How to Select a Best Domain Name

What's Domain

All websites typically have a name - just like GoArticles is called www.goarticles.com - This is a name that points to the space on the web where your website is physically located. And we call this name of websites as Domain Name (sometimes, just call it as Domain)

A domain name makes up the address of your site and can end in .com, .net, .org, .info, .us, .biz, .tv and more, which we call the Domain Extentions. You have many domain extentions for choice, but the most common one is .com. And each country can have their own domain extention as well, such as ".co.uk" is a domain from UK, ".cn" is for China and ".jp" for Japan. So before you apply for a domain name, you will need to decide a domain extentions for your web site based on your target readers, if it's worldwide, .com is the best choice for you, but if you want to only target Chinese, you can choose .cn (.com is also a good choice since it's so common).

How to Select the Best Domain Name

Below are some tips for selecting a domain name:

1. Register a name that contains your major keywords, such as you design a web site to guide people how to find the web hosting solution, it would be better to include 'webhosting" or "hosting" in the domain name, such "webhostingclue", "hostingclue", etc. This should be followed if being found in the major search engines (Google, MSN, etc.) is extremely important to you.

Think about it. The average surfer searches by subject, not by proper name. So why it may seem cool to have a name like RaysTool.com for Software development site, you'll want to choose a name that includes keywords that your target audience would likely use when they search.

So with that in mind, a name like RaysDevTool.com would be much better than RaysTool.com.

If the domain is for a company, you might want to put your company name in domain. I think it's fine if your company is famous or attracting free traffic to your web site is not important. But keep in mind that you need to advertise the whole domain instead of the feature of your site. Such as if you create a site for webhosting with domain name "whc", please make sure you promote your site a lot as "whc.com" to increase the influence of Brand "whc", and usually, it take money and time.

2. Very often that you can't get the domain name you want, someone else has got it registered. You can try to add "the", "my", or "your" to your favorite domain name, it's still a good choice. But people are likely to forget to affix the necessary "the" or "my". For that reason, you need to advertise the site with full domain name, such as "thewebhostingclue.com" instead of "webhosting".

3. Try not to use the plural form of the domain name, it's more possible that the visitor failing to type the "s" than affix "the" or "my".

Don't register domain names that are too long and have too many syllables if you can help it. Yes, you can register names up to 67 characters long, but that doesn't mean you have to use all 67 characters.

You want your name to be easy to remember. Not everyone will bookmark your page initially so try to think of something that can be easily remembered -- although I realize this may be tricky since a lot of names are taken these days.

Try to register the short name which is meaningful, don't make it too abbreviated, such as make webhostingclue to whc, it would be hard to remember and nobody will know what the site is for unless you want to promote whc to be well known brand, and it's usually very hard and need a lot of money.

Meaningful web site is very important even sometimes it make domain name longer, since it have an advantage in that they fare better in a number of search engines. The latter give preference to keywords that are also found in your domain names. So, for example, if you have a site on web hosting with a domain name like cheapwebhosting.com, it might fare better in a search for "cheap web hosting" than the site like onlinemoneyclue.com.

4. Try don't use hyphens as much as possible. Beside it's a pain in the neck to type, the user tend to forget to type hyphens, and when they forget it, it's very possible that they will be directed to your competitor's site.

But in the other word, the non-hyphenated form may no longer be available. At least this way, you still get the domain you want. And search engines (such as Google) can distinguish your keywords better and thus return your site more prominently in search results for those keywords occurring in your domain name.

So Personally, I prefer to avoid hyphenated names if I can, but I guess it really depends on your domain name and your situation. Before you register a domain with hyphens, try to think about a alternative domain name.

5. Register the appropriate domain extension for your web site. The answer for it is not as straightforward as you might think. If your website is to local community, such as you target at the people living in UK, it would be better that you register after co.uk. And actually, you will benefit from having such a local domain because the people there know that they are dealing with a local entity, which is what they want. Such as: they might tend to order a pizza from pizza.co.uk and not pizza.com.

But if your website is to international, it would be better to get a extension as ".com", ".org" etc. You will get some benefit from it, for example

If you get a country specific domain, people might think that your business only caters to that country. But for others, we know it's internalized.
Each extension has their own meaning, such as .org actually describes the non-profit nature of their organization. And .com is a common extension for all, if you type webhostingclue in browse, it will automatically direct to webhostingclue.com before attempting other extension like ".net", etc.

As you can see, there are actually good grounds for accepting any domain extensions. My personal footnote to the above arguments is that if you get a domain name with an extension other than ".com", make sure that you promote your business or website with the full domain name. For example, if your domain name is "onlinemoneyclue.net", make sure that when you advertise your site or business, call it "onlinemoneyclue.net" not "onlinemoneyclue". Otherwise people will assume a ".com" extension and travel to the wrong place.

6. Protect your name by registering multiple extensions (.net, .org, etc.) This deters people from copying your name. For example, if you own garden-tips-for-us.com you can also register garden-tips-for-us.net and any other extension that's available.

You don't have to build a site on all the domains, but you can reserve the others to keep people (copycats) from registering them.

Protect Your Privacy

As you're registering your name, you will be presented with the option of keeping your domain name private - a deluxe feature you'll probably want to take advantage of.

A private domain registration will keep your information (name, email address, etc.) out of the global Internet database, and will prevent a lot of spam from reaching your email box.

Even though registering a "private" domain is not mandatory and will not block all spam, I highly recommend you select this option. I certainly wish this had been available when I created my first site. When registering the domain, you might need to pay some additional annual fee (usually about $1 to $2) to get a "private protect" domain, and some of the company even will give it out as free. Please visit Domain Registration to get more.

How to Sell Your Domain Name Quickly
Everyday I read this question on different forums how I sell my domain quickly? To me earning huge income from domain and selling it quickly are two different things, and you have to select one.
Selection of Domain Name - How to Start best Business on Internet?
How computer identify or catch this information right? Now you feel that how this could be possible?
What is a domain name?
The domain name is a unique name that identifies a web site. All domain names have 2 or more parts and are organized hierarchically with the more generic parts to the right. The domain hierarchy is presented by dots found in the domain name...
Finding Old Domains to Get Indexed Faster
The first step in the process is to find an old domain. There is a more complicated explanation for this but all you really need to know is that the search engines favour domains that are established and have a longer history because they perceive that they are an older and hence more credible sourc...
Domain Name Registration - What Steps to Take
Domain name registration is the first step to start your website. Like naming a newborn child, your website too requires a name to be known and referred to on web. Domain name registration is about identifying your website on the net.
How to Select a Domain Name and a Web Host
Go through this checklist when choosing a web hosting provider. You may also want your domain name be adequate to the web design and sites purpose as well.
Domain Name Search
When you want to check who registered a particular domain name, you can perform a WHOIS lookup. This will allow you to lookup all data available in the pubic domain records. You can find the owner and thedetails of the domain.
How to Choose a Domain Name
What is a domain name?
Millions of domain names have already been registered and finding the perfect domain name will be tricky. Unless you have a deep pocket and bother to buy a very very brandable domain name, youll have a hard time getting the best domain.
How to Register a Domain Name
By now you should know what a domain name is if you are planning on creating your own website. If you do not know what a domain name is then its the name which makes up the address of your website.
How to Select a Best Domain Name
All websites typically have a name - just like GoArticles is called www.goarticles.com - This is a name that points to the space on the web where your website is physically located. And we call this name of websites as Domain Name (sometimes, just call it as Domain)