How To Choose The Best Domain Name

How To Choose The Best Domain Name
© 2004 Jeff D. Schuman
http://www.team-schuman.com

In this article we are going to look at the thought process you
should go thru to choose your domain name.

First of all let's define what a domain name is.

A unique name that represents each computer on the Internet.
(Some machines do have more than one domain name.) The DNS
converts the domain name requested by an Internet user into an
IP address.

The Domain Name System (DNS) helps users to find their way
around the Internet. Every computer on the Internet has a unique
address – just like a telephone number – which is a rather
complicated string of numbers. It is called its "IP address" (IP
stands for "Internet Protocol").

But it is hard to remember everyone's IP address. The DNS makes
it easier by allowing a familiar string of letters (the "domain
name") to be used instead of the arcane IP address. So instead
of typing 64.65.51.245 , you can type www.team-schuman.com. It
is a "mnemonic" device that makes addresses easier to remember.

So what makes the best internet domain name?

First of all don't pick a name that has nothing to do with your
Web site. If you are selling flowers don't pick a name like
apples.com. Picking an oddball name makes no sense and it will
just confuse your audience.

Don't make your new domain name too long. The longer it is the
harder it becomes to remember. Can you remember myflowers.com or
lookatmyflowerswebsite.com?

Short names are not the way to go either. It is to your benefit
to try and buy a domain name that has a few keywords that relate
to the topic of you Web site when possible.

Keyword placement when choosing your domain name is helpful as
your site develops a higher placement with the search engines.
Having the name jeffsflowers.com will do better with a search
engine than jeffssite.com. With jeffsflowers.com you know I have
a flower website where with jeffssite.com you don't know what
kind of Web site I have.

When registering your domain name in some cases you will need to
determine if you want to use hyphens in the name itself.
Personally I have found this to be a great way to get a domain
name that otherwise my not be available. The domain name
myflowers.com might already be taken whereas the name
my-flowers.com might be available.

Everything I have read says try to get a .com domain name first
before going to a .net or .org etc. As more and more domain
names are taken this becomes harder to do and I think you are
better off getting a keyword rich domain name like
my-flowers.org than you are to buy a .com domain name like
jeffssite.com.

Is buying a cheap domain name a bad idea? Absolutely not. I do
it all of the time. I get all of my domain names here:
http://www.godaddy.com

Then I transfer them to my hosting company here:
http://www.team-schuman.com/host4profit.

I can buy a domain name for less than $10 from Godaddy.com and
transfer it for free to Host4Profit. This saves me $20 on buying
it from the hosting company itself. A domain name is a domain
name and you might as well save a little money where you can.

Finding out what names are available is very easy to do. Let's
use Godaddy.com as an example.

1. Go here: http://www.godaddy.com

2. Click on the icon for Domain Names

3. Enter a domain name and see if it is available

4. They will come back with a list of available names

5. Decide what one you want and buy it

One last thing to consider. Protect your name by registering
multiple extensions (.net, .org, etc.) This deters people from
copying your name. For example, if you own my-flowers.com you
can also register my-flowers.net and any other extension that's
available. As you build up traffic to your site if someone types
in an version other than the .com version you can forward it to
your .com site and not lose any traffic.

In closing it is important to spend a little time when choosing
the best domain name for your website. Try and get some keywords
in your domain name. Don't stop at choosing just a .com version
and save a little money by buying a cheap domain name whenever
possible as long as it still contains some keywords.