Top 5 Tips on How to Choose a Domain Name

You've got a great idea to publish on the Internet. It may be a new product, a cool business, or a unique insight on a specific topic, or just a sheer desire to immortalize yourself via a blog on the world wide web. Whatever your goal, finding the right domain name is significant but is not as difficult as it may appear to be.

1. Define your goal.
What is your purpose? Ask yourself, "What do I want to accomplish with the website I'm planning to name?" If your main focus is to get as many visitors to your site as possible via online searches, then you may want to choose a domain name composed of KEYWORDS related to your website content.

If your goal is to be remembered by a 'catchy' name offline (ie Yahoo!, Google, eBay), then choose that name but remember that you will have to work harder for search engine ranking because of the uncategorizable domain name.

If you are indifferent to who ends up on your website & lacks any need to promote business or product, then you can choose any domain name that suits your fancy and persona. By defining your website goal, then you can make the decision to choose a domain name much more manageable.

2. Determine your audience.
Who are you trying to attract to your website? Name your site after those you want to find your site. People who are looking for a group to associate with online or a resource related to their demographic have a higher chance of finding your site if that demographic is found within your domain name. Based on your website content, choose a name that is related to who your audience is (i.e. Moms go to www.CafeMom.com and Catholics go to www.Catholic-Stuff.com).

3. Be visitor friendly.
People in general have short term memories, therefore, the easier you make it for them to remember your domain, the greater the likelihood that you can attract them to your website. By choosing a shorter domain, you increase the visitor's ability to retain your website's name. For example, Financial Destination Incorporated has chosen not to use their full business name in their domain; instead, they've shortened it to just the first three letters and the abbreviation 'rep' for representative (www.FDIRep.com).

You can also make your domain name visitor friendly by choosing one that is clearly related to the item that you are selling on your site. For example, if your service is selling real estate, then you may want to have anything that is related to selling real estate (i.e. House4Sale, OntarioHomes, FontanaRealEstate, etc.) within your domain name rather than just solely YOURNAME.com. www.PeraltaRealEstate.com brands their team and skillfully associates their name with their main product, real estate. People are more inclined to remember the product or service rather than a plain name of the website owner.

Also, by not incorporating too many hyphens or numbers or unconventional spellings in your domain, you can make it easier for your visitors to log onto your website. They may be directed to a competitor site if they fail to include a hyphen or type out the full spelled out number versus the numerical form.

When strategically used, hyphens & numbers can allow you to get that desired domain name when the preferred version may already be registered. Although the domain RanchoCucamongaHomes.com is already taken, by inserting a hyphen before 'homes' a domain seeker can secure the available name (as of 11/2007) RanchoCucamonga-Homes.com to take advantage of the KEYWORD richness.

Adding hyphens also make it easier for search engine spiders to read your name, thus, aids to optimizing your ranking. However, a name like Sell-Your-House-With-The-Peraltas.com may be a bit cumbersome and unfriendly to a potential client who could mistakenly type in the domain address without the hyphens, thus, miss logging into your site & possible enter into the competitor's site.

4. Match your domain with your company name.
You'll be promoting your company and website simultaneously if they are one in the same name. The matching names saves you time when you begin promoting your business or product because you can embed your item and site into everyone's minds as you speak to them in one stroke.

However, don't fret if you've already established your business name and your desired domain name is no longer available. Be creative; it may be more advantageous to choose a domain name that generically describes your inventory. Incorporating items that the company sells in the domain name may prove to better boost your site's search engine ranking. One example is the company, Image Works, that specializes in stock photography; they've skillfully named their website www.StockPhotos.com to highlight their specialty.

5. Choose the level of domain specific to your purpose.
Top level domains like .com, .net, and .org are more recognizable, however, if your desired name is already taken, you can still have the opportunity to get that name by choosing another domain extension. If your business is primarily in the U.S.A., it would make sense to obtain a domain with the extensions .us or .us.com. The extension .bz may also be applicable to any business seeking a domain name. Although the other extensions are not as widely known as the top level domains, they can still give you the opportunity to capitalize on your desired domain name and obtain it.

If your ultimate goal is to be noticed on the Internet, then your best bet in choosing a domain name is finding one that is succinct, filled with keywords that relate to your business or your overall website content & is tailored to target your specific audience.