Key Factors in Choosing a Domain Name

By: Tom George at mysiteonweb

Submitted on Wed, Jan 2nd, 2008 12:00 am

Choosing a domain name is one of the most important steps you take in developing the business strategy for your online business. Not only does your domain name brand your business, but it is also very important for search engine optimization. With this in mind, there are several factors to consider when you choose your website’s domain name:

KEEP IT SIMPLE and SHORT
Instead of creating a long domain name, you want to keep it simple. Visitors hate typing in long words, letters, or characters to access a web page. You may use short names for your website, which will give you the best result. For example, dna.com and aol.com are good names because they are simple.

ENSURE REVELANCY
When you are researching available domain names, it is important to consider the relevancy of the name to the purpose of your website. In other words, you want to use domain names that link visitors to a site that they are seeking to find. Relevancy is a critical factor to keep in mind when you are considering domain names. For instance, if you have a craft website, you may use the domain name: crafts.com or craftguild.com. The links are short and to the point, and users seeking craft sites will find your webpage and remember it with ease.

EVALUATE EXTENSIONS
The entire length of the domain name, including the extension, also aids in the branding of your website. The extension is used to identify what type of webpage you are promoting, and therefore, it is important to keep it in mind. You have several choices of extensions, including .com, .org, .net. .info, and several other options. The standard extension for a domain name is .com for businesses or general websites. If the website has a non-profit purpose, then you would need to consider an extension that fits this category. The common extension used for non-profit organizations is .org. For example, if your business were to raise funds to support our military troops, then you would consider the extension and address: militaryfundraiser.org. This is still relatively short, and it reaches out to the readers, letting them know what you are promoting on your webpage. One note to keep in mind regarding extensions is that for both users and search engine algorithms, .com and .org are the most common domain extensions.

KEYWORDS IN THE DOMAIN
Another equally important aspect is developing a relationship with your keyword(s) in the domain. This will greatly assist with the search engine rankings and indexing of your website, thus giving you more natural traffic. If you own a pool cleaning service, for example, then you would want to try to include the words “pool route” or “pool service” in your domain name. Not only will this assist your clients in remembering the domain name, but it will also help boost your website in the search engines as well.

CONCLUSIVE STRATEGY
By strategically developing your domain name, your website will certainly reap the benefits. Having a domain name that fits your purpose or product, a memorable, relatively short address, and keywords in the domain name are all critical components for the success of your website.

Keeping the marketing, length, and keyword strategies in mind, you can successfully choose a domain name that will maximize the success of your online business.

About the Author

Tom George
mysiteonweb

Thomas George is a lead SEO specialist of mysiteonweb.com, an Internet company that specializes in helping small businesses create their own websites as well offers cheap domain names. He also owns templatesonweb.com that sells premium quality website templates.

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