How to choose a domain name that will help grow your website.

Choosing to go into business. Looking to create a website and need a domain name. Just using your company name may not cut it. A new business needs every edge that can get, so choose your domain name wisely. Find out how.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer

1. First and foremost before choosing a Domain Name, determine your target audience. Are you looking to stay local or go global.

2. Now it is time to look at naming your domain. If you are a company that is only looking to get local business, using your company name may be okay. If you would like to reach a audience that is beyond your local area you will need a name that describes what your business does. This will allow your website to be picked up by the web engines quicker and more effectively. You can always put your business name on your website, so if someone searches by the name they will also get your site.

3. Make sure not to make your domain name to long. You can register names up to 63 characters long, but using this many characters make your name hard to look for. Utilize a free domain registry tool in order to determine the availability of the domain for that site name.

4. Try to think of a domain name that is easily remembered. Although it may be somewhat a challenge do because many names are already taken. Go to an official Internet registrar online and make sure you domain name is open.

5. If you are using three long words for your domain name use hyphens, for example build-your-own-website.com. This will make your name be more readable. This is unnecessary if your name has short words that are easily understood from a distance. You may want to play with this and get a few other's opinions.

6. Register your name at a official domain registry. There are several registries out there. However, looking around to find just the right one may help you in the long run. Searching around for a package that fits your needs is essential. You can spend any where from $2 dollars a month to over $50 a month. Remember the most expensive does not mean it's the best. Neither does it mean the cheapest will work for you needs, you must determine what you need in a domain before you invest in one.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep out impostors and protect your domain name by registering multiple extensions (.net, .org, etc.) This deters people from copying your name.
• This does not mean you have to build a site on all the domains, but you can reserve the others to keep copycats from registering them and reap the benefits of your hard work at your expense.
• Once you have your domain name make sure and print it any professional communications and marketing materials for your business to increase web site traffic. This will help your web page go up the search engine rank.

[CoralieSolange]

on 3/2/2008 On the tips, you're right on, but as an added tip, people need to realize how easy it is to make the other extensions into parked domains, which means that they look exactly like your regular domain. This way, if someone goes to the wrong extension looking for your website, they won't just get a placeholder!