Tips for Selecting a Good Domain Name

Selecting the right domain name is an important step for any company, whether you are a rick and mortar operation or a completely online venture. There has been a lot of press about the lack of domains available and rapid rate of registration. However, there are still hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of excellent domain names which have yet been registered.

When selecting a domain name it is important to think why the domain name system exists in the first place. It is there to map computer-friendly IP addresses such as 192.168.1.225 to human-friendly names such as "mydomain.com". You should think about human-friendly names when making your selection. After all, humans are the ones that have to remember the name and key it in.

Here are some common pitfalls that you should try to avoid:

• Avoid names which can be easily confused with other names. You don't want to have users struggling to get to your site or even worse, ending up at a competitors. An example of this pitfall would be a company that registers "buy4less.com" when another company already has "buyforless.com". If you are registering a name that could be easily confused with other names, consider registering these names along with registering a name which can not be so readily confused with other another name. At the very least, it will give you some branding option.
• In addition to avoiding confusion with other sites you should ensure that your site can be typed phonetically. This means if you tell someone your domain name over the phone they should be able to easily type it without you having to spell the entire domain. An example of this pitfall would be a domain like "online-sales.com" where you have to say the hyphen, or dash, in order for them reach your site.
• Another pitfall is selecting names which can not be easily typed or are difficult to spell. This includes words that sound different than they spell or domains which use words that have multiple common spellings.

You can learn a lot from the most popular sites on the internet today such as yahoo, amazon, and google. These companies domains are short, easy to type and easy to remember.

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A Good Domain Name Is...

• Easy To Remember. Any domain name that you choose for your web site should be memorable. While a short domain name can help it be memorable, it is not necessarily the most import aspect of your domain name. Your goal in choosing a domain name is to have potential clients remember it when they are ready to purchase your product or service.
• Related to Your Business. Many companies use their business name as their domain name. This is a fine practice, but should not limit your choice of domain names. You can also use slogans or phrases as your primary domain name or as an additional domain name (you can have more than one domain name pointing to the same web site). For example, a florist might register "SendFlowers.com" as a domain name.
• Easy to Spell and Read. Make sure your domain name is easy to spell. If not, clients may make a mistake and end up at the wrong web site, or worse, at your competition! Also make sure that a domain name is easy to read when spelled in all lower-case. Especially watch out for the unintended consequences of combining words - you may get a domain name that visually "creates" unwanted words when combined.

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Domain Name Characters and Length

Letters and numbers are always valid characters. Hyphens may also be used in but may not begin nor end your domain name. Spaces and special characters are never permitted. The special characters include, but are not limited to, these special characters: ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) ? "

You can use up to 67 characters in your domain name, including the extension .COM, .NET, or .ORG. You've got lots of options for establishing your Internet identity!

The "www." and "http://www." are not considered part of your domain name and therefore don't count towards the 67 character total.