It's All In A Domain Name

By Author: Christine Anderssen
Total Articles: 17
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When you have decided to start your online business the first thing you will need to do is choose a domain name. This is the name that your website will be called, and will be the most important part of your URL link. A lot of people enjoy the process of choosing a domain name, whilst others may feel a bit overwhelmed. This is understandable because your domain name is so important, and not something you can easily change if you do not like it anymore.

As I mentioned before, choosing a domain name can be a bit overwhelming. Luckily there are some basic guidelines that will help you make your decision. Firstly, remember that shorter domain names always work better. A shorter name will be more memorable, and if your domain name is too long the people may tend to forget a part of it. If they are really seeking your website, they may type the part of your domain name that they do remember into a search engine, but the results brought up may not point to your site! A short, simple domain name will be more effective with regards to your marketing, both on and offline.

Naturally, it's a good idea to use your business ...
... name as your domain name. If your business name is too long, shorten it appropriately. If your business name is not available perhaps you could work with a variation of it by putting a dash in between two parts of the word. Alternatively, you could choose a domain name that suits the niche market that you are trying to target. Get creative with the different variations you can use. Always remember to keep the name as short and simple as possible. Another good idea is to use a targeted keyword as your domain name. For example, if you are going to have a business that sells chocolates and confectionaries you could perhaps use a domain name called chocolategoods or the like.

Once you have decided on the actual name part, you are going to need to decide on which domain extension you are going to use. The most popularly used domain extension is .com if you are aiming to target an international audience. Oftentimes .biz will be used by companies, whilst .net is normally for networking sites and some hosting or software companies. It is recommended that you steer clear of the .info extension, as even though it is the cheapest domain extension to register, it is not taken very seriously in the online world. If you are going to primarily target your local audience it is best to use the extension of your country. When in doubt, simply use .com. With a .com you can never go wrong! If you have an organization or political party a .org site is always nice and suitable.

As you can see, it is not too difficult to choose a domain name. A lot of good registration sites will offer you variations of your requested domain name if the one you have chosen is taken.
Christine Anderssen is the owner of Tailormade4you, a company that specialises in web design and hosting for your website. Visit http://www.tm4yhosting.co.za for more information.