Thursday, March 08, 2012

Does My Choice of Domain Name Really Matter?

One day you are talking to a friend of yours about getting into Affiliate marketing  so you become your own boss. Your friend is like "Well, sound like a great idea. But you do need to get a domain name for your business and get it registered at a good domain company." You then respond "Does my choice of domain really matter?" Then your friends go like " yeah, of course it does matter." You see your domain is like your street address. Imagine a customer trying to guess where the physical office of your company is- or at least they think the know where it. Only for them to find out with, derision of course, that your office cant be found. Same situation with your domain. domain name should be such that browsers should be able to find it online. Here are a few ideas to consider when choosing a domain name.

Make It Short and Easy to Spell
Choose  a short and easy name and it sticks in everybody's head. Choose a domain as long as the English alphabet and everybody will be scratching their heads trying to remember it . This, of course will be detrimental to your online business.

Make Your Company Name Your URL
This is a no brainer.   Your URL is what most people try first when looking for your business. Your business being part of your email makes it  a lot easier for browsers to find your business. You might want to broaden your horizons further by registering your product and your service names .  You could create mini sites dedicated to promoting your products and your services. Thinking Landing Page? Or you point your product URL to a section of your website which features your product.

Select Strong Keywords
The keywords you select in your content should be solid and industry-specific.  The keywords must be common words or short phrases that browsers are likely to type in a browser address field or search engine. Do this, and the value of the domains will go through the roof.  using easy-to -remember keywords wouldn't hurt your bank account at all.

Make It Personal
If you are a consultant, or any other professional it will make sense to you use your first and last name as your URL. Here you have a few mouthwatering options. You can use your personal name as your domain or you can point your personal name URL in the direction of your company website. Either way, your customers will come looking for you.

Go Mobile
This is no joking matter! Mobile devices are becoming very popular due to their portability. The mobile world  could be the next frontier as far as branding goes.So join the big boys and register your your domain as a .mobi site. You wont be sorry.

Keep Your Domain For as Long as Possible.
If you don't want your domain to expire, register it for as long as possible. You will be better off going for a 10 year deal. Expect to see pre-expiration reminders from your domain company or possibly sign up  on your behalf. This surely takes some of the pressure off you. If you happen to be looking for  quality places to register your domain(s),  I suggest GoDaddy , and HostGator.  These two have solid reps in the online world and their online support is first class.


So anytime you ask the question "Does My Choice of Domain Really Matter?", just remember what I've just outlined in the first paragraph. It sure does matter. your domain name is your online street address and if you want people to find you, you have to make it as uncomplicated as possible. Or else you will be pulling your hair out for years to come.

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