Does it work with the extension you chose? See choosing between .com, .eg and other extensions.
• Will it still fit if you add products or open in another city or country?
• Does it look professional in an address such as sales@yourname.com? See why business email belongs on your own domain.
• Is it free of trademark conflicts and a bad history?

When the name passes, check its availability on the domain registration page and follow the step-by-step domain registration guide to register and connect it.