10 Steps to Choosing A Domain Name

This week we have a guest post. Bob Wadley of SEO Spider Master. I have personally worked with Bob, he knows his stuff to help you come up in the search engines. We refer the majority of our clients to him for off page optimization.

Choosing a Domain Name is a very critical component for a creating a successful website.

I want to suggest to you that if you are primarily going to get internet traffic from customers in your local market, consider how you select a domain name differently than you would for the world wide web.

If you are a small business owner this is one of those areas where you actually have an advantage over the large corporations. Large Corporations are pretty much stuck with theirname.com . You have some very important options to take advantage of should you decide to do so.

Here are some factors to consider:

1. Keywords - You need to do a keyword analysis even before you select a domain name. Find out how people are most likely to search for your type of business. Find the most searched terms and see if you can make any of them part of your domain. Google will reward your site with rankings locally by the mere fact that a certain search term is part of your domain name. A good domain name will be the jumping off point for Google spiders to start identifying what your website is about and where you are located even before they crawl the site. Of Course you will also want a domain that is easy for people to remember as well.You can find a simple and easy process for doing a keyword analysis at www.SeoSpidermaster.com and signing up for the 5 free seo tips for small business owners.
2. Where do you live – If you want to penetrate a local market, include the market name as part of the domain. If your business name is Joey’s meat market in Chicago, most people would likely get a domain like www.joeysmeatmarket.com . However Search engines don’t know what “Joeys” means. It is not a useable word per se. A more effective domain name from a search engine standpoint would be www.chicagomeatmarket.com . ( Note if there is another local business who is named “Chicago Meat Market” and that domain name is available, this is actually a business opportunity for you. Buy the Domain and resell it to them at a profit. Then pick a different domain for your business.)
3. Always use dot com. There was not a dot net boom and bust. There was not a dot org boom and bust. There was not a dot info boom and bust. There was a dot com boom and bust. Dot com names afford your website instant credibility.
4. Keep it short if possible. I recommend cityproduct.com whenever you can.
5. Make it easy to remember. nashvillelawyer.com   dallasphotography.com
6. What to do when your domain is not available. Be creative. If miamiplumbing.com is taken, look for miamiplumbers.com, or plumbersinmiami.com, or miamiflplumbers.com, or miamiareaplumbing.com .
7. Avoid dashes, underscores, and special characters.
8. Be sure the meaning of the domain name is clear. If you are a jewelry broker in Tuscon don’t use tusconbroker.com. Be sure the search engines know you are specifically a jewelry broker – tusconjewelrybroker.com .
9. Avoid using words that are hard to spell. An example might be punxsutawneyentrepreneurs.com . While the intent is fairly easy to understand, as often as not a person trying to type that url is going to miss.
10. Some people just can’t stand the thought of not having their business name in the domain. If you still want to include your business name as part of the domain, it is not really a mistake as much as it is that you are overlooking an opportunity in a local market. It is only one small piece in a very large internet puzzle.

Be aware that when you go to register a domain name sometimes you come across what is considered a premium domain. Instead of the standard $10 or so for the domain, someone may be asking a price of several hundred or even thousands of dollars. If you come across one don’t dismiss it out right. Do some research on the name. If you have stumbled across a name that has a proven history of traffic, or has a unique selling position, it may well be worth the premium pricing. It is not always true but it is worth checking.

How ever you arrive at a domain name just be sure you have done some homework and don’t be lazy. This is the name that will be driving your traffic and it is one of the earliest decisions you will make in the internet marketing process. It is worth taking a little extra time to get it right.

To find out more about how to create more effective internet marketing and SEO strategies go to SEOSpidermaster.com .

SEO Spider Master specializes in website promotion through best SEO practices. Owned and operated by Bob Wadley, the focus is on creating a large effective web presence for small businesses in local markets.