How to Choose a Domain Name

Choosing a domain name need not be a difficult process. Following these easy guidelines will ensure you have the best domain name that is easy for visitors to remember and use as well as search engine friendly.

Your domain name is the text your type into your web browser, for Web Gurus it is webgurus.co.nz and is also what you’d typically use for your email address like steve @ webgurus.co.nz

Having your own domain name for your web site and email addresses is important because of the image it portrays of you and your business. Yes you can use email addresses that are based on free services like Gmail or Hotmail or from your ISP, however then you are seen by other businesses and your customers as less professional and less trustworthy according to 79.4% of people from a survey we did in 2007.

If you don't yet have a domain name or are looking for additional ones (a great marketing technique, contact us for more info about this), here are 5 tips to making the best domain name selection to suit your needs:

• Using keywords in your domain name will improve your search engine ranking. Most of the ranking benefits of using a keyword in your domain is from when people type the keyword into the search engine and your domain closely matches the keyword.
• Hyphens in your domain name won't hurt you, however it usually reduces your professionalism in the eyes of your customers, mainly because they look tacky and they resemble more spammy types of web sites. Hyphens also make it more difficult to use word of mouth to spread your domain name.
• Avoid having the last letter in a word within your domain be the starting letter of the next word. For example, speaker resource, the two R’s make it difficult for people typing your site into their browser to know if they should use 1 or 2 R’s in the name.
• The same also applies to letters that could be spelt  as words like b or be or numbers than could be a word or number such as 2, two, too, or to also 4, for, or four – these all just add to the confusion of the person trying to get to your site. One recommended way if you have to use these letters or numbers is to get all the possible domain name combinations and point them all to your web site.
• Short memorable domain names work best from marketing point of view. They are easy to say when speaking to someone, easy to read both online and offline, and make it easier for people to guess your name if they are not sure what it is.

If you'd like help choosing a new domain name or additional name/s to boost your marketing effort, then complete the form on this page with your contact details and how we can help and we'll be in touch shortly.

Author: Steve Vale, Web Gurus.