Tips On Selecting A Good Domain Name For Your Business Website Or A Blog.

In today’s competitive business world, the importance of a good domain name is immense. Domain name is the name that represents your business online. It is a foundation for your business to expand its horizon. So, there is a lot of things to consider before you assign a name for your business blog or a website. I hope this post answers all your questions about domain names and also help you find a perfect domain name for your site.

What are good domain names?

First of all, the word(s) that relates to what your site or company is about, in one or more ways, are good domain names. Short, simple and unique names certainly gives you an extra edge in the internet marketing but a domain name doesn’t need to be short to be good. It is just that shorter ones are catchier, make better brands and easier to advertise. Although your domain name can be up to 67 characters long, it can be hard for your audience or customers to remember and type the long names. Having said that, some long ones can be catchier and a powerful tool to market your site. With shorter domain names disappearing as we speak, you might have to settle for long ones. Of course, this doesn’t mean stop looking for a perfect domain name for your site. There are lots of creative ways to get a domain name if you try hard enough.

Which one first – The domain name or the contents?

Now this one bugs a lot of newbie webmasters. I don’t think there is the right answer for this question. However, I recommend planning your website using a simple 3 step process – you select a topic, plan your content and then research on a good domain name. Usually what happens is that you buy a domain name in a hurry but later on, realize that it does not suit your contents or find one that you think suits better. I have had a bitter experience with this when I first started my online endeavor.  After couple of months of work in one of my sites, I changed the domain name and as a result lost a lot of my regular traffic.

And then of course, there are always exceptions. You can come across a great domain name that can make you thousands of dollars in coming years. This business of buying and selling of domain names sometimes is the subject of a lot of public controversy because of domain grabbers. You probably already know about the incidences like that of the domain grabber that purchased the domain name www.georgewbushlibrary.com and made 35 000 dollars with under 10 dollars of investment. ( For more on this story click here.)

How to get the perfect domain name for your site?

Let me get direct to the point – Brainstorm and research. Brain storming is easy and very effective. Personally, I am a great fan of brain storming and have used this method to find the domain name for my sites, including this blog you are reading right now. What you do is, on a piece of paper, list all the words you can think of that best describes the content of your site. After that, the research part comes to play where you play with the words by looking for similar words, add other words or a suffix or a prefix. One of the great research tools I often use to find similar words is the Thesaurus. There are several free tools like NameBoy and DomainFellow that can come in handy while researching for the perfect domain name for your site.

The time researching a domain name is the time well spent as you need a name that portrays the intent of your site and you will be using this name for marketing your business. After you find one, type it in the search engine and use the domain registrars ( I use Godaddy ) to find if the name is available.

Many offline businesses want their company name as the domain name. This is a great idea if your business is already established and has a lot of returning clients. On the contrary, if your business is fairly new or you are new to internet marketing and want to compete with the already established businesses, having keywords and keyword phrases in the domain gives you the extra edge. As search engines rank websites based on keywords, you will continue to get traffic via search engines in the long run. For instance, Let’s say you run a window installation company in Dallas (one of the largest cities in the United States), the keywords you need to focus on is windows, installation and Dallas. Something like dallaswindowinstallers.com is a good domain name, as people in Dallas are more likely to use those keywords in search engines when looking for windows installers.

Can your domain name end with other than .com?

The most important thing to consider here is your target audience. Domains ending with .com is the best way to go if you are targeting the global market. And search engines use search algorithms that display the .com site first between similar competitions. But of course, if you like the name but can’t find the .com version then, it is all right to settle for .net or .org. The latter one is generally used by organizations, .edu by educational organization and .biz by business organizations.

The main thing is the content of your site. If your site is popular and people love the content you publish, search engines will definitely show your domain name first whether it ends with .com, .org, .net or.edu.

And then we have the country specific domain names like .uk, .us, .aus, .fr. If your domain name is just targeting a specific region or a country, it makes sense in having country specific domains. You can benefit from having .uk if your business caters just the United Kingdom. But, if you plan on attracting global audience but your domain name is country specific, then you are definitely going to lose your audience.

If you are really thinking about building your business and want to secure your online identity by protecting your brand, I recommend getting your hands on .com, .net, .org as well as .biz for the domain name you choose. But this is not necessary if you are just starting. It is something to think about as you become successful online.

The important thing to remember, especially if your domain name ends in other than .com, is to advertise the whole url. For instance, if your domain name is XYZ.net, then make sure to include the .net part while advertising online or offline.

What about domain name with hyphens ?

There are both advantages and disadvantages of having a domain name with hyphens.

If you have two or more keywords in the domain name, you can use hyphen to separate them. This makes the words separate, so that people can easily see the words. Search engine wise, it is good to have a hyphen as they can distinguish the words better and rank your site based on those words. Notice that I also use hyphen in the domain name of this blog. Another advantage is that if you can’t find the domain without the hyphen but still want the same name, then you can use hyphens.

Now there are some disadvantages. While telling your domain name to friends and families over the phone, you have to remember to say the hyphen as well. So having a hyphen might sound like it is harder to advertise but, if your content is solid, having a hyphen is nothing to worry about.

So what domain names should you avoid?

You definitely need to avoid plural, misspelled or even hyphenated versions of already popular website. This only creates confusion or can even land you in trouble.

Is your domain name a trademark infringement? Are you using a famous company name in your domain name in order to be popular and get lots of traffic? If you do then you might face legal action by these companies and it is your responsibility to do a little research before you register domain name like this. To save headaches later on, I recommend searching the Electronic Trademark search system before registering a domain name if necessary.

I see many webmasters using their own name as the domain name of a site. This is a great idea if you are looking for a domain name for your blog as this can be the best way to represent your ideas and passion.

Many people use acronyms in the domain name. If you are already established business wise, like IBM.com, then this is not a problem. But, if you are just starting out, I recommend avoiding acronyms and instead use keywords that best describes your contents of the site.

Lastly, What if you want a domain name real bad but it is not available? In that case, you can check the WhoIs database and find out who owns it. Then, you can contact this person to see if he/she is willing to sell this domain name. Unless you have hefty budget to invest in the domain name for your business, buying names this way can cost you a fortune.

In conclusion, If you are looking for a domain name for already existing offline business, do your research to find the keywords and keyword phrases that best describes your business. A good domain name for your business can certainly take your business to a whole new level online. If you are a blogger, it is best to have a domain name that best describes what the content of your site is about.

Please feel free to leave comments below if you have any questions or suggestions.

Here’s to your successful online endeavor.

-Adam Paudyal

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