How to Purchase the Right Domain Name

Creating a website takes a lot of work. You have to purchase the domain name, purchase hosting, and create your website. Most of the time it falls together very nicely, but it takes time and a lot of hard work to get it there.

One of the most important things to consider is your domain name. The domain name is what people type into the internet to get to your site. Here are some tips that will help you make the right choice for your site.

Characters

When you are thinking about your domain name you will want to think about characters. If its at all possible, I don't recommend using dashes or underscores. Most people will forget that they are in there and will not get your domain name correct. Some people think they need to put dashes or underscores in between each word, but that is not the case. If a person knows your business name, but not your website, they will usually try to type in your business name as a website to see if it comes up.

Keywords

Keywords are important for your website when it comes to search engines. You may want to consider having a keyword in your domain name. For instances, if you own a candle business, you may want to consider having candle in your domain name. This will help with searches as well.

Domain name extensions

When you think about all the websites you visit, most of them end in .com. However, there are many other extensions on the internet that you can use. You could purchase .net, .org, or .me. Think about this the last time you typed in a domain name that ended in .net, did you type in .com first? Sometimes it comes natural to type in .com. When it doesn't come up, we realize what we did wrong and correct it. With that said, you may want to consider purchasing .com.

Multiple domain names

Another thing to consider is multiple domain names pointing to the same site. Some businesses think it is a great practice to purchase all of the domains that are the same. For example, if your domain name is susanscandles.com you may want to consider purchasing susanscandles.net and susanscandles.org so that you own them all. That way if someone types in susanscandles.net it will still go to you. Its also a good idea to purchase domain names that are close so you don't lose out that way either. For this example, you would consider purchasing susancandles.com and susanscandle.com.

Abbreviations or full words

Unless your business is well known for its abbreviations, you should stay away from using them. Its better to use the full words because that is more likely what people will remember and type in for your site. You can always follow the tip above and purchase the letters for the abbreviation as well as the full words just to be safe.

There are many things you need to consider when purchasing a domain name. I hope the tips above help make the decision process a little easier. Good luck!