Tips
on Domain Name Choice
Tips on Domain Name Choice
Before buying your domain name, give some thought
to the following:-
1) If possible use your sites name as the basis of your domain
name e.g www.discountdomainsuk.com for Discount Domains UK. This
might seem common sense but not every site follows the convention.
If you use your name in your URL it will be much easier for your
customers to find you.
2) Generic names – if you can register a generic domain such
as toys.com that’s great, but most of these have already gone.
Also getting ranked in the search engines is likely to be harder.
Selected a domain closer to your market segment will cut down the
competition. E.g toyplanes.com
3) Hyphenated Names – Its easy to forget the hyphen! Which
is the problem, particularly if your customer remembers your name
but not your URL. Though on a positive note hyphenated names are
less likely to be registered already.
4) If the .com or .co.uk extension is not available then consider
the alternative TLD ( Top level domain types) such as .net or .biz.
If your domain name has already been registered then approach the
owner and ask if they’ll sell. They may accept a £100.
If you ask, they can only say no.
5) Plurals. Very often a domain name will be free in the plural
but not in the singular form. It’s a personal choice, but
if your prefered choice of domain name is not available you might
be stuck.
6) Short or Long domains – A short domain name is more memorable,
but less likely to be available. A longer domain is harder to remember,
but can contain more keywords which is important as some of the
search engines, use keywords in a domain name as part of the search
algorithm.
7) Which Top Level Domain Type - .com, .co.uk , .net etc This is
a question I am often asked. There is no evidence that any domain
name type is given preference by the search engines. However some
search engines such as Google, have local searches e.g www.google.co.uk
which do select local content. Customer often get re-assurance from
seeing a local TLD as they know they are dealing with a local company
etc. You can, of course, register all of them!
8) Variations – If your prefered domain name is not available
then its always worth trying a prefix my e.g mydomains.com or suffix
e.g domains4U.com etc
About the Author By: Clare
Lawrence who is CEO of Discount Domains Ltd – A leading UK
provider of Domain name registration and Web Hosting services.-
http://www.discountdomainsuk.com Clare can also be contacted on
clare@discountdomainsuk.com.
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