Domain Name - How To Pick One -

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Domain Name - How To Pick One

Domain Name - How To Pick One

Picking a domain name should be easy, right? Why, I'll just use my business name. Not so fast, Sparky. A good bit of thought should be given to selecting a domain name.

A Cautionary Note

Picking a domain name is like getting married. You are going to have to stick with it till the bitter end. People that use your site will come to know it by the domain name. Repeat visitors will often simply type in the domain name to get to the site, better known as "type in traffic". As an example, do you search for "Amazon" when you want to buy a book or do simply type in amazon.com? If Amazon were to change its domain name to Desert, there would be a lot of confusion. The same goes with your domain. Once you pick something, stick with it.

Your Choices

Well, the obvious choice is your business name, but it may not be the best. There are four significant issues to consider.

First, is there something about your business name that makes using it as a domain an unwise choice? This situation typically arises if you have a long business name or have plural words. "Halstatt's Rip'n Marketing Campaigns, Inc." is going to be a horrible domain name. Clients are going to find it difficult to type in such a domain name.

Double letter problems are a second issue that is entirely unique to the Internet. What if Sams Salon wants to use its business name as a domain? The "s" at the end of first word and beginning of the second can cause confusion. Is the domain name Samssalon.com or Samsalon.com? Confusing your users is a bad way to run a site.

The third issue concerns the nature of your site and search engine optimization. If you are shooting for a particular keyword phrase, you may be better off using that keyword phrase in your domain name. Google, for instance, looks at the domain name when evaluating a site. If the words in your domain name are spaced with dashes, many believe it will help in the ranking process. This is why you see so many xxx-xxxx-xxx.com domain names on the net. If your business focuses on a very specific area, strong consideration should be given to using relevant keywords in your domain name.

Finally, your domain name should end in ".com" and I don't want to hear any argument or see any rolling of the eyes. The simple fact is that when people think of sites, they always type in .com. Yes, there are other extensions and .us, .net, .biz, etc., may seem unique, but it kills your traffic. Pavlov and his dog experiments had it right. People have been mentally conditioned to type in .com, so don't select any other ending. If you do, a smart competitor will register the .com version of your name to get some free traffic. If you are really lucky, a porn site will do it!

Take a breath before you select a domain name. Like a spouse, it can be either a good or bad choice.

Halstatt Pires is with http://www.marketingtitan.com - an Internet marketing and advertising company comprised of a search engine optimization specialist providing meta tag optimization services and Internet marketing consultant providing internet marketing solutions through integrated design and programming services.

In The News:

ICANN Loses Control of Its Own Domain Names
Slashdot - Jul 5, 2008
NotNormallyNormal writes "CBC picked up an AP story about ICANN recently losing control over two of their domain names on Thursday, June 26. ...

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Watch out! Web’s doomsday clock is ticking
Sify, India - 5 hours ago
In fact, domain names are only a convenience for people who have better luck remembering to type, say, www.google.com, than they would have trying to ...
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Online address registration body loses its own Economic Times
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Domain name decision looks like Web.disorg -- editorial
The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com, OH - Jul 4, 2008
The people who run the nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers think opening up domain names -- those last few letters at the end of ...

SIDN quarantines expired Dutch domain names for 40 days
Telecom Paper (subscription), Netherlands - Jul 3, 2008
Dutch organisation SIDN, which manages .nl domain names, intends to quarantine terminated domain names for 40 days. The object being to prevent domain names ...

What's in a name?
Globe and Mail, Canada - Jul 3, 2008
Proposed domain names must also be unlikely to cause confusion with other domains, and pass muster according to trademark laws, to say nothing of the United ...

Who Could Hack Web Regulators?
Infopackets, Canada - Jul 4, 2008
ICANN and IANA manage the routing system which allows web users to type in a domain name (such as www.infopackets.com) rather than having to know the ...

Best Syndication
The basics of Domain Name Registration
Best Syndication, CA - Jul 4, 2008
The first step to starting your website is to choose a name for your website, which is also known as its domain name. You can only choose a domain name that ...

Go Daddy milestone: 30 million domain names
Arizona Republic, AZ - Jul 2, 2008
The unidentified Go Daddy customer registered the domain name www.ruleofsaving.com last week, bringing the Scottsdale-based Internet domain name registrar ...

Irish Internet Services Company Blacknight Introduces ‘co.nl ...
HostSearch.com - Jul 4, 2008
COM) – Irish internet services company Blacknight has introduced ‘co.nl’ domain names to its suite of offerings, it was reported yesterday. ...

Domain name gold rush begins
SmartCompany.com.au, Australia - Jul 3, 2008
Every country has a country code domain name, such as .com.au and co.uk. But the changes mean new names could include company names such as . ...

domain names - Google News