How To Choose A Great Domain Name

What's the one make-it-or-break-it item that your online business requires to stand out from the crowd and become very successful?

A great domain name!

The domain name is what people enter into their browsers when they want to get to your site - it's the part that comes after the http:// or the www. It's your web address. Having something they won't forget without having to look it up every time or keeping it in their bookmarks, to be lost among the all the other addresses, is the best thing you can do to get visitors to return to your site and word-of-mouth free traffic.

People say that all the good names are gone, but that's about as far from the truth as you can get. Here are some simple guidelines that will make your domain name -- and your business -- a popular and memorable online destination.

1. Choose a .com

The primary rule is, go for the dot-com domain extension, which is typed as .com. This is the Main Street of the virtual real estate world, and the one that most people will type in regardless of what your domain extension actually is. While .net and .org were popular for a while, and then .us, .biz,.info and .name took the stage, people always come back to .com -- regardless of how many different country code top level domains are launched into the mainstream, like .cc, .ws, .to, .cn and others.

2. Choose something memorable

You want your business name to be your domain name too, if possible. So if your flower shop is called Felicty's Flowers, you want to get felicitysflowers.com, assuming it's available. If it's not, try adding a dash, like felicitys-flowers.com or a secondary descriptive word like felicitysflowersonline.com or prettyfelicitysflowers.com. If you're creative, you'll have no problem coming up with something that works with your business name and is one your customers will easily remember.

Keep in mind that if you use a dash in your domain name, which some Search Engine Optimization experts say attracts more free traffic to your site, you'll have to say the dashes if you use your domain name in an audio product or commercial; so it would be "felicitys dash flowers dot com".

Most people who enter your domain name into their browser later will not type the dashes.

3. Get another variation

If you're lucky enough to grab a great domain name without the dashes, then you might want to get the same name with dashes between the words as well. You can put both domain names up on your server as mirror sites to get the benefits of SEO as well as the ease of typing without the dashes.

You should also consider getting the .net or .org variation or even another extension or two to use as sister sites for your main dot com site... maybe you could place your forum on the .net, or use your .com for your main product and .net for your business background information site.

Even if you're searching for a domain name that you don't really think will be available, using your creativity and trying a variety of word combinations should allow you to come up with an unforgettable domain name that will attract people to your website.

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