Choosing A Domain Name

When choosing a domain name for your business, it can be difficult to know what your first consideration should be. Should you give priority to finding a name that will help you rank high in the search engines? Or should you be more concerned with a name that describes your business?

One thing you should probably not do, unless you are very famous – i.e. a household name – is use your exact company name as a domain name. It can be tempting to do this, as you can be sure it will be easily available. However, if you are just beginning to establish a web presence, people won’t be looking for you as they won’t know about you. They will be looking for the service you provide. So you need a domain name that will help them find you easily.

The other thing you absolutely must not do when choosing a domain name is deliberately use a name that is similar to that of a famous competitor. For instance, suppose you are a financial adviser, and there is a very well-known bank called Parker Finance. You might be tempted to choose a domain name like ParkaFinance.com, in the hope that people looking for the famous bank might arrive at your site if they made a typing mistake, as often happens. However, you would find that the big companies are on the look-out for this practice and would have no hesitation in taking action against you.

So your main decision in choosing a domain name is: should you use a highly-searched keyword or phrase, to help your search-engine ranking? Or should you use a name which characterises your business as accurately as possible? Opinions differ. Some say using a keyword or phrase is a good idea. For instance, if you are a financial services provider, and you found that a highly-searched keyword was “leading financial services” you could choose a domain name like “leading-financial-services.co.uk” (if it was available). Others advise against it as the search engines keep changing their criteria, and recommend that you find a name that represents your business, such as FinanceForYou.com

What is important is that your domain name should be clear, memorable and as short as possible. You are very unlikely to get a one-word name as most of those have been snapped up long ago. But avoid hyphens if you can, and also letters mixed with numbers e.g. Finance4You or Finance4U. Remember that you or your staff will often have to tell people your web address over the phone, so the simpler you can make it, the easier it will be for people to find your site.

The other main question is, what top-level domain (TLD) to use – that is, the suffix at the end of the domain, e.g. .com, .co.uk, .net, .org etc. Most people advise going for .com if you can, as that has the most prestige. The .net suffix is also a good one. The .co.uk suffix is fine if you are a UK company, but you should probably still go for .com if you can. A lot of new ones have recently become available, such as .biz, .info. These are less prestigious, but cheaper if you are short of cash. However, if cash is not a problem it can be a good idea to buy up as many as possible of the other TLDs on your domain to prevent other people using them. If your site is called FinanceForYou.co.uk, and someone else sets one up called FinanceForYou.net, it can cause endless confusion.

Finally, bear in mind that even if you arrive at the most perfect domain name, you can’t have it if someone else has already registered it. When you go to your domain hosting site to type in your choice of domain, they will tell you if someone else has already taken it. They will then provide a list of suggestions for similar domains that are available. Remember – keep it clear, memorable and easy to spell, and you won’t go too far wrong.

Buying A Domain Name

The process of buying a domain name starts with a domain hosting company. They do vary, both in price and reliability, so your best plan is to ask friends who have web sites to recommend a good one. Some companies provide web hosting services as well, which can be a big advantage.

The main thing to remember is that, although we talk about buying a domain name, you are not actually buying it, you are “renting” it – that is, registering it to yourself for a period of time. Many of the domain hosting companies are US companies but there are lots of UK companies as well. When your domain name is due for renewal, they will contact you, and if you fail to renew in time, you will lose the right to use it.

There are two or three approaches you can use in buying a domain name. The simplest way, once you have found your hosting company, is to think up the most appropriate domain name to describe your business, and type it in to the search box on their site. They will then tell you if the name is available or not. If it’s a good name, it probably won’t be! The site will then come up with a list of suggestions for similar names that are available, and you can usually find one that suits you. Be careful. You may have set your heart on the domain name “MyWidgets.com”. You may find that this isn’t available, but “MyWidgets.net” is. You can take this if you want, but it isn’t usually a good idea to use a name that’s so similar to someone else’s. Once you have chosen your domain, you can proceed to purchase on the site.

Another approach you can use is to go to one of the sites that list expired domain names. Sometimes you can find some really brilliant names that have been allowed to lapse for some reason – it may be that the owners have changed their e-mail address and forgotten to inform the hosting company, so they didn’t know the name was due for renewal. Or they may just have gone out of business. If you find one that you like, you can try registering it and see if it can be registered in the normal way. However, some of the expired domain sites put a price on these domains as they are considered more valuable.

A third possible way of buying a domain name is to join a domain auction service – these services are offered by one or two of the domain hosting companies. These work in a similar way to other Internet auction sites. You can either bid on the name, and wait to see if you have won the auction, or pay the “buy it now” price and snap it up straight away. This is only really for you if you are in the business of buying up domains in large numbers.

Whichever method of buying a domain name you use, don’t lose sight of how important it is. Your domain can come to represent your business in the minds of the public and potential customers. It’s worth taking trouble and making sure you get it right.

Top tips for registering a domain name

The domain name is an essential part of any web site, but choosing and registering it can be a tricky process.

Here are some great tips to help you through this process.

1. Choose your domain name quickly

.uk domain names are being registered at a rate of one every 20 seconds and allocated on a first-registered, first-served basis, so a delay in decision making could mean someone else gets there first.

2. Choose a name that suits your business

You should choose your domain name so that it best represents your company’s interests. Bear in mind the brand, what you offer, your unique selling point and the implications of being alphabetically listed.

Think about domain names that solve a problem or names that describe the products or services your company provides e.g. ‘marketing solutions’. Either way, your name will help drive targeted traffic to your web site if you take this approach.

3. Be flexible and creative in your choice of domain names

There are approximately 120-130 million domain names registered worldwide. It may be useful to think about a few alternatives in case the name you ideally want is already registered. Consider using hyphens and acronyms.

4. Decide which Top Level Domain (TLD) to use

Companies based in the UK usually register a domain name ending in .co.uk, and recent independent research suggests that British Internet users are six times more likely to choose a .uk rather than a .com address when looking for information via an Internet search engine. 72% of respondents also said they would visit a British web site above any other.

There are however a number of other alternatives including .com or other Second Level Domains such as .org.uk (or non-commercial organisations), .me.uk (for individuals), .ltd.uk and .plc.uk (for Ltd and Plc companies) and .com, .info and others for generic usage.

5. Register your domain name in other suffixes

It’s not a bad idea to register several similar domain names. If you have ‘yourname.co.uk’ you could register ‘yourname.org.uk’ so no-one else can come in at a later stage and capitalise on your brand name using another major domain name type. You could also register your full company name and a shorter, easier to remember version.

6. Check whether your chosen name has already been registered

Use the WHOIS search facility on the Nominet home page – www.nominet.org.uk to check the availability of all .uk domain names.

7. If it has been registered, you could check if it is for sale

If your first choice domain name is unavailable the cheapest solution is to choose something else. However, if you have your heart set on a particular name, you could try buying it from the current registrant. There’s no guarantee you will be able to acquire the domain, and even if the current registrant is willing to sell, it could cost you anywhere from a few hundred to many thousands of pounds.

8. Make sure the web address is registered in your name

This will make it easier to transfer a domain name, even if your registrar subsequently goes into liquidation. Pay particular attention to your rights to move your business and your domain name to another registrar, and whether there is a charge for doing so before you sign the contract. Use the WHOIS service to check the name has been registered in your name.

9. Make a diary note of the renewal date for your domain name

All .uk domain name registrations are valid for two years from the date of registration; others may vary so check your domain name certificate. Your registrar will normally contact you before the expiry date to ask if you wish to renew it for another two year period.

For .uk domain names, we will also contact you before cancelling the registration. Be aware that ‘Notices of Expiration’ demanding payment from sources other than your agent or Nominet may be a scam, so check correspondence carefully and contact your existing agent or Nominet if you have any concerns.

10. Tell your registrar if your contact details change

Your details must be correct for the domain name registration to remain valid and your registrar will not necessarily prompt you.

Top tips for choosing a great domain name for your business

It’s important to choose the right domain name. Choose a name that people will remember. After all, the right domain name will increase visibility, inspire trust and attract customers.

Here are some great tips to help you through this process.

1. Choose your domain name quickly

2. Choose a name that suits your business

3. Keep it short and memorable

Short memorable brand names are effective, especially if relevant to the personality of a business brand. If you keep the name short and snappy it is also less likely that people will misspell it and more likely that they will remember it and pass it on via word of mouth. For the same reasons it’s a good idea to keep the number of words in a domain name to 2 or 3 at most.

4. Think about keywords and branding

There is some debate about whether it’s better to choose a domain name that contains keywords (that will increase your search engine optimisation) or to focus on a name that is more generic or related to your brand.

If you are particularly interested in attracting customers via search engines it is advisable to choose a name that is a keyword. Choose keywords that are the names of the products or services you will be offering on your web site. You could then use specific keyword software to see how popular your potential domain names are to customers using search engines.

5. Decide which Top Level Domain (TLD) to use

6. Register your domain name in other suffixes

7. Hyphens: Good or Bad?

If your ideal choice of domain name is not available, you might consider using a hyphenated version. One advantage of using them is that hyphens are said to identify keywords to search engines more clearly. The disadvantages of using hyphens are it makes your domain name harder to remember and more difficult to tell to a customer (e.g. on the telephone).

8. Take account of misspellings

Don’t use words that are difficult to spell, as people are likely to misspell your domain name, which may mean they don’t arrive at your web site. It’s also a good idea to avoid words that are spelt differently in some countries.

However, if you have a company name that is difficult to spell, it is worth registering domain names with common misspellings of it. You can of course point several domain names to your web site.

9. Before you register it, ask other people for their opinion

You might think your domain name is great, but what about other people? Ultimately you will be relying on whether other people find it memorable, understandable and useful in terms of attracting traffic to your web site.

A name that makes perfect sense to you may be too hard to remember or confusing to someone else. The easier the name is to spell, pronounce, remember and type the better. Web users are often impatient and if your site is not easy to find they may quickly give up trying.

10. Check whether your chosen name has already been registered

Use the WHOIS search facility on the Nominet home page www.nominet.org.uk to check the availability of all .uk domain names.
If the domain name is not available in any of the suffixes, you could try and contact the current registrant to see if they would be willing to sell the name to you. If the domain name includes your registered trademark you may consider using the Dispute Resolution Service to try and obtain the domain name.

Domain Names – The Doorway to a Successful Website

So, you have a great idea for a new website and are ready to begin this exciting new venture! Now — what Domain Name should you give to your site? This is a very important step. Selecting your Domain Name is one of the most important things you’ll do in building your site.

Here are some suggestions that will help you in selecting your Domain Name:

First, select a Domain Name that relates to the subject matter of your site and is easy to remember. Try to think of something that catches the ear and is not too long. Domain Names can be long – some up to 63 characters — but having such a long name definitely won’t help your site.

For example: if your Domain Name is: “www.isellbeautifulhandcraftedjewelryatreasonablepricesontheweb.com” –then how many people would actually be willing to type this long name into their browser? I wouldn’t. Also, since your Domain Name is, in fact, your URL, many visitors to your site probably won’t be able to remember that long URL and you will then lose them as potential customers.

Another thing – remember that you’ll also be speaking your Domain Name on the telephone, so an easy-to-understand, short, descriptive name works best. You don’t want to have to repeat your Domain Name so that your callers can understand what you’re saying on the phone. Remember, you want them to retain your site name in their minds.

When you’re making your list of possible Domain Names, try each one out on family and friends. Ask them what they would expect to find on a site with that particular Domain Name. For example, if you’re selling sunglasses and include the word “shades” in your Domain Name, you certainly don’t want people to think you sell lampshades or window treatments.

Unfortunately, many of the shorter, catchy Domain Names have been taken and are no longer available, so you may have to be creative. Make sure you select a name that will give some information about your site to your visitors.

Finally, you’ll need to register your Domain Name. This makes it yours!

So, if you follow these suggestions, you’ll have a Domain Name that will give you a great start to your new web site!

If you would like more information on what you need to know when starting a web site, I’ve just written a new ebook entitled Learn How to Easily Create Your Own Web Site and Actually Understand the Full Process.

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3 Quick Guidelines For Picking a Domain Name

1. Do not pick a name with hyphens, underscores or dashes.

People don’t know the difference between them. Furthermore, imagine you’re in the elevator with someone, trying to tell them your url (aka domain name) and you have to say “double u, double u, double u, dot the, hyphen, coffee, hyphen, guy, dot com” and not getting through. Your prospect is just not understanding if you mean “hyphen (-)” or “underscore (_)” or what the url is supposed to be.

It’s just too complicated. Get rid of the hyphens and just get a domain name without dashes, hyphens or underscores.

2. Pick something simple and straightforward.

Preferably, the name of your company, but if it’s not available, pick a name related to what you do. More info about this is in the next point.

3. Perform keyword research to pick out a domain name.

What am I talking about?

Keyword research basically means researching what words people are typing into the search engines to find content related to what you are talking about. Keyword research may be completely irrelevant if you are only interested in a personal blog, and don’t care about getting readers. If you care about getting some people to read your blog or visit your site, you may want to do some keyword research.

Here’s how to perform keyword research in a nutshell:

Go to Google and type in “keyword research tool” in the search bar. Click on the “Google Adwords Keyword Tool” or on the “word tracker” tool. Read the instructions on the website for how to execute the search.

For instance, using the Google tool, if I were to type in the keyword “running” and then search on that word, I get a list of several hundred running related words and phrases that people are typing into the Google search engine when they look up running related web sites.

From here, it can be as simple as going down the list of results and seeing which domain name, that is related to what I’m going to write about is available. You could also find some other words that you hadn’t thought about and then research them.

There are a lot more things to consider when picking a domain name, specially when it comes to performing keyword research, but these 3 things should get you going.

Rafael writes about social media and internet advertising over on his Big Sexy Media blog. Social media marketing has the big sexy buzz right now. Subscribe to his free blog by visiting http://www.bigsexymedia.com

How Do You Pick the Perfect Domain Name?

Picking the perfect domain name is very important in a crowded internet where it gets more and more difficult to get yourself noticed. Getting to the top or even into the major search engines is challenging and then there is the problem of establishing your brand. No wonder it is difficult to find that perfect domain name. So how do you?

First thing you need to ensure is that you do not contravene any trademarks. Luckily, domain names are very competitive and unless you go for a very long name you are unlikely to find a domain that is covered by a trademark. Many common names are also taken. What you must check is that you do not use a domain name that is close to another one. I once found “DisneyWorlds.com” available for example – tempting but I just contacted them. Buying this would have been a good way to get myself into a very big law suit. Buying an domain name with Realtors in it is likely to get you a very firm legal letter, as is “Easy”Something or “Monter” Something – although the ability to trademark a common word is a moot point! Best not to start your business fighting off lawyers though!

So start off by making a list of domain names that you would like to use. Make it quite a long list because good available domain names are hard to find. Use a bit of imagination and try and make the potential domain name catch and memorable.

Here are some “rules” to get the best domain name you can.

1) Try for a .com is you can.
2) Use two or more descriptive words in the domain name.
3) Don’t use hyphens or numbers unless you must.
4) Try for less than 20 letters.
5) Try for less than 3 words.

Now I know that names such as Google have become very successful but it is better for search engine ranking to use descriptive names. Currently search engines are giving ranking preference to web sites that have the search term all or partly in the domain name. Do a few searches on your chosen search terms and have a look at which domains are in the top 20. Remember what we said about copying though!

Go to a good registrar. Please do a few searches on the registrars first. There is at least one top registrar that got itself into a great deal of trouble in the last few years. Once at the registrar search through your list of preferred names. Good registrars will give you some suggestions if your domain is not available.

If you are not having much luck then do a few searches on sites that tell you which domains have “just dropped” – which is the name for domains that have just become available.

It’s hard work finding a good domain – but it sets up your business on the internet – so spend so time on it.

Good luck. © Copyright 2009 Biz Guru Ltd Lee Lister writes as The Biz Guru, for a number of web sites where she provides advice and assistance for the business entrepreneur. She is a published author – her latest book Start My New Party Selling Business can be found on http://www.startmynewbusiness.com

Investing in Domain Names

If you are thinking of investing in domain names it’s important that you understand your market. Top Level Domains or TLDs are growing by the day, some would say that this is a great way for certain bodies to make even more cash and some would say that it opens up the domain name market to people who missed the boat on coms.

Which ever way you look at it the release of new TLDs is going to happen on a regular basis over the coming years and one such TLD that has just released is .me.

One of the newly released TLDs, that is causing a lot of interest is the .me. There are of course several reasons as to why this particular TLD is causing so much interest and we can go through them one by one.

Firstly for all English speaking nations the word “me” is commonly used and understood, this gives the TLD an advantage over certain other TLD domain releases in the sense that it can become part of your domain name or brand, for instance: call me, date me…etc. This makes it easier to remember and in some cased to brand. Secondly, due to the fact that the domain extension has a very broad appeal it naturally lends itself to individual or personal web pages and blogs.

You can see this in action already in the tv extension that is widely being used and accepted by media companies around the world as a good domain name extension for television companies and online tv channels. The explosion in social networking sites and the move to personal connection web sites lends itself perfectly to the .me tld and I’m sure you will see one or two big players in the area within the next couple of years.

Also if you take into account how ISPs and web hosting providers are simplifying the web development process and supplying packages that can have you up and running in no time at all, they are removing the barriers to entry in the market everyday. Another interesting point about the .me extension is that it is totally open and anyone can register a domain name.

Another success story in the domain names area is the European extension eu. It was first released a couple of years ago and has since steadily crawled up the charts of the most popular extensions. At the last count it had reached 3 million registered domain names and is growing at a steady pace.

The two other areas that should be mentioned and I would suggest to study them well is India and China. Although to market for cn has been very closely control by the Chinese government up to now we are finally seeing a little relaxing in the controls. This can be seen in the rapid growth of registrations.

This is also thrue of India and their in CC. They are finally waking up to the value of their national CC. There are 2 billion people in these two markets, alone they dwarf the entire domain and is only a matter of time before most of the people in these countries are online.

Taking all of the above into consideration if you are thinking of starting your own web site, blog or even your own business, don’t overlook the possibilities of the .me extension.

Bee Ltd is a domain acquisition and development company with many years experience in the domain name and internet market. You will find many useful articles and advice on all manner of subjects associated with domains names, SEO and web development at our site: Bee.eu

How to Choose a Great Domain Name

Most websites are associated with a domain name. The concept is simple, it is much easier to remember a name like google.com rather than a numerical address like 216.239.51.99. Highly desirable domains names are becoming more and more difficult to acquire, especially with favored extensions like .com and .net. With major industries like domain trading, traders are rapidly devouring desirable domain names.

Domain Extensions

Currently certain extensions are more desirable than others and some extensions are intended to categorize. For example, the .org extension is traditionally used to categorize non-profit organizations. Likewise a .gov extension is intended to categorize government websites. There are country extensions as well such as .ca (Canada) or .jp (Japan) in an attempt to organize registrations by nation.

Ideally a domain name should be short and not easily misspelled. Preferably, target top level domain (TLD) extensions from the original Internet specification such as .com, .net, .edu, or .org. Be sure the extension is appropriate to what the website is about. A .org extension may be appropriate for a church but not for a florist. For highly desirable domain names a .biz or other less popular extension may be a reasonable trade off. For example, google.biz would be much better than googlebestdarnsite.com.

For the general public .com is still the favored and most sought out extension. Being one of the original Internet specifications, this may still lead users to assume a .com extension. This may be true today but this may change in the future. As .biz and other extensions become more popular, users may become more apt to note extensions. The most important thing goes back to the basic principal of domain names, make it easy to remember.

Domain Naming

A domain name that specifically names a business may be ideal. However, specifics are becoming much more difficult to acquire. You may be doing business as Toms Hardware, but may discover all desirable domain names and extensions are all ready taken. Another option may be to pair a key word with a random word or even pair two random words. For example, snapfish.com (no affiliation) is an online photo service. Short, two words not easily misspelled, and a .com extension. While snap may be associated with a photo service the word fish doesn’t exactly fit in, except in the world of domain naming. Random pairing of this sort is becoming more difficult as well but offers a better chance of scoring a valuable domain name. Target desirable words, short, appealing, and not easily misspelled. For example, anhinga could easily be misspelled and would not be an ideal domain name unless the site was specifically about anhingas.

Domain Trading

As mentioned earlier, domain trading is a major industry. There are many domain auction sites where you may be able to acquire your preferred domain name. Domain trading sites offer thousands of domains for sale to be purchased directly or through an auction. Domain names are often appraised, trading sites may have a huge listing for under $1,000. More desirable domain names in the multi thousand dollar range. In rare cases a domain may sell for tens of thousands in U.S. dollars, and in very rare cases more than one million U.S. dollars. With registration fees for a new domain often less than $10 the domain trading market is growing very rapidly. If you have a very specific domain you wish to acquire you may be able to look up the current registrant in a “whois” database and make an offer.

Domain Searching

Be patient, take some time to do a thorough domain name search. Consider all the possible variants that may be appropriate. The challenge of finding a great domain may take many hours but could be well worth the effort. Remember the principal of domain names in the first place, making it easy for your audience to remember how to get to your site.

Sarasota Webs.com – Professional Web Design and Development

How to Choose a Domain Name

So you want to know what to look for when Choosing a Domain Name? Well there are many many factors that play a roll in choosing a domain name. The first thing you should look at is why you need or want a domain name. Business? Sell? Flip? Develop a website? These are just some of the things that a domain name can be used for.

Although knowing what you want a domain name for is a huge factor in choosing a domain name, there are some basic things you should look for.

Keywords: When choosing a domain name keywords are probably the most important thing. This will help you in the long run with SEO(Search Engine Optimization) and how the domain is advertised. Most common way to know if your keywords will work is called the radio test. This means that if the domain was said over the radio or on the phone ect would people know what to type in the browser?

Search Results: Search result are important when choosing a domain name because they will show you your competition for those specific keywords. Although not at the top of the list, it does help to know what type of sites are using the keywords in your domain name. Indicator of type-in traffic.

Wordtracker: Wordtracker is a tool that tells you how many times a keyword or group of keywords is searched for per day. When choosing a domain name this can be helpful to know and help you sell a domain in the future. It is almost like telling a person that a car can go from 0-60mph in under 5 seconds. This also shows potential for SEO(Search Engine Optimization). Indicator of type-in traffic.

Ad Competition/Bids: This shows you how many advertisers or competitors are bidding for that keyword to advertise on such sites as google or yahoo. This is also a selling point if you were looking to sell a domain name. It is also an indicator if there is type-in traffic.

These are all important factors that should be looked at when choosing a domain name. There are many more things to look at and ask yourself when you choose a domain name. Some of the questions you should ask yourself are, “What will i use this domain for?” “Who would want this domain?” “Is this the best option for this type of domain?”. Those types questions should be at the top of your list when you choose a domain name.