A Beginner's Guide To Domain Name Selection

A domain name is essentially a website's identity on the internet. If you are considering starting a website then you should put considerable thought into selecting the right domain. Too many enthusiastic new internet marketers rush into creating a website and they don't take the time to do research and select a proper domain for their site. More often than not they are setting themselves up for failure. Keep reading to find out how to select the right domain for your website.

The first thing to consider is who your website will be targeting? Is the website for a company that already has a well-known company name? If so, then you may want to consider purchasing a domain with your company name included in it. This is because many times people will search for a well-known company by entering the company's name into an internet search. For example, if are looking to purchase curtains from Wal-Mart's website, you would most likely search for "Wal-Mart" instead of "curtains".

If you don't own a company or if your company is better known for its products or services than the name of the company itself, then you may want to select a domain that includes the keywords you will be using to optimize your site in the search engines. The reason for this is search engines heavily favor sites with the keywords included in the domain. For example, if you own a blog about car care and maintenance, and your main keyword is "vehicle repair tips", then you may want to look for domains such as: "vehiclerepairtips.com" or "freevehiclerepairtips.com", etc. Whatever you do, don't guess your keywords. Failure to do proper keyword research could have disastrous results for your website.

Another thing to keep in mind when selecting a domain name for your website is the extension. When most people think about a website, they think of a dot-com extension. This is because the dot-com extension is and always has been the most popular website extension. For this reason, it is important to get a dot-com extension for your site. If someone already owns the extension you want, then consider slightly changing the domain until you find one with an available dot-com extension. If you absolutely cannot find a one that will work, then the next choice should be dot-net.

Once you begin to get a reasonable amount of traffic to your website, you may want to consider purchasing the remaining popular extensions such as dot-net, dot-org and dot-info, and redirect these extensions to your main URL. This prevents people from buying these domains in attempt to mimic your site and take your visitors.

Selecting the right domain for your website is extremely important for your site's success. Just make sure you do the proper research first, and try to get a short, catchy domain with a.com extension if possible. Follow this advice for proper domain name selection and you can rest assured that your chosen domain name will not hinder the success of your website.

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