Lesson #5: Choosing A Domain Name

Choosing A Domain Name For your Website or internet Business requires coming up with a descriptive name and then registering your own domain name.  It's an important step in the process of starting an online business.

Tips for Choosing Your Domain Name

1) Your domain name should include your top, descriptive keywords that best describes  your website.  For example, if you have a website that sells organic dog food, 'organic dog food' should be part of your domain name.  Some good choices might be 'best organic dog food', 'healthy organic dog food', 'balanced organic dog food', etc.  Remember, the internet is about getting found, using keywords that describe your business as a domain name are going to help you the most.  

2) When you register your domain name you have the option of keeping your domain name private. A private domain registration will keep your information (name, email address, etc.) out of the global Internet database, and will prevent most spam from reaching your email in box. You will notice that anyone doing a 'WHOIS' on your domain name will not have access to your personal information. Even though registering a "private" domain is not mandatory, I highly recommend you select this option. 

If your happen to register your domain name through your host, make sure it is actually 'you' that owns the domain. Do a WHOIS search and look at the "Administrative Contact."  It should be you.

Godaddy
The World's #1 domain name registrar. Easy domain name finder and online registration.

3) Hyphenated or non-hyphenated? The truth is -- it doesn't matter.  Both hyphenated and non-hyphenated work equally as well.  If you're having trouble deciding then purchase your domain name as both a non-hyphenated and hyphenated. You don't have to build a site on all the domains, but you can purchase them and have your site display for each domain name.

A good rule of thumb is use hyphens if you have more than three words in your domain name. For example, windowblinds.com is certainly acceptable and easy to read, however fauxfinishwindowblinds.com would be better distinguished if you used faux-finish-window-blinds.com.  The search engines pick up either one for keyword content, so considering readability is why you might use the dashes.

Regulatory standards require that a domain name can be as long as 67 characters, including the characters in the suffix (63 characters plus the 4 character .xyz. Only letters, numbers, or hyphens are permitted. A domain name may not begin or end with a hyphen. Keep your domain name as short as you can, using all 63 characters gets too large and makes it hard for readability and for your users to remember.

4) To keep others from using your domain name with a different extension, it's a good idea to also purchase multiple extensions for your domain name (.org, .net, .info, etc).  You don't have to build a site on each domain but you can reserve them so others don't use them. You can also redirect the additional names to your main .com site.

Keep in mind that the domain name is only a small factor weighed by search engines when deciding your rank.  Quality content, good site structure and your site's popularity (inbound links from other sites) all play a part in developing a good, quality site.  See Web Site Linking

Continue to Lesson #6 - Web Hosting