How to select a good domain name

Selecting a good domain name is essential for the success of your small business website. Here are a few tips to help you select a good domain name.

1. Make it memorable - a domain name that’s easy to remember is much better than one that’s difficult
2. Make it short - the short the better.  This makes your domain name memorable and easy to type into the browser.  You run a bigger chance of mis-spellings with longer domain names
3. Avoid misspellings - Don’t use words in your domain name that can be easily misspelled.
4. Purchase multiple domains - You may want to purchase the .com, .net, and .org versions of your website to limit competitors from purchasing those domains and developing websites on them.  There’s also .us, .mobi, .biz, .ws and .me to consider.  It just depends on how much of the market you want to capture.  I would also purchase common misspellings of your domain name (i.e. craigslist and craiglist) and plural forms of your domain name (i.e. hotspring.com and hotsprings.com)
5. Use keywords - This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but generally, putting the main keyword in your domain is a good thing for search engines. For example, if your site is about Yoga, then try to have Yoga in your domain name.

What to do if the domain name you want is taken

1. Use hyphens (i.e. hotsprings.com is taken, use hot-springs.com)
2. Use alternate extensions - I’ve recommended to you that you buy the alternate extensions of your domain name, but if other people haven’t secured them, purchase the .net or .org version of your URL first.  If those are taken, you may choose one of the other extensions like .us or .me.
3. Get creative - Brainstorm all the different ways you could describe your business and what you do, then see if there’s a creative name for your website.  I did this with my meditation website, which I named MayAllBeHappy.org
4. Use a phrase - A great example of this is Jim Edward’s website Igottatellyou.com.  It’s an easy to remember phrase, and highly unique

Are you ready? Purchase a domain name now.

If you have other suggestions, add them to the comments below.