Choosing A Domain Name

Finding That Perfect Domain Name Is Becoming An Art Form

By: Mike Goldstein

In the distant Internet past, circa 2000, a very solid SEO strategy was to purchase a domain name with your keywords in the URL. This was said to greatly assist to a web site in their rankings. While this strategy has met with limited success as of late, it is still a good marketing ploy to buy names which have your core competence terms as part of the URL. This has been made increasingly difficult as a result of cyber squatters, who buy and horde domain names for ransom, or just because they think they may someday want to use the name, but have no immediate plans to do so.

It is estimated that about 70 million are currently under registration from ICANN. It is further estimated that there are virtually no one and very few two-word phrases left in the English dictionary. This means that web site owners are going to either need to come up with some very creative words, which are not real words, or they are going to need to come up with very long domain names, which may be difficult to spell or have a high risk of mistyping by a user.

What does all this mean to the web site owner who is concerned with getting traffic to their new site? It may require more SEO work and less traditional advertising to get users to come to your web site. Why is this? In the past you could create a brand around one word, such as Yahoo, or Boston, and with a good marketing effort, have users simply remember your web site, type in your domain name and go to the site. This is not going to be the case with newer sites, as the domain's names are going to get longer, and the extensions are not going to be limited to .com, .net and .org, but rather a plethora of domain name extensions will be needed.

So what is a web site owner to do? The marketing of sites will now fall to developing great content, getting others to link to you, making sure the web sites are defined properly and not allowing for sloppy programming. There is also the avenue of paid search, where no single keyword or keyword phrase is owned by a single person in perpetuity, but rather many companies can bid for the same term and based on a variety of bid management techniques and better copyrighting, you can purchase web site clicks.

The world is changing, and we are quickly becoming more and more a wireless web-based society. As such, TV, radio and print commercials have less of an impact on how we find the web sites we want to visit, but it seems as though the large consumption of domain names over the past decade may move us into that new medium far quicker than some of us might like. On the other hand, if you are skilled at SEO and SEM, you may be positioned to be a leader in an industry that you simply could not have bought your way into just six years ago.

Think Twice Before Choosing Your Domain Name

by Ricardo d Argence

If you have an online presence, especially if you run a business online, you need to think about your domain name and what it needs to do for you. Your domain name is the address that people type to get to your website, and it is completely unique to you.

Think of it as your own online brand; it is often the first thing that a person sees when they search for you, and frequently, there will be an element of it involved in every aspect of your online identity, from usernames to emails.

There are plenty of things to keep in mind when it comes to choosing a name, but they are all fairly simple.

Ideally, your it should be short, simple and descriptive. If a person can tell what you do from the domain name itself, this is a sign that you are on the right track.

Avoid using dashes as most people forget to put them in; you might even find that having a domain name with strange punctuation can even lead your prospective customers to your competitor!

Similarly, make sure that your DN reads well. Say it out loud and say it slowly.

Listen for any corruptions of the words or any strange sounds. Although it will largely be written rather than spoken, make sure that it has a good sound to it.

Ideally, you'll ask some of your friends and see what they think. This is a great way to make sure that you don't get stuck with a domain name that becomes a joke!

To see if a domain name is available, take a few steps. First, try typing it into your address bar, and if it doesn't show up, chances are that you might be able to get it.

There are a few sites that will perform more rigorous checks, but the webhosts that will sell you the domain name will often perform this check for you as well.

You'll find that you can purchase it for a very small amount of money from the webhost, and, depending on the service, you will also receive a large amount of webspace to work with.

Don't forget to renew your domain name. Most registrations for domain names only last for about a year and if you let this lapse, you might find that your webhost will sell it to the highest bidder.

There are companies that look for expired web domains with high hits that they can then direct to their site, so getting it sold out from under you might be likelier than you think! Keep your registration up to date and current!

People often miss the importance of having their own unique domain name for their web sites. It represents you, your company and your online presence; as does a business card.

If you don't have your own name you won't be able to promote your own online identity and web site on the World Wide Web.

Take some time to really think about your DN and what it can do for you; don't get trapped into an online brand that does you more harm than good!

You are going to have to live with your choice of domain names for a long time. Take your time and choose wisely.

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