How Do I Choose My Domain Name?

There are a number of issues to consider when creating a domain name for your website.  It's important to pay attention to these issues, and to consider them carefully, because your choice of domain name will affect your rank on search engines. 

If you are naming a domain for a business that you are starting, you might want to strongly consider using your brand name as the domain's title.  A great deal of stress is sometimes placed on obtaining a generic domain name, but in reality it's more important to have a domain that reflects your specific product or brand name.  A user and potential customer is more likely to think of specific brand names than to type in some generic term such as "servers.com." 

Once you've got a potential name, don't get your hopes up too high.  Unless you've chosen a fairly unique name, it is most likely already taken.  Coming up with an original and fairly short domain name has become quite difficult in the past couple years.  Don't worry if you can't come up with a short and meaningful name, however.  It can sometimes be better if you have a slightly longer domain name.  Never give up the meaning in your domain just to have a shorter name.  The longer address will serve you much better if it makes more sense and is easier to remember.

What should you do if you can't get the address you want?  There are a couple of possible solutions.  First of all, you could add "the" or "my", or even a hyphen to the name.  Another potential solution is to use an alternate domain, such as .net, .org, or a country specific identifier.

There are varying schools of thought on each of these methods.  Adding in prefixes to your domain such as "the" may work, but be sure to be consistent whenever you mention your domain, or you'll end up sending people to the wrong place.  Domains other than .com can be used, but there are a couple of points to remember about them.  People are more used to typing in ".com", and if they aren't sure about your web address, they may not think to use any of the alternatives.  There are also some people that will tell you that search engines look at addresses in the .com domain first, listing all of the others only after those have been visited.

What you must be careful of is registering a domain name which already belongs to a registered operating company. This is called cyber-squatting and it is illegal because the name is a trademark.

Hyphens can be a quick solution to a domain name that is already taken, but they are generally advised against.  A hyphen is very easy to forget, and a great deal of your users may find themselves at the hyphen-less version.  It is usually better to bite the bullet and think of another domain name than to risk using a hyphen.

Good luck obtaining the domain name you want!