7 things to Remember While Choosing a Domain Name

Saturday, September 10, 2011

I went through a hard-time in choosing a domain name for my blog. There are some tips that I could offer you people in onech.

#1 – Should I choose a ‘.com’ suffix?

I don’t know why there is a craze of getting a ‘.com’ domain. I do not recommend any such thing. What should matter to you is the domain name not the suffix and if you have chosen a domain name which is not available with a ‘.com’ suffix then do not hesitate in searching for availability for other famous suffixes like net, org, us, etc. It could save you from picking a worthless domain. However, I would recommend that if you choose a domain name that does not have a ‘.com’ suffix then whenever you tell anyone about it don’t just tell them the domain name but the whole web address, because people usually think that all domains have a ‘.com’ suffix and might just go to the wrong website.

#2 – Making the domain suffix a part of the domain name

This is a very effective way of making a domain easy to remember and could actually help in the promotion of a website. It is something that will make your blog/Website stand out from others. A very good example of such domains is the website del.icio.us, where the word is actually delicious but is divided into [subdomain].[domain].[suffix]. However, this is in very rare cases where words have to be compared with suffixes and rarely it makes such a combination.


#3 – The domain should match your content

I think that the domain should always be matching the main idea of your website/blog. For example, just because the domain toys.com is available doesn’t mean that you pick it for a ‘Make money online’ Blog. This also helps in Search engine optimization as if some content of the website matches some keywords, the domain name if matching the theme could help your website to be in top results on search engines.

#4 – Keep it short!

Make sure that the shorter the domain you choose the more easy it will be for people to access it (If you’re expecting them to use it without clicking a link). It can help them to remember the domain. An example can be seen of this blog, the domain is 3arn.net . This is at a total 7 letters with a dot in it and so with the use of just 8 buttons, you’re on this blog.

#5 – Let the domain name be a keyword

This is very important if your website is about a particular thing, for example if it is about iPods then you should go to a search for the most relevant and most searched keyword to this and then use that as the domain. This way you’ll be having many chances of getting good search results.

#6 – Let the domain be your name

I’ve particularly seen this in many blogs, and if you are also making a blog which is actually mainly about yourself and you’re mentioning yourself in every post, then this can be a very effective way of choosing a domain, if your name is short. By the way it will also get you fame as each and everyone who visits your blog will certainly get to know your name.

#7 – Make a new word

I would only advise this in the case that your website is going to be really big, by big I mean websites like technorati, myspace, facebook. If the website is going to be big enough that you’ll need to hire staff then I would advise you to make a new word keeping in mind that it should be easy to remember and fun to use.

Keep these 7 things in mind and hopefully you’ll be able to choose domain name that could be worth more than you buy it for (You actually realize that later). Best of Luck!