Choosing the Best Domain Name
by Mitch Keeler

"What is in a name? A rose by any other word would smell as sweet." It is obvious that William Shakespeare knew nothing about the world of Web hosting, by those lines found in Romeo and Juliet. In the Web hosting world a domain name is very important to your company, image, or presence Online. Often a domain name might make or break you. So, what is in a name?

First let me dispell the biggest myth in picking a domain name. The old rule saying that the holy grail of domain names is to find a three letter one you can use (such as abc.com or xyz.com) is a misconception. Just about any domain name has the destiny to be great, it is all in how you tie it in with your Web site. I will get more into that in a moment.

Don't pick a domain name out of the blue that has nothing to do with your Web site at all. If you sell bikes, then having the domain name airplanes.com doesn't make much sense. Picking oddball names can often confuse a visitor because it becomes harder to relate your Web site with the domain name.

For that same reason, do not make your domain name too complicated either. Which are you more likely to remember, mikesbikes.com or heylookatmeihaveabikesite.com. Short domain names is not the way to go either. You must find something that relates to your Web site, with a few good key words.

Key word placement in a domain name can be one more helpful step in trying to get your rankings up on any of the big search engines out there today. If you are selling Web hosting, having the domain name mikeswebhosting.com is going to do better in the search engines than mikessites.com. Once again, with mikeswebhosting.com you know you are getting Web hosting by a guy named Mike. It's all there in the domain name. With the other, you aren't sure what you will be going to till you get there.

A rule I have broken in some of my examples here is do not use words that need hyphens or apostrophes in them. A good domain name should be able to be typed out simply. Adding too many modifiers that should but are not there might make your visitors forget where to put them, or leave out a letter or two. Instead of using mikessite.com use mikemcmikeson.com.

There is obviously more in a name than William Shakespeare thought, a domain name at least. Using these few rules of thumb along with doing good research though will provide you with a domain name that not only looks cool, but leads more traffic to your Web site.