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Alternatively, if you have a website
developed for the purpose of sharing information, with little or no
content which is only relevant in one part of the world, my advice would
be to choose a global top-level domain such as .com.
2. Should I break up words within my domain name with hyphens? Is
'widget-shop.com' better than 'widgetshop.com'?
There seems to be a general consensus within the search engine
optimisation industry that using hyphens helps search engines deduce
what the actual words within an URL are, therefore leading to those
pages being ranked higher in the search engine results. However, there
is also speculation that using 2 or more hyphens within the domain name
incurs a penalty. With this in mind, I would advise anyone who plans to
receive most of their custom from organic search engine results to use
one hyphen in their domain name to separate their targeted search
keywords.
However, if your business model is not heavy on search engine
optimisation, my recommendation would be to not have any hyphens in your
domain name, as the vast majority of internet users intuitively enter
domain names in their browser address bar without any hyphens. In domain
name value appraisal circles, the non-hyphenated version of a domain
name is usually considered to be of greater worth.
For search engine optimisation, studies show that one hyphen may give
you an advantage, but on the whole I would recommend not using any
hyphens in your domain name.
3. Is it better to have digits (2, 3 etc.) or words for numbers (two,
three etc.) in my domain name?
Generally speaking, I would dissuade anyone using word of mouth
advertising from having any numbers, either as digits or as words, in
their domain name. The reason for this is that a domain name should be
easy to remember and easy to spell correctly. Lets say for example you
had the domain name 'widgets4u.com'. If you meet someone that is
interested in your product, and tell them to visit your website, you are
going to have tell them specifically that the 4 is numeric and the U is
just one letter. Otherwise, they may input 'widgetsforyou.com',
'widgets4you.com', 'widgetsforu.com' and end up at the website of one of
your competitors.
If however you are prepared to accept this risk, in my experience the
layperson tends to instinctively put the numeric version of a number in
a domain name. Therefore, use 'widgets2.com', not 'widgetstwo.com'.
4. How long should my domain name be?
As short as possible. Long domain names are harder for your customers to
remember, take longer to type, longer to spell out (you may find
yourself having to spell your domain name letter-by-letter to some
clients) and also may be harder to actually fit onto your business
cards, print advertisements and similar. I have one client whose
business name consists of four words, two of which are tricky to spell.
My advice to him was to use a domain name with the first letter of each
word only, which has proved very easy to remember.
If you are targeting specific search keywords, I would recommend that
your domain name consists of those keywords and as little else as
possible. If you were targeting 'purple widgets', my advice would be to
use the domain name 'purplewidgets.com'. If that domain name is not
available, I would recommend adding one extra word to the end. For
example, I personally have a web site which targets the search keyword
'weight loss'. As one would expect, 'weightloss.com' and 'weightloss.co.uk'
were already registered - so I opted for the domain name 'weightlossweb.co.uk'.
Choosing an added word that begins with the same letter as your first
keyword helps your visitors remember your domain name. So, going back to
the purple widgets example: Alternative domain names could include 'purplewidgetpro.com',
'purplewidgetpower.com' and 'purplewidgetparadise.com'.
5. Are some domain name extensions better than others?
Yes. Generally speaking, the most desirable top-level domain is the
.COM. Charitable websites may choose .ORG in order to declare that they
are a charitable organisation, but there are currently no restrictions
on who can register .ORG domain names or what they need be used for -
and many commercial websites still use them.
My personal "league table" of favoured domain name extensions is as
follows:
1 .COM
2 Country-code (.CO.UK, .CA, .IE etc.)
3 .NET
4 .ORG
5 .BIZ
6 .INFO
7 .NAME
I currently have in excess of 300 domain names registered, none of which
are .INFO or .NAME. I would only recommend that one registers .BIZ,
.INFO or .NAME domains if they have a large website with a brand name to
protect. For example, my business trading name is 'Starsol.co.uk'. At
the time of writing this article, 'Starsol.com' is currently registered
by a domain name squatter, who is asking for an extortionate price. I
have chosen to register 'Starsol.biz' to prevent a similar situation
occurring in future. I feel it is very unlikely that anyone actually
types the domain with the .BIZ extension into the address bar looking
for my website - but if I didn't register the name myself - someone else
might and go on to use it for purposes that may harm my brand.
6. What about .TV and .WS?
Although they may be marketed as such, .TV does not mean tele-vision and
.WS does not mean web-site or world-site. .TV is the country code
extension for Tuvalu and .WS is for Samoa. Tuvalu is small island
country located in the Western Pacific Ocean with a population of
approximately 11,000 in the Western Pacific Ocean that gained
independence from the UK in 1978. Samoa, also in the Pacific, gained
independence from New Zealand in 1962 and has a population of around
180,000. If these countries are not your target markets, I would
personally dissuade you from using their country code domain names.
Other similar domain names include .FM (Federated States of Micronesia)
which masquerades as the TLD for radio stations and .CC (Cocos Islands).
7. Why do some domain name registrars charge more than others? Are their
domain names better?
Perhaps surprising, this is a question I have been asked on several
occasions. Just like how some supermarkets which charge more than others
for identical cans of fizzy drink than others, domain name registrars
also charge differing domain name registration costs. Although some
domain name registrars may provide extra tools with domain name
registration, a domain name registered for $8.95 a year will work in
exactly the same way and one registered for $35.00 a year. If I may give
my own service a plug here, Starsol Domains at http://www.starsoldomains.com/
offers .COM registration for what I believe are some of the fairest
prices on the 'net.
I hope this article has helped you in your search for a perfect domain
name. I would like to add however, that with domain name registrations
being so cheap, that registering multiple domains and redirecting them
all to your one "main domain" may prove to be a very good idea. If there
is one domain that you will be heavily marketing, I would strongly
advise you to at least also register the .COM version of that domain
name too, and if you are outside the United States to also register the
relevant country-code version of the domain name. Many of your customers
may input the wrong extension when looking for your site, possibly
leading to you losing their custom to a competitor of yours; or like my
personal situation which I described earlier, may lead to a domain name
squatter registering a domain similar to yours in the hope that you will
spend many thousands buying it from them. |
