Reserve Your Domain name Now!
Choosing the Right Domain
Name
Copyright 2001 Erum Zehra
Let us start with the bare basics of domain names. A domain is
the name of your online business, which is used by net surfers
to locate your web site. A business must have a name, and the
name it has contributes towards building its image.
But the name becomes extremely important if it also acts as the
address (URL) of the business. Hence the importance of choosing
the right domain name cannot be stressed enough.
The "right domain name" for an online business would be one that
contributes towards enhancing your image and towards your marketing
efforts. It helps in bringing more traffic to your web site.
Whether you already have an established offline business or are
trying to build an online business from scratch, here are a few
simple rules of name selection to follow:
1. Easy to spell: If people can't pronounce or spell your domain
name properly, it is bound to cause problems for you. This is
because they need to be able to type your domain name correctly
to reach your web site. Otherwise, they would be surfing some
other web site thinking it is yours. You are likely to be the
loser if something like that happens. Hence, try to choose a domain
name that is easy to spell.
A number of words in English have different versions of spelling,
for example: color and colour, jewellery and jewelry etc. Search
all the possible spelling versions of your name and register all
of them. It would save you from losing a lot of valuable traffic.
2. Short and simple: The ideal domain name would tend to be short
and simple. We need to avoid confusing our net surfer at all costs.
Longer names are bound to lead to more confusion and would cause
problems in pronunciation as well as spelling . Initially ICANN
allowed only 23 characters for domain names but now this limit
has been changed to 63 characters. While this has made a variety
of new domain names possible, the danger of confusing net surfers
with long names has also appeared.
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3. Memorable: Your domain name must be easy to remember, so
that net surfers can instantly access your web site by typing
in your domain name in the browser window. They might not bother
to conduct a search for your web site if your domain name is difficult
to remember and is easily forgotten by them.
4.Unique: Your domain name should not be a sub domain. These result
when you choose to host your web site with a free or inexpensive
host.
To illustrate, a unique domain name would look like this: www.yourname.com,
while a sub domain of Xyz company would look like this: www.xyz.com/yourname.html.
As it is obvious, a sub domain results in a longer URL for your
web site. This goes against all the three rules listed above.
It won't be short or simple, easy to spell or memorable. But the
problems don't end here. The biggest problem is that your URL
would not be consistent. If you ever decide to terminate your
hosting with Xyz Company you would have to change your URL. Your
customers may not have any way of finding you, resulting in loss
of business for you.
5.Related to category: Your domain name should give some idea
of the business you are in, and what your web site is about. The
two famous web based brands Yahoo! and Amazon defy this rule.
You can't tell that Yahoo! would be the name of a search engine
and Amazon would be a book store. But don't let this change your
mind. Amazon and Yahoo! have the advantage of being the pioneers
in their chosen categories, along with consistent brand building
efforts and a commitment for quality.
6.Alphabetical considerations: A instead of Z: If you intend to
rely heavily on search engine traffic, like the majority of web
sites on the net today, you may also want to consider the alphabetical
order of the name. A name starting with "A" would be listed on
the top of a directory, while "Z" would go right at the bottom.
This may make a big difference on the amount of traffic you can
draw from directories.
7.Generic or exclusive There seems to be a lot of debate on whether
a domain name should be generic or exclusive. It is true that
while generic domain names result in more traffic for a web site,
they make poor brand names. The solution is simple: While you
shouldn't be giving your online business an official generic name,
you may want to buy generic domain names related to your category
and use them to redirect your URL.
In this way, you won't suffer the danger of having a poor brand
name, and you would also gain more traffic through redirection.
Supposing you were selling books, would a domain name like book.com
help you in getting more traffic? You bet it would!! It appears
that Barnes and Noble realize this as they already own this domain.
Selection of the right domain name requires creativity along with
a consideration for the above listed rules. And remember, Yahoo!
is successful in spite of defying three of these rules. You just
have to realize which of these rules are important for your particular
situation.
For various useful links on domain registration please visit:
http://www.biztalk4u.com/bizresources/domainreg.html
About the Author
Erum Zehra is an MBA with a major in Marketing, and specializes
in creative web site copy writing, based on Marketing strategies.
She is also the editor of BizTalk4U Ezine. Visit her web site
at http://www.biztalk4u.com
and subscribe to her ezine by sending a blank email to: mailto:biztalk4u-ezine-subscribe@topica.com
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