Domain Name Development
For the average Internet user, domain names may be taken for granted. For companies or individuals looking to establish a web presence, however, developing a domain name should be a thought-out and important process.
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Relevancy
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Above all, a domain name should be a relevant and accurate representation of the website. For many, this simply means a domain that identifies that company or cause by name. For others, it means choosing key words or phrases that relate to their offerings. Whatever the case, the principal criteria for judging a domain name should be its relevancy to the site.
Extensions
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When it comes to domain name extensions, Internet experts strongly recommend choosing .com. While many new website owners may think that keeping their preferred name and sacrificing the .com extension for others such as .net or .biz is an acceptable alternative, these lesser-known extensions are harder to remember and can often lead to web users winding up at someone else's site. Internet marketing company Half Again warns that domain availability is one of the biggest hurdles for naming a new company, so domain development and company, organization or product naming often need to happen in conjunction.
Special groups and entities (such as schools, churches, and government agencies) should use alternate extensions including .edu, .org, and .gov to best fit their organization.
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Punctuation
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Often, adding punctuation when a desired domain is already registered (i.e. my-name.com instead of myname.com) is a seemingly quick fix for getting a domain. Web experts disagree, however, about the use of punctuation (most prominently the hyphen) when developing a domain name. On the positive side, hyphens can make domains easier to read when printed, help search engines separate key words within the domain and open up new possibilities to find unregistered domains. On the other hand, hyphens are easily forgotten by web users and can make the domain cumbersome to read aloud.
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References
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