Picking the right domain name for your site can get a bit tricky. If you've got a registered trade name for your company, then the odds are that the name isn't taken yet, and even if it is, you'll be able to aquire it with a few well-worded Cease-and-Desist letters from your lawyer.
For the rest of us, we have to use a bit of creativity. Here are a few guidelines.
- Key words don't matter: A domain name doesn't have to include the key words to the type of business you want to attract. At least, not when it comes to search engines finding your site. Just take a look at the more famous success stories. What does the word Amazon have to do with books? What is a Yahoo? Does it make you think of searching for websites? No.
- Make it short: I like to use something I call the Bumper Sticker Rule. If it's too long to fit on a bumper sticker, then it's too long. And by the way, bumper stickers make a great alternative form of advertising for your site.
- Make it memorable: Let's go back to the bumper sticker idea... your potential customer is stuck in traffic. Your bumper sticker is on the car in front. What can you say on that bumper sticker that will make your website stick in his brain long enough to type it into the web browser when he gets home?
- Use contrasting words: As you hunt for domain names that aren't taken yet, try to pick nouns and adjectives that don't normally go together. People remember the unusual and the unexpected. If it's a little witty at the same time then all the better.
- Get more than one: If your budget allows, register more than one domain name. There are multiple reasons for this. As mentioned earlier, you have the ability to host more than one website on one hosting account. You can also have one domain automatically redirected to another. Both can be valuable in determining which domain name is getting you the best results.
- Which dot? .com .net .us :
- In almost all circumstances the .com option is your best bet. Mainly because when a user types your domain name in their web browser without including the part after the dot, most browser software will automatically attempt to find a site with the .com extension. Then there's the organizational aspect.
- The only real restrictions here are that .edu belongs to accredited educational institutions, and .gov belongs to government agencies. Other areas are more loosely categorized and should be taken with a grain of salt. However, in general, .com is for commercial activities (businesses), .org is for organizations (non-profit and otherwise), .us is for pretty much anybody in the United States, and so on.
- Newer possible extensions are coming out all the time, such as .tv (TV shows and fan sits) and .mobi (sites for cell phone users) for the most part, and for the most effective branding and the least confusion on the part of your potential site visitors, stick with the traditional extensions.
Are you ready to go get your domain name?
Remember: We are ONLY doing domain name registration here. Do not sign up for any additional services, no matter how tempting the offer might be (you can always go back and get additional services later if needed, once you know what's available at other companies and have a basis for comparison).
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Here we go...
