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Tips for selecting a better
Domain Name:
Like any brand name, logo, or trademark, your domain
name represents part of your business identity. Customers
will associate it with your particular product, service,
company and so on, if you name it correctly. Remember that
your domain name will probably be used for several
purposes, including your web site, email address, and
possibly an ftp or other server. It will be an integral
part of your marketing campaign.
If your domain name can be easily remembered then you
will attract more customers. People will use your web site
or email address to get immediate and convenient access to
the information or service that you are providing.
Domain names are portable. You can move physical
address, change phone numbers, change Internet service
providers, change the company that hosts your web site,
and still keep the same domain name. This provides an
extremely flexible method of keeping in touch with your
customers and users.
With these points in mind we present here 14 tips for
choosing domain names.
- DO know the domain name format. Domain names
can generally be up to 67 characters long (including
the extension), and contain two or more of the
characters a-z, 0-9 and '-' (hyphen). Some domain
names must be a minimum of 3 characters (not including
the extension). Domain names cannot start or end with
'-' (hyphen). Domain names are not case sensitive,
therefore DomainName.com and domainname.com and
DoMaInNaMe.com are all equivalent. You can now also
register multi-lingual domain names.
- DO know your target audience. Choose domain
names that are appropriate for them. Depending on who
you are targeting this could mean choosing names that
sound sincere, cool, current, active, professional, or
that use key words from the industry for example.
- DO keep domain names short and simple.
Generally, the shorter the domain name the easier it
is to remember or write down, and the less chance of
users noting and remembering it incorrectly. Restrict
the domain name to one, two or three words at most.
(The one exception to this is the next tip). All other
things being equal, give preference to words with
fewer syllables and words that are easy to pronounce.
Short is good, but don't use difficult to remember
acronyms, such as qmxf.
- DO register a long domain name containing a
list of relevant words for your web site to achieve a
higher ranking in some search engines. Several of the
major search engines rank web sites much higher if the
search terms are contained in the domain name. You can
use up to 63 characters to create a long domain name
with keywords and automatically redirect visitors to
the real web site. Some registrars offer the redirect
service as standard in their price.
- DO use the appropriate pluralization. For
example, newhomes.com is probably better than
newhome.com if the web site is not relating to
"a" particular home. If in doubt you can
register both domain names.
- DO use words that can be visualized. Vision
is the strongest of human senses. Even better, use
words that involve several of the 5 senses. This
usually involves choosing more common nouns (names or
objects), verbs (actions), and adjectives
(descriptions). For example, the word "fire"
is easily imagined. It includes strong cues in four of
the five senses - visual (red and yellow flames),
auditory (crackling and other noises), feeling (heat),
and smell (smoke).
- DO plan for the future. If you are planning
on releasing other products or services from this
domain name in the future then don't limit the
relevance to the initial product or service. That
being said Internet marketing experts believe that
your web site should have only one subject or focus.
All products or services listed on the web site should
be related. A web site with a broad focus is not as
appealing to someone who is looking for particular
information.
- DO use a domain name search program to
generate and check your domain names. There are some
great free and free to try programs available, and
several include advanced word and character
combinations and other features far beyond those that
web based services provide. For example, many Domain
Name Programs contain an automatic thesaurus,
acronyms, alternative domain name spellings, trademark
searches, a pattern search and so on. These tools can
save you many hours of time.
- DO register the domain name in the correct
global or country level domain. For universal appeal
use a .com, .info, .biz, .org, or .net domain. For
local appeal use an appropriate domain in your
country, such as .co.uk or .org.au. Note that many
domains have restrictions on what domain names can be
registered. In some domains you can only use a name
that is derived from a registered business or
organization name.
- DO check that you are not infringing on an
existing trademark or other name that rightfully
belongs to another company or individual. An available
domain name does not necessarily give you the right to
register and use it.
- DON'T use hyphens between words if possible.
A domain name with hyphens is harder to describe when
said aloud. It is commonly accepted that a domain name
with multiple words does not include hyphens. An
exception to this rule is when choosing a domain name
that has many words or words that are hard to
decipher. Consider using capitalization when
displaying the domain name in marketing material
instead. For example, SuperBaitAndTackle.com is easier
to read than superbaitandtackle.com.
- DON'T use confusing spelling. If your domain
is targeted at a worldwide audience then stay away
from words that are spelt differently throughout the
world, such as words ending in ize(US)/ise(UK). This
also applies to many words that have different
meanings throughout the world. Some common English
words are even offensive in other languages.
- DON'T choose domain names that are very
similar to others if possible. After all, you want
customers coming to you, not your competitors! An
exception to this rule is if you register the domain
name of a commonly misspelt word, in the hope of
catching additional customers, provided that you are
not infringing on any trademarks.
- DON'T choose domain names with words that
join to form unintentional words such as "Jeans
Wearing" which can read "Jean
Swearing". Avoid them altogether or use
captialization in marketing material (JeansWearing.com)
or hyphens in the domain name (jeans-wearing.com) to
separate the words if really necessary.
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