One of the questions you need to answer before designing your website is: What is my domain name going to be?
- A good domain name should be easy to spell and remember.
- Secure a domain name that matches the concept of your business not just the business name. Both is best but not always possible.
- Having keywords in your domain no longer gives you and edge. Recent updates in Google’s algorithms have removed that bonus. See Google EMD Update. It is no longer beneficial to buy a domain that is www.keyword-keyword.com
- When someone hears or sees your domain name they should be able to identify what your business is about. I call this an image statement. This will make it easy for them to pass your name along to others.
- Sometimes you just can’t avoid a long domain name, or one that is commonly misspelled. In situations like this you can always secure shorter domains for marketing purposes and use a redirect, as well as securing common misspellings of your domain.
- At a minimum you should secure the .com, .net, and .org.
If your budget permits consider purchasing any other related domains that competition may consider. Locking out your current, or future competition by securing the best domains, is a good and often overlooked practice. - If your budget permits consider purchasing any other related domains that competition may consider. Locking out your current, or future competition by securing the best domains, is a good and often overlooked practice.
A domain name is more than just an address – it is your very online identity and therefore, as you pointed out quite nicely here Kevin, good domain name should be catchy and memorable, as the future traffic of your site depends a lot on the right choice you make here.
Also I wanted to let you know about our newly released guide on choosing a domain name at http://firstsiteguide.com/choose-domain/ – I think it could be great additional resource to use with this awesome article of yours.
All the best,
Anja
Speaking of the top level domain name since this plays a large role in picking the right domain name for domain name registration; many experts have noted that before you go for a domain name registration, you should identify your top level domain. The .com is the most common top level domain that is used today, for it stands for commercial domains. Of course there are other types and each has its own uses and functions.^”