How
to choose domain names
By Sumantra Roy
The
importance of having your own domain name cannot be over-emphasized. If you
are running an online business, and don't yet have a domain name, you are
probably losing thousands of dollars worth of business because of this. Why?
Simply because, unless you have a domain name, your customers will simply
not feel comfortable buying from you. In order to sell on the web, you need
to build up your credibility. Having your own domain name is the first step
in that process.
So,
now that you are convinced that you need your own domain, how should you
name your domain? Here are a few do's and don'ts regarding this. While the
availability of domains which follow all of these rules may have become
limited, try to follow as many of these rules as possible.
1)
Consider naming your company and registering a domain name starting with the
digit 1. Better still, choose a name starting with "1st". Why?
When people create directories of web sites, they have to decide how they
are going to classify those web sites. One way to classify web sites is to
list them on the basis of how "good" they are. Another way is to
simply list them in chronological order (and sometimes in reverse
chronological order) based on the dates the sites were submitted.
The
other, and far more popular classification system is alphabetic. Now, the
first character in the ASCII chart which can be used as the first character
in a domain name is the digit 0. The next character is the digit 1.
Normally, you wouldn't want to start a domain name with the digit 0 since it
might send all the wrong signals to your customers. For instance, if we had
named our domain 0SearchRanking.com, it would be telling our customers that
we cannot get them any search engine rankings at all! Hence, unless you
really have a good reason for doing so, you should avoid using domain names
starting with the digit 0.
Instead
name your domains starting with the digit 1. More specifically, name your
domains starting with "1st". This will ensure that you get a high
alphabetical placement in those directories which classify sites
alphabetically. Furthermore, depending on the industry in which your company
operates, it may also send the right message across to your customers - it
indicates that you are the first company to consider in your industry.
And
guess what - the mother of all directories - Yahoo!
- lists web sites alphabetically based on the Title that had been submitted.
Yahoo! wants the Title
to be the same as the official name of the site. This implies that sites
which start with the digit 1 will be placed at or near the top of a
category. Assuming that you can get your site listed in Yahoo!,
just look at what a top ranking in one of the categories in Yahoo!'s
directory can do for the popularity of your site!
However,
this strategy of creating domain names starting with the digit 1 will not
work with The Open Directory (http://www.dmoz.org).
The Open Directory will
only consider the portion of your domain that is really meaningful. This
implies that it will ignore the "1" or the "1st" in your
domain and will consider the portion of your domain after the "1"
or the "1st". For instance, a site named 1stXYZ.com would be
listed with the sites starting with X, and not 1. Of course, in order to
'take care' of both Yahoo!
and The Open Directory,
you could have your domain start with "1st" and then have a proper
English word starting with A after that.
Furthermore,
a small caveat here. If you are going to name a domain starting with
"1st", also register the domain which starts with "ist".
Then, have the domain containing the vowel "i" redirect visitors
to the domain containing the digit 1. This is because people will often type
in 'ist' when they mean '1st' and vice-versa. In fact, I myself make this
mistake all too often when I try to access my site from my browser. That is
the reason I registered both 1stSearchRanking.com and istSearchRanking.com.
Also, for every email alias that you create for the domain containing
"1st " (like sales@1stcompany.com), you should create the
corresponding email alias for the domain containing "ist" (like
sales@istcompany.com).
Also,
this strategy of registering domains starting with '1st' is mainly
applicable if yours is a somewhat new company. If you own a well established
concern with a well known domain, you simply cannot change your company name
and your domain in a hurry because you will confuse your existing customers.
2)
Don't want to start your domain name with "1st"? Consider starting
it with "A", "B" or "C". Although domains
starting with A, B or C will be listed after those starting with the 10
digits, you can still get a pretty high alphabetical placement with A, B or
C. Also, since The Open
Directory considers only the meaningful part of a domain, domains
starting with A will be the ones which are listed first in The
Open Directory. However, please don't name your domain in the form of
AAASomeCompany.com - it'll make your company seem like a fly by night
operator. (And you won't get a high alphabetical placement in The
Open Directory either - it ignores the "AAA" bit when it
decides the alphabetical placement of sites).
3) Try
to register a domain which contains a popular keyword applicable for your
industry. This will help your customers remember your domain name better.
Furthermore, for searches conducted in Yahoo!,
a higher ranking will be given to those web sites which contain the keyword
in the title. And according to Yahoo!'s instructions, the Title should
always be the official name of the site. Thus, if the domain name contains a
keyword, you will be able to include the keyword in the Title which will
improve your ranking in Yahoo!. As a minor side-benefit, this can also help
to marginally increase the ranking of your web site in some search engines.
4)
Don't register a domain containing the digit 0 in it, unless it is going to
be part of a recognizable word (like 1000 or 2000). This is because the
digit 0 is often confused with the vowel O. If you feel that you must
register a domain with the digit 0, make sure that you also register the
corresponding domain containing the vowel O.
5) Try
to avoid using domains that contain '2' for "To', '4' for 'For', 'u'
for 'You' and so on even if they seem to make your domain sound 'cool'. Your
customers will easily get confused if you do so. However, if you must
register such a domain, register the expanded form of the domain as well,
i.e. if you are registering greatthings2do.com, also register
greatthingstodo.com.
6)
Should you or should you not use hyphens in your domain? Well, the jury is
out on the question. While some Internet marketers will tell you that
domains containing hyphens are difficult to remember, spell and pronounce,
others will state that domains containing hyphens are, in fact, easy to
remember, spell and pronounce. Go figure. Personally, I would feel that
whether or not hyphens are helpful has to be determined on a case by case
basis. However, if you register a domain containing hyphens, make sure that
you also register the corresponding domain without the hyphens. Once you do
that, you can simply redirect visitors from the domain without the hyphens
to the domain with the hyphens.
7)
Don't make your primary domain too long. Even though 67 character domains
are a reality, exactly how many of your users will want to type a domain
name like thisisanexampleofaverylargedomainname.com?
8)
Always use ".com". If yours is a serious business site, avoid
using domains ending in "nu" or "to". Your business will
have little credibility if you do so. You can consider registering a
".net" domain, but since most people are familiar with
".com", it is better to stick to convention.
While
it is unlikely that you will be able to register a domain which satisfies
all the rules that I outlined above, try to follow as many of the above
rules as you can.
This article may
be re-published as long as the following resource box is included at the end
of the article and as long as you link to the email address and the URL
mentioned in the resource box:
Article
by Sumantra Roy. Sumantra is one of the most respected and recognized search
engine positioning specialists on the Internet. For more articles on search
engine placement, subscribe to his 1st Search Ranking Newsletter by sending
a blank email to mailto:1stSearchRanking.999.99@optinpro.com
or by going to http://www.1stSearchRanking.net
