7 Tips On How to Choose A Good Domain Name

The first thing that is common between a visitor and a search engine is that ,when they both come to your website, they first see your URL i.e. Domain Name. So, that means it is important for your domain name to be both compelling and search friendly. Today ALL search engines not just Google, Yahoo, MSN, give a lot of weight to Domain Names. Because of the very high importance given to Domain names it's becoming more important to choose domains very wisely. Final selection of domain can make a tremendous positive impact in SERP in all search Engines. Here are seven tips on how to choose a good domain name that can help you in getting good rankings and good SERP in Search Engines.

1. Keywords in Domain: Adding Keywords is nice but they don't matters much, but ya they have their own importance.Putting Keywords in your domain is very first step in achieving SERP.You must add Keyword phrases in Domain name, as they are important from Search Engine Point of view.But don't stuff your domain with a lot of keyword, if you will do that it will look like a spam domain.Put only one or two keywords in your domain.

2. Are domain Name extensions important: I don't think that any particular domain extension gives you more benefit. All domain extensions are equally important for Search Engines.I have found and personally registered some good domain names in the .com, .biz, .cc, .ca and .ws category. The choice is yours. Remember that the extension is not important. All search engines today treat domain names equally, with no preference if they are of the .com, .net, .org, .us, .ca, .biz or any other extension there is. What IS important are the keywords between the “www” and the extension!.But from a Visitors point of view, the .com is preferred then .net and .org .

3. Short and Memorable: Make your domain names as short as possible , also make sure that your doamin name is easily memorable, so that one visitor which comes to your website, can easily remember your URL. Don't make it too complicated or too long. Your URL should be easily memorable and should be very easy to spell. If visitors find your URL complicated ,long, or very hard to spell, that means you are loosing most of your Direct Traffic.

4.Related to your Business:Niche is very important. Your Domain Name should reflect your business. Choose a domain that can explain about your business. Also buy Alternative domains.
e.g. if i am going to buy this domain http://www.automaticnetworker.com, then i should also go to buy http://www.autonetworker.com etc. Buying alternative URLs can help you in getting all your visitors.

5. Misspelled Versions: It is a good idea to keep in mind misspelled domain versions. I learned this the hard way when giving someone my domain or email over the phone. http://www.jeffreygoodwin.com or http://www.jefferygoodwin.com Then you just forward the others to the main site. If it sounds different speaking or if it has a commonly misspelled version it doesn't hurt to just own both. Domains are now less than $15.00 today per year compared to $30 per year just a few years ago.

6.Hyphenated domain names or un-hyphenated: Hyphenated domains are good to use if you are adding your keywords in domains, and then put a hyphen in your keyword to separate from each other. Don't add too much keywords or too much hyphens in your keywords, it will look like spam.

Advantages of Hyphenated Domain Names:
Search engines can distinguish every word in the domain name, giving a very small advantage in search engine rankings.
Eliminates potentially embarrassing confusion (is it www.WellsExporter.com or www.WellSexPorter.com).
Easily distinguish words in a domain name.
When other websites link to yours using your domain name as the anchor text, the search engines can distinguish the words in this link, giving a slightly greater advantage in search engine rankings.

7. Expired Domains: If possible go for buying a domain which is or has been expired, as these expired domains will already be in the Search engines cache. The older your domain the more benefit you will get from Search Engines, and also from Visitors.

P.S. Purchasing Domains: Use a good Trusted Domain company. Try to pick one that has been around awhile and will notify you and take care of your needs. GOdaddy seems at first to be the one to go to. Just be aware that GODaddy will give you many offers when you try to purchase a domain. I don't know about you but time is money. I want to be able to get in and get out quickly. I am even willing to spend a few more bucks to accomplish this. One site I use not well known but very good customer service and speedy checkout is Lowest Domain Names (click here) They have a very user friendly site. They offer URL Forwarding masked and unmasked, Email Forwarding, Automatic renewal, and a host of other services to help you. They don't try to force feed them to you as you try to purchase and they really get back to you right away with answers. I have been using them for at least 8 years now and they have raised their prices once by $1.00 since. I actually found them by accident and have been plesantly surprised by the service. Here is the link again for www.lowestdomainrates.com

I hope these tips will help you in choosing a domain for your online business. Be sure to sign up For more free tips on the left of this post and check out my recommended automatic tools
Remember one thing. Bad domain names can make all your hard time spent wasted in achieving good SERP.

Jeffrey Goodwin
http://www.jeffreygoodwin.com
888-310-9550