Five Tips When Selecting a Domain Name

Five Tips when Picking out a Domain Name

What's in a name? That question long posed by William Shakespeare has dominated internet marketing and search engine experts for years. A site like toys.com was purchased for $5.1M two years ago -today ranks on page three of Google for the search term "toys". Not exactly a great return on investment; but by avoiding the pitfalls you can benefit from more exposure online. We've put together a brief list of tips to help you find that effective cool domain name.

Match your Brand with Your Site

Avoid generic domains that don't well represent your own brand or identity. While generic domains are valuable they usually require a lot of marketing support. A domain should also fulfill anticipation, domains like webMD.com and Hautelook.com give a user a good idea of exactly what they're getting without sacrificing originality.

Select a Short Domain Name

Short domain names are more easily remembered and therefore are far less susceptible to incorrect spellings and the actual typing fatigue factor. Short domains should not be hyphenated because they are difficult to remember and hard to kind. You also don't want to redirect your traffic to some competitors site that may own the non-hypenated edition. Also avoid words the end in a vowel and being having a vowel. (liveeatery.com, having two words ending in "e" makes it hard to type.

Select a Top Level Domain (TLDs)

You will find hundreds of top level domains such as (.com,.edu,.net,.cc) make sure to select the appropriate type of domain for your organization. A for profit business should avoid.a.org domain as well as country domains that may not be as familiar to new users. Stick with a.com domain, after all most users are unaware that other domains exist and even the most tech savvy make the automatic assumption that it is.com.

Prevent Copyright Issues

Many companies attempt to piggy back on internet search engine traffic of established companies by including a copyrighted keyword inside the domain. In the United States especially this may open you as much as litigation you're much better off avoiding. Do a look for your domain at copyright. gov prior to the purchase of the domain.

Get Expert Advice

Selecting a marketing partner that will help you with the tools and techniques to ensure you're properly branded and separating yourself in the competition. A domain name specialist will provide you understanding into the available domain name market and will give you strategic approach to your domain and be an ideal brainstorm partner. Some marketing firms and website style companies bundle these services in with marketing deals, so make sure to ask.