Selection of a domain name is an important step in the website development. It greatly affects such vital aspects as the easiness to be found, Google Pagerank, and brand positioning. Once a website is operational, brand positioning requires quite an investment; it is important, at that point, to avoid any legal conflicts. Selecting a domain name can determine whether your website will be easily remembered by your users - and thus also define your chances of being revisited.
Consider the following basic principles when choosing a domain name:
It should be short: Preferably in a word or two. Three or four words may be acceptable yet not recommended. The number of web sites is huge and even more so the number of domain names that are already purchased by users in order to create a website in future or because they simply expect to sell it at a higher price (domain squatting). Some names have been sold for surprisingly high amounts of money. This is why the amount of available domain names consisting of one or two words is not very abundant.
It should be simple: avoid using words where spelling mistakes can be easily made, or where regional spelling differences exist, such as verbs ending in -ize (-ise); when there is no other way, then opt for the spelling that is most likely to be used by your target audience.
It should be well directed: think of the market sector that your website targets. If your domain name is playful and fun, this is more identified with a younger audience, but a domain name that is sober and respectful is aimed at a more mature public.
It should be memorable: the domain name you select must be easy to remember and if possible, easy to pronounce in several languages.
Related to the web content: a domain name that is properly associated with the website content allows first-time visitors to get a quick understanding of what the site is about.
A few more recommendations for a suitable domain name: avoid using the letter "ñ", or any other language-specific characters, even if they are allowed in domain names, users are not accustomed to use them; avoid using a hyphen "-" and underscore "_"; avoid, if possible, numbers, these are easily mixed up, although there are situations where their use is quite adequate (12besthosts.com); avoid the use of articles within the domain name (the, la, los, etc).
We also recommend purchasing those domain names which may cause a visual or phonetic confusion with yours. There are many cases in which competing companies registered domain names that are phonetically similar to their competitor’s and took advantage of misspellers.
Another key point is picking the right domain name extension. The rule of thumb is that commercial websites should be using .com, while NGO’s or other free projects use .org. Websites related to the world of internet and communications, are supposed to use .net. Our recommendation is to register your domain name with all these extensions, whenever possible, and also add .biz and .info; purchasing these extensions will reduce the chances of your competitors.
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