Insight Publication

For people who would like to use the Internet to expand their business, a website is an important part of that.  Others who wish to earn money online know that a website must be built in order to do that too.  As you think about the website you wish to build, one of the first things you must do is to think about domain names.  Purchasing a domain to build your website is easy, but you must choose a name for it when you purchase it.

Domain names are the names of the website or online store you are setting up.  They can be used to give you permanent web identification.  No one else will have exactly the same name that you will, because each one must be unique to be registered. Trying to pick one that hasn’t already been chosen can be difficult.  This is the name that people will associate with your website from now on, so you want to be sure that it reflects well on your business.  It is usually best to make sure that the name connects to your business in some way, to make it more memorable

The first key to picking domain names is to pick one that is easy to remember.  You want someone who doesn’t have a pencil or paper handy to be able to remember it when you tell them what it is.  You can be creative without needing to be particularly cute or artistic with it.  It should be easy to remember and not hard to spell.

If the domain names you have been thinking of are already taken, you may be tempted to use the same word with a different spelling.  However, this can be somewhat of a challenge for people to remember, and may simply send them to other websites that have nothing to do with you.  Again, we are going back to an easy to remember name.  Along with this, it is usually not the best idea to base your name on numbers or special characters.  This can be somewhat confusing for your customers and may be harder to remember than a regular word.

Select a .com address if you want to assure that your customers will have full access to your site, rather than a .net if possible.  Other domain names include .org which is used for non-profit companies, .gov for government entities, .edu for educational institutions, and so on, but most businesses are able to purchase those with either a .com or a .net address.

You should try to keep your domain name as short as possible.  Again, this goes back to the easy to remember rule.  A long string of words is usually harder to remember than a one or two word phrase.  If it is easy to remember, then more people will remember it.  Another good point is to include in your domain name one of the keywords that will be used by search engines to find your website.  This will help your site to rank higher in a shorter period of time.  Choosing the right domain names can be a challenge, but it is a very important part of establishing an online business.