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Picking A Domain Name
By:
Halstatt Pires
Picking
a domain name should be easy, right? Why, I’ll just use my business
name. Not so fast, Sparky. A good bit of thought should be given to
selecting a domain name.
A Cautionary Note
Picking a domain name is like getting married. You are going to have
to stick with it till the bitter end. People the use your site will
come to know it by the domain name. Repeat visitors will often simply
type in the domain name to get to the site, better known as “type in
traffic”. As an example, do you search for “Amazon” when you want to
buy a book or do simply type in amazon.com? If Amazon were to change
its domain name to Desert, there would be a lot of confusion. The same
goes with your domain. Once you pick something, stick with it.
Your Choices
Well, the obvious choice is your business name, but it may not be the
best. There are four significant issues to consider.
First, is there something about your business name that makes using
it as a domain an unwise choice? This situation typically arises if
you have a long business name or have plural words. “Halstatt’s Rip’n
Marketing Campaigns, Inc.” is going to be a horrible domain name. Clients
are going to find it difficult to type in such a domain name.
Double letter problems are a second issue that is entirely unique to
the Internet. What if Sams Salon wants to use its business name as a
domain? The “s” at the end of first word and beginning of the second
can cause confusion. Is the domain name Samssalon.com or Samsalon.com?
Confusing your users is a bad way to run a site.
The third issue concerns the nature of your site and search engine optimization.
If you
are
shooting for a particular keyword phrase, you may be better off using
that keyword phrase in your domain name. Google, for instance, looks
at the domain name when evaluating a site. If the words in your domain
name are spaced with dashes, many believe it will help in the ranking
process. This is why you see so many xxx-xxxx-xxx.com domain names on
the net. If your business focuses on a very specific area, strong consideration
should be given to using relevant keywords in your domain name.
Finally, your domain name should end in “.com” and I don’t want to hear
any argument or see any rolling of the eyes. The simple fact is that
when people think of sites, they always type in .com. Yes, there are
other extensions and .us, .net, .biz, etc., may seem unique, but it
kills your traffic. Pavlov and his dog experiments had it right. People
have been mentally conditioned to type in .com, so don’t select any
other ending. If you do, a smart competitor will register the .com version
of your name to get some free traffic. If you are really lucky, a porn
site will do it!
Take a breath before you select a domain name. Like a spouse, it can
be either a good or bad choice.
About the Author:
Halstatt Pires is with
http://www.marketingtitan.com
- an Internet marketing and advertising company comprised of a search
engine optimization specialist providing meta tag optimization services
and Internet marketing consultant providing internet marketing solutions
through integrated design and programming services.
Read
more articles by:
Halstatt Pires
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
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