Many people wonder how to choose just the right domain name. The first rule to consider are pretty simple; in fact, that's the rule, keep it simple! Good domain names are:
- Easy to remember
- Remind the Customer of your product or service
- Easy to spell
If the domain name you choose contains a lot of hyphens, underscores or clever misspellings, chances are that you won't be able to verbally communicate your domain name and potential customers won't remember how to spell it.
For example: KatDomains.com requires us to notify people that the domain name is spelled unusually, with a "K" instead of a "C". But in our case, we took this chance since many people know us for our other sites, Katsuey.com and KatsueyDesignWorks.com
Domains with Keywords
Question: Some Search Engine Specialists (SES) will tell you that it's important to have your domain name contain a keyword for your product or service. Is this true?
Answer: Yes and no. Domain names with keywords will not assist your site in gaining search engine rankings. At least there is not concrete proof of this value. But it may help your potential customer remember your domain name and it certain can remind them of your product or service.
Domain Extensions
Question: Which is the best extension to use for my domain name?
Answer: .com is the best known domain name extension and usually is a good choice for businesses. However, .biz is also a good choice, gaining popularity and sometimes allows more selections in available names. Forums and discussion sites often use.net extensions. Sometimes a secondary site for a business uses the .net extension. .org is well known for organizations such as clubs. .edu is reserved for educational institutions and .gov is reserved for govenmental institutions and agencies.
When possible, it's wise to purchase the .com, .net, .org and .biz extensions available for the domain name you choose so that a competing business doesn't come along in the future and purchase those domain registrations, leading to their web sites and possibly confusing potential customers.