Choosing a Great Domain Name
Just like a sign for a
brick and mortar based business, your domain
name is an essential part of your marketing
strategy.
When you purchase
web site hosting
for your business, you'll find your web site
is living at a jumble of numbers known as your
IP address such as 219.153.281.172 By pointing a
domain name to your hosting account, visitors
can find your site quickly and easily by just
typing in your domain name.
Your domain name is the part after the www. and
the includes the .com, .net, .org or the .biz at
the end.
A good domain name:
- Describes your business and what it does.
- Is easy to remember
- Is easy to spell
It's actually better to have a longer domain
name that is memorable than a short, cryptic one
that's easily forgotten. Remember that real
words are easier to remember than cryptic
combinations of letters.
For example, www. aNameThatIsKindOfLong.com
is better than abw3g2.com. Of course, one that
begins with the first five letters of the
alphabet or a numeral is more likely to appear
top billing of alphabetical directories.
Your choice of domain name not only helps
human visitors find your web site easily, it
also helps the search engines index your site.
If you have a domain name with the word
"marketing" in it, you'll get "points" for that
with the search engines. Of course, there
are a LOT of other factors that go into getting
good search engine ranking results, but a domain
name with a valuable keyword is a GREAT start
towards great SERP (Search Engine Result Page).
Try to avoid hyphens if at all possible when
choosing your main domain name. Of course, if
you find your ideal domain name without a
hyphen, it' s a good investment to pick up the
hyphenated version as well.
If you're having trouble finding a great name,
try adding a simple letter "a" to the beginning
such as "Agreatdomainname.com".
Another option is to add your location to your
domain name choice. Here's the link to a
word
wizard tool that does just that for you.
Still having trouble coming up with a great
domain name? Try doing the twist. The
Domain Twist
takes two essential word
elements of your ideal domain name and combines
them into dozens of combinations.
Finally, it's essential that once you have your
domain name, that you use it for e-mail as well
as for finding your web presence. Nothing looks
less professional than yourname@yourisp.com.
Even if you don't have your web site up yet, you
can use an e-mail forward so mail sent to your
spiffy new domain name can be delivered directly
to your isp email box.
One final note: If you find the domain name of
your dreams, be sure to snatch up all the
extensions you can afford. There's nothing worse
than having a competitor snatch up the .biz or
.net version of your domain name. It's a small
investment for the security it offers your
business.
Click here to begin your
search for the perfect domain name for your web
presence.
|
