What's the one make-it-or-break-it item that your online business needs to make it stand out and become very successful?
A great domain name!
The domain name is what people type in when they want to get to your site - it's the part that comes after the http:// or the www. It's your web address. Having something they can remember without looking it up each time or keeping it in their bookmarks, to be lost among the all the other addresses, is the one thing you can do to get visitors to return to your site and word-of-mouth free traffic.
People say that all the good domain names are gone, but that's about as far from the truth as you can get. Here are some simple guidelines that will make your domain name -- and your business -- a popular and memorable web destination.
1. Choose a Dot-Com
The number one rule is, go for the dot-com domain extension, which is typed as .com. This is the Main Street of the virtual|online world, and the one that most people will enter into their browsers regardless of what your domain extension actually is. While .org and .net were popular for a while, and then .us, .biz,.info and .name took the stage, people always revert back to .com -- regardless of how many different country code top level domains are launched into the mainstream, like .cc, .ws, .to, .cn and others.
2. Choose something memorable
You want your business name to be your domain name too, if possible. So if your flower shop is called Felicty's Flowers, you want to get felicitysflowers.com, assuming it's available. If that domain name isn't available, try adding a dash, like felicitys-flowers.com or a secondary descriptive word like felicitysflowersonline.com or prettyfelicitysflowers.com. If you're creative, you'll easily be able to come up with something that works with your business name and is one your customers will easily remember.
Don't forget that if you use a dash in your domain name, which some Search Engine Optimization experts say attracts more free traffic to your site, you need to mention the dashes if you use your domain name in an audio product or commercial; so it would be "felicitys dash flowers dot com".
Most people typing in your domain name later will not type the dashes.
3. Get Another Name Variation
If you're fortunate enough to grab a great domain name without the dashes, then it might be a good idea to get the same name with dashes between the words as well. You can put both domain names up on your server as mirror sites to get the benefits of Search Engine Optimisation as well as the ease of typing without the dashes.
You should also consider getting the .net or .org variation or even other domain name extensions to use as sister sites for your main dot com site... maybe you could put your forum on the .net, or use your .com for your main product and .net for your business background information site.
Even if you're searching for a domain name that you think won't be available, using your creativity and trying a variety of word combinations ought to allow you to find a memorable domain name that will attract people to your website.
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It can be quite time consuming checking domain name availability as you find each successive name you come up with has already been registered.
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