You may have heard that it can be difficult to find available names. That was true a few years ago, when domain names were limited to only 22 characters, but since late 1999 the limit was raised to 63. So fear not, all the good domain names are not taken.
When choosing a domain name, its best to find one that describes your product or service. Your domain name is your online identity. Ideally, your domain name will be eye-catching, but easy to remember.
Because the domain name is the first thing your website visitor’s see, it’s what gives them their first impression of you and your business. You don’t want your visitor to have a bad first impression. Here are a few basic do’s and don’ts of choosing a domain name
A domain name should sound professional. While people will be impressed by the value and quality of your product or service, they value professionalism more than anything else. You should choose a domain name that projects quality. Not only will the right domain name show professionalism, but it will help you earn trust and loyalty from your customers.
Get a .com extension, you should always try to obtain a .com extension rather than .net, .org, .biz, etc. The reason is most people will automatically add .com as the extension when they type an internet address. There is nothing wrong with owning other extensions, but if you own a domain with a .net extension without first owning the .com extension, you will lose visitors.
Use keywords in your domain name. If your domain name contains commonly used keywords, you’ll likely get listed higher in the search engines. The search engines send out spider to crawl websites, looking at the site’s keywords to determine how to list the site. Once the search engines list your website in their results, the domain name is considered as part of the ranking. In most cases, domains that contain keywords get ranked higher.
Don’t use hyphens, unless a word or phrase has a natural hyphen, such as “real-time” or “soda-pop” leave it out. They are harder to remember, and you will lose visitors who either forget, or don’t know about the hyphen in the address.
Don’t misspell, the spelling and structure of your name should be clear. If the visitor has heard of your site through word-of-mouth, they will most likely type in the incorrect address if you misspell your domain.
Choosing a memorable domain name is crucial. If people aren’t able to remember your domain name, you probably won’t get the amount of traffic that you’ll need to be successful. Always think about your potential visitors when choosing your domain. Write down all the domain names you can think of as ask yourself if it is really memorable. Once you find one that’s memorable, you’ve found your domain name.
Registering your domain name is quick and easy. The entire process usually only takes about 10 minutes once you’ve found an available name. Your name is your brand, so choose it wisely. The right domain name could mean the difference between success and failure.
Do you want to know more about hosting? If you need more information to make your choice and start your website, visit my blog and read more hosting web tips and articles.