Things to Avoid When You Choose a Domain Name
When you need to choose a domain name you will have to make sure you avoid doing this in a random way and you also want to make sure you do not just use your gut feeling to choose a domain name. You have to put in a good amount of though and there are theories as to what the best way to get the right domain name is.
You do not want to make a mistake with your domain name because this could cost you a large amount of money over time. Instead you will want to make sure you choose the right domain name for you so that you can get exactly what you need for your website or blog. The domain name is very important to your success and you need to choose a domain name that will give you the best chance to succeed.
The Top 7 Tips to Use when You Choose a Domain Name
1. Be brand-able and memorable
One way to make sure you choose a domain name that will work well is to use the name of your site. For example, if you chose www.xyzwidgets.com you would be branding this as the name of your site.
If you did this you could talk about different types of widgets and this would be a good choice if you are working on putting up a financial site.
Another example would be to use something like www.thesaurus.com.
This would, obviously be a site that has an online thesaurus on it. When you choose a domain name like this you are going to be able to give the visitors an easy site to remember and use over and over again. This could even be your company name.
2. Only Choose a .com Domain Extension
One of the biggest mistakes that people make is that they choose a domain name that is cheap instead of one with a .com extension. You are better off using a different domain name, if your first choice is not available, and getting a .com extension than going with any other choice. If you are stuck on one domain name you could use the .net, but it is not going to be as good as the .com.
3. When you Can Use a Longer Domain Name
Typically you only want to choose a domain name that is either two, three, or four words in length. However, there are occasions when you can go with a longer domain name. If the keyword phrase you have chosen to use for your domain name is longer than 4 words, but is very specific and is exactly what your site is about you can use it as your domain name.
This will give you quite a bit of power with the search engines, but usually you want to choose a shorter main domain name and use the longer keywords as your page name. This is something you can certainly test as well and sometimes you will find that longer domain names work very well for you and perform better than shorter ones.
4. The Golden Nugget for Domain Names
The golden nugget that you have to follow for domain names is that they should be easy to pronounce, easy to spell, and very easy to remember. If you choose a domain name that is not easy to pronounce or spell you are going to lose many people that may have remembered your domain name and visited your website.
5. Think Before You Purchase
You want to go through and start by writing down the focus of your site you will be able to choose a domain name that fits your business better. Next, you want to list out any keywords you think will fit well with your focus. Then, you can go through and check to see which of your choices are available. If one is not available move onto the next until you find the right one for your website or blog.
6. Don’t Use Dashes
Dashes make your domain harder to remember and it will lose some power with the search engines. If you don’t believe this try to explain a domain name, in person, to a friend that has dashes in it. They will most likely make an error putting it in or you will have to explain it more than one time. Domain names should be all one word whenever possible.
7. Add Short Words, if necessary
If you have the perfect main keyword in mind, but it is not available you can add a short word to the keyword to get your domain name. This could be something like if you wanted to get the domain name, www.moneyloans.com. This is already taken so you could add “top”, “online”, or “best” to the front of it to get the domain name for you.
Why You have to Choose a Domain Name Properly
There are two things you have to get right from the beginning if you want to be successful online: domain names and hosting.
If you do not have good hosting, then you are not going to have a very strong foundation for your domain name.
On the other hand if you have great hosting, but a horrible domain name, then it is like you had the best foundation put together to hold up a house made out of straw.
You have to pair these together and make sure you get the best possible hosting for your site and the best domain name.
Start with the domain name and choose one that will work well with the main theme of your site. If you do this you will rank higher in the search engines and you will get more traffic. When you choose a domain name that works well your life will be easier online.
What is Web Hosting and Domain Name Registration and How Do They Fit Together?
Web hosting and domain name registration are very much like the foundation to a home and the actual home itself. If you have a foundation, but you never build a home on the foundation, then you really just have a concrete slab. Also, if you have a home, but you do not have a foundation to put it on you will not be able to keep the home from falling apart.
The web hosting part of this combination is much like the foundation and the domain name registration is the home. You cannot have one without the other and expect to be successful online. You must have the top web hosting for your project and you must have a domain name that you can register that fits what you are trying to do.
Both of these things are equally important and you really cannot have one without the other. This is why it is so important to understand both the web hosting and domain name registration equally and understand how both fit together. You need to know a few things about both so that you end up with a domain name that will rank well and hosting that will not take away any of your profits.
The Top 5 Things to Understand about Web Hosting and Domain Name Registration
1. The Domain Comes First
Before you purchase your hosting you need to do your research and at least have a domain name in mind for your website or blog. There are two types of domain names that you can get, one being a keyword rich domain name and the other being a branding domain name. The branding domain is for companies that want a website or blog with their name it in and the keyword rich domain name is to target a main keyword phrase.
If you are trying to make money online with affiliate marketing, Google AdSense, blogging, or anything else you want to have a keyword rich domain name for your website or blog. The only time you want to use the branding option is when you are trying to create recognition for your company name or your personal name.
2. The .com extension is by far the most effective choice
You can get a .com, a .biz, a .tv, a .net, a .info, and a number of other types of domain names, but the .com is always going to be the best choice. This extension ranking better than all the others and it is easier to remember. If you have ever seen an advertisement for a website on television you will remember it better as a .com than any other extension. Make sure you get a .com domain name when you choose yours.
3. Not All Hosting is for You
There are numerous types of hosting from simple blog hosting to more advances ASP hosting. They all have their uses and their functions and they are not all for you. When it comes to web hosting and domain name registration you need to figure out what type of hosting you need for your project. This is not all that hard to do with a little research.
If you are just trying to put up a blog or a simple website without a large amount of video or audio, then you will probably be just fine with good blog hosting or good basic website hosting. However, if your site is going to be much more advanced and is going to have video audio files that are large you may need something more like the best colocation hosting for your site or blog.
It all depends on what you are trying to do and hosting can make a very big difference for your website or blog. Start your research by learning about the three basic types of hosting and making sure you understand the benefits and the drawbacks of all of them. This will help you narrow down the options and figure out what you really need.
4. Not all Hosting Companies are Equal
There are good hosting companies, there are decent hosting companies, and there are horrible hosting companies, just like with anything else. Hosting is very competitive and many times small companies do not make it. It is important that you do your research and get one of the top 10 web hosts to provide you with great hosting for your site or blog.
5. You can get a Free Domain Name
When you combine web hosting and domain name registration you can get your domain name for free if you pay for a year or two years of hosting up front. This is a good way to go because you know you need the hosting anyway, so why not get a free domain name thrown in?
Choosing the Right Web hosting and Domain Name Registration
When it comes down to the ultimate decision for web hosting and domain name registration it cannot be all about money. Many new online marketers and companies will choose inexpensive website hosting option simply because of the price. This could be your first huge mistake and it could cost you quite a bit of money over even just a few months.
If you choose a domain name that is not good for the subject of your site you could be wasting your time trying to get high search engine ranking for it. This would be any domain name that contains dashes or any domain name that is not a .com extension. Sure you can to okay with a few of the other extension, but when you choose a cheaper domain name you could be losing large amounts of website traffic.
The same is true about hosting and when you choose to go with the cheapest website hosting you can find or even free hosting you may be setting yourself up for failure. If the hosting company you choose is not one of the top choices your site might spend more time down than up or it may take forever to load. This could send your visitors looking for a website that you compete with and that means you lose out on potential sales and profits.
The bottom line is that getting the top web hosting and the right domain name to fit what you are trying to do is the most important first step you can take. Do not allow yourself to get sucked into the trap of free or cheap hosting and make sure you get the right domain name. Getting top web hosting and domain name registration will save you many headaches and will make you more money in the long run, anyway.