Domain Names: An Artist’s Guide to Choosing a Website Name

It’s quite simple, as an artist your name is your brand and so your website domain should be your name. But what if your perfect domain name has been taken already? Read my guide to choosing a name for your artist portfolio website.

.com

.com is always the best choice, the easiest for people to remember. It is even the best if you don’t consider yourself a com (company).

Country domain

Second to .com, a top level country domain is a great choice for your artist website, e.g.

• .co.uk (UK)
• .au (Australia)
• .ca (Canada)

.net

I would place .net in equal second place with a country domain. It’s short, international and with neutral associations.

Adding a suffix

If .com, .net or your country domain aren’t available for your name, I would consider adding ‘art’ or ‘artist’ to your domain name next, e.g.

• johnsmithartist.com

Many artists choose the suffix of ‘studio’ too, but that may feel a little grand if it is just you making art alone, e.g.

• johnsmithstudio.com

Art domains

There are a number of top level domains that have been founded for the use of artists. They are certainly useful alternatives, but the options above are definitely more classic.

• .art
• .studio
• .gallery

Other domains to consider

I’ve picked out these further top level domains. They could be useful alternatives if other domains are unavailable.

• .co (Nice and short, and international too)
• .xyz (Quirky and short)
• .me (Very short, quite informal)
• .website (Descriptive, but not that desirable)
• .online (Good enough)

Difficult names to spell and remember

The only exception to having your name for your domain is if your name is difficult, long or difficult to remember. In which case you could consider a shorter, more user-friendly domain.

Also consider registering two domains, both a short and full name. Build your site on your full name and create a redirect from the shorter one. When you meet people you can share the short friendly name, but it will forward to your site with your full name.

WWW or non-WWW

I think this is down to personal preference. I have always preferred a domain with www, and www is great to emphasis an website address if your audience are a bit tech incompetent.

But dropping the www is cleaner (perhaps) and less to type, which is always a bonus.