Monday, November 26, 2012

The Basics Of Registering A Domain Name That Works For You


Even in this day and age, there are literally endless combinations of words and phrases available to register as domain names for your new website. But which domain name is right for you? First, you need to think about what it is exactly that you will be wanting to achieve with your website.

There are many different approaches to selecting a domain name. Are you building a brand name, or do you already have a brand name established? Do you anticipate most of your traffic coming in from Google, perhaps for a product you will sell? Maybe you are looking to make money through advertising, or just want a hobby website to provide information to people. There are plenty of topics to cover, so let's get started on a few of the basic ones.

Creating a brand name

If you are Walmart or McDonald's, it's obvious what.com domain name you would want. Many people will often search for a specific brand name in the search engine, knowing exactly what website they want without being 100% sure of what the URL will be. Many people want to create their own brand name, and so you may want to start by finding out what domains are available and going from there. In the age of the Internet, you almost want to base your brand name around being able to get the.com address for it. You can start by going to GoDaddy, which is where you can register your domain easily and for cheap. They have a quick search there which you can try all your potential names out on and see if you can get the domain that is catchy and sounds right. By rule of thumb, it is best to keep your domain name under 20 characters, so be sure to keep that in mind.

Going for the keyword approach

Many people opt to go to keyword approach when registering their domain. What you want is an Exact Match Domain, or EMD. By this, I mean the.com,.net or.org domain for an exact phrase that people search for often on Google. If the term "dalmatian dog training" gets searched for thousands of times per month on Google, then having dalmationdogtraining.com would give you an instant big edge on the competition in that field. So where do you go to find out what exact phrases are being search for each month on Google? Open a new browser window and Google search for "Google AdWords". Register, and once inside, go to their Keyword tool. By default it will have "broad search" checked, and you'll want to change that to "exact". Now, go ahead and search for a phrase related to what you are thinking of for a potential domain name. You will now see how many times people search for that on Google, and below that a list of related terms.

Now open GoDaddy in a separate window and start finding your domain name! If possible, try to find an exact match domain that is searched for several thousand times per month.

What to do when your EMD is already registered

Ok, so every domain name you try to find is already registered! This is a common scenario, considering how many people have already done this process for years before you. Here are some final tips for registering a domain name that will get you results:

Try shuffling the words in your phrase. Instead of birdfeedingandcare try birdcareandfeeding. Even if the phrase isn't searched for as much, you'll still score points with Google by having the same keywords in your domain. When possible, get the.com extension for your domain. However,.net or.org is also good. Avoid more obscure extensions that those three. Get Your Online Presence Started With An Effective Domain Name   In the Social Media Age, You Still Need Your Domain Name   Why Domain Age Matters   



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