How Do You Pick a Domain Name?
March 2, 2010 by admin
Filed under Buying Guide
Here are some thoughts and tips on how to pick a domain name.
If you are new to domain names, realize that a domain name consists of two major parts. The first part of the domain name is what we call the “Mid Level Domain.” This is like Ford in http://Ford.com, for example. The domain name extension is the part that is .com, .net, .org and others.
For you to properly pick a domain name, you should know that the domain name can contain for up to 63 characters in .com, .net, and .org domains. Only letters, numbers, or hyphens are allowed to in domain names. Underscores and exclamation marks are not permitted.
Here is something that has confused clients of mine. Let’s say you want to register mysite.example.com. If someone else owns example.com, you cannot register mysite.example.com because it is a subdomain of example.com. Be sure to watch for this. I have even seen listings on flippa.com that claimed to be selling an incredibly valuable domain name that was a subdomain of the incredibly valuable domain name that the seller did not own.
Picking a good domain name is a skill to develop. On one hand, most internet users remember web sites based on their domain names. As such, the domain name is important for building repeat traffic, inbound links and search engine ranking. But, on the other hand, many people find websites based on search engines. In this case, a longer domain name is not terrible. You are not relying on people remembering the domain name, but instead relying on search engines to send traffic your way. For these domains, having valuable key words in the domain name is most important.
Keyword domains take advantage of the power of search engines to drive traffic. A domain name that matches a keyword search gives better chance of ranking higher for targeted keywords.
A different approach is “branding.” Most companies pick a domain name based on their brand name. A few examples of branded domain names are Yahoo!, Google, Amazon, Monster, and eBay. These brand names are registered trademarks of their respective companies.
It is wise to choose your domain name based on your brand or trademark, if you have one. Under no circumstances do I recommend registering a domain that includes another company’s trademark. That is “squatting” and you will be subject to expensive legal action.
