How To Choose a Domain Name

What do you do: Your domain name should pertain somewhat to the business you are going to be running online and what your website is going to be all about. If you are going to sell dog food for example you will want to go with something in the domain name that says that such as www. dogfood sales.com.

Get Ideas: To get ideas for your name write down any words that are related to your website and what your website content will be. This will give you a huge word bank to begin to put together some ideas.

Make it short: When you choose your domain name you will want to go with a shorter one. The reason is simple; people don’t like to have to work too hard to get to your website. It is much easier to go to www. coolsite.com than it is to go to www. numberonecoolawsomesite.com. You can accomplish this by using abbreviations and numbers wherever you can. For example you could turn www. numberonebusinesssite.com into www. number1bizsite.com.

Make it memorable: You want visitors to leave your website remembering who you are. Making your domain name a catchy and memorable one can help you accomplish this. A visitor is much more likely to remember a website’s domain name with words or numbers that ‘pop out’ to them rather than one that just uses generic words. Think of it like an 800 number. You are more likely to remember 800-FLOWERS then you are to remember 800-356-9377. The same holds true for your domain name.

Don’t use your name: A big mistake that many people make when selecting their domain name is to use their real name. While you may think www. johnsmith.com looks really cool, no one is going to know what the heck it is you do, except for maybe your mom.

Don’t make it confusing: Try to stick to the point with your domain name. Spell things clearly and avoid too much alternate spelling, like spelling boys as boyz. This has a tendency to confuse visitors and the bottom line is if it is hard to find your website, they will simply find your competitors’.

Choose more than one: Come up with at least five domain names that you would be happy with. The reason for this is that you have to be sure that the domain name you like is not already taken and is still available. If your first choice is not, then go with your second and so on until you find one that is.