Domain Name Registration and Selection
It’s important you read the TOS of the Registrar carefully. Be sure you can easily transfer to another Domain Registrar if you choose. This is why we recommend you do not use the “FREE” registration offers made by many hosts. They usually have a transfer penalty that can be very costly. Register your domains at a Domain Registrar and keep your hosting accounts separate. And just like Web Hosting the Cheapest Registrar may not be the best deal.
Tips for Domain Name Registration
- Don’t use more than 1 Hypen
- Register .com’s and .net’s – it’s what people expect from a business
- Keep it short and easy to spell
- Try to incorporate your best keyword
- Put your best Keyword First if Possible
Do You Think All the Good Domain Names Are Gone?
Here is a strategy that can help you find a domain name that is right for your site. Think laterally for more keyword possibilities by using ADD ON Words and SYNONYMS from a Thesaurus. Think about related ADD ON words combined with synonyms. ADD ON words are generally descriptive of the primary keyword as I’ll describe in a moment. For example if you type Automobile into Microsoft’s Word Thesaurus you get the following synonyms: Car, Auto, Vehicle, Sedan… etc.
Now you need to think of your customer and what they will do with your product or service. This is where the add on words come into play. How will your product be used? People want FAST CARS, they want RELIABLE CARS, they want COMFORTABLE CARS, LUXURY CARS. Fast, Reliable, Comfortable and Luxury are the add on words in this example.
Combine your Keyword List with the Add on Words and a whole new realm of possible domain names begins to unfold right in front of you! SEDANCARS.com seems kind of silly, but it’s easy to remember and if you are promoting family cars it just might work. FamilyCars.com… the possibilities become endless. You are only limited by your imagination. Don’t get frustrated and don’t settle – a quality domain name can really make your campaign. It’s worth your time to slow down and find a great name. If you can’t find it right now… do something else and try again later or tommorrow when you have a fresh perspective and renewed energy.
Consider Domain Names that Describe the Benefits of Your Product or Service
What are you really selling? Lets use an example of Furniture. You are not just selling furniture you are selling comfort, style, and good taste. People buy on emotion! Honestly here is where many of the good domains start to come into play. How about SofaComfort.com? TastefulFurnishings.com? Try making your own list of Benefits and combining them with your primary keywords.
Plural Forms: Same Start and End Lettering Creates Confusion
Be careful of domains that start and end with the same letter like with the letter “S”. They simply don’t look right.
Example: Cars and Shopping – While CarShopping.com makes sense CarsShopping.com does not. Colliding “S”s”. If I were purchasing the domain CarShopping.com I would buy the other so people couldn’t sneak in on my traffic! I also recommend buying both the .NET and the .COM versions where available. This may not be the best example, but I think you see the point.
How Many Years Should You Register Your Domain
There is plenty of speculation that Search Engines will take the length of registration into consideration with their ranking algorithms. This has NEVER been verified. But to play it safe, if you are a real business it’s worth spending for 2 years at a time. There is reason to believe that the Search Engines would see a single year as a “disposable” domain. I’m not going to get into the argument here… it’s just a suggestion. The same logic behind this speculation is why you should avoid .info or .biz as they are the second class citizens of the domain world.
LSI Latent Semantic Indexing
This is a topic that goes beyond the scope of this site. Those of you who are technically minded will find the entire topic fascinating. In essense LSI revolves around word relationships. For example: Google sees Furniture and Chairs as semantically relatied, but not Recliners? Think about “Why”… do some reading on the subject and you’ll put yourself ahead in the SEO Game. A well conceived LSI domain name may just be the ticket! Even though I do not believe Google is actually able to do real LSI; I do believe there are fundamental elements of LSI incorporated within the way they look at inter site relationships.
Again, I do not believe that full LSI is taking place online… it would require too much computing power, but I do believe that variants and components of LSI in principal are becoming integrated into Search Alogrithums.
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