9 Tips on Choosing A Good Domain Name

DOMAIN NAMES are one’s ‘brand’ on the Internet. You can register one and use a domain name in your email address e.g.UserName@yourDOMAINname.com and it can also forms part of your website address e.g. www.yourDOMAINname.com and no one else can use it (unless you let them). Domain names are a worldwide commodity and therefore can be an asset for your business, so choose carefully. Here are some tips for choosing good domain names:

1. Should contain your keywords
2. If it’s the same as your company name, allow you to say it twice when you introduce yourself e.g.  My name is Sue of AWEBthatWORKS. For free internet tips & tricks, subscribe at www.AWEBthatWORKS.com/subscribe.
3. Easy to remember
4. Easy to say/hear e.g. is that a D or a B
5. Avoid dashes
6. Directories often use alpha sort so domains that start with numbers sort at the top, followed by A-Z
7. Domain names are in limited supply. Each top level domain has only one ‘abccompany’ so claim yours as soon as possible to avoid disappointment (or settling). Some of the most popular domain extensions in Canada are:
   • .com is the most sought after extension and has highest resale value
   • .ca identifies you as a Canadian. Each country has an extension e.g. IT=Italy.
   • .org used to be exclusively for non-profit organizations
   • .net used to be exclusively for computer networks
8. Consider registering multiple domains; to allow for misspellings, protect your brand, globalization purposes, search engine optimization, etc.
9. Shorter domains are better, but almost all of the three, four and five letter English words are gone.