My thoughts on choosing a domain name
Here is a list of things to look for and think about when choosing your domain name
1. Shorter is better then longer
2. Fewer words is better then more words
3. Avoid commonly misspelled words
4. Avoid dashes in your domain name
5. Try to get the .com domain name
Personally, I feel that the most important aspect of your domain name should be ease of verbally telling it to another human being. That is my final test if I like a domain name. I want to be able to say "go to casino dave dot com" and have casinodave.com entered and visited by who I am telling.
Why do I care if a lot of my potential is from the search engines and links? You want your name to be easily remembered so that you can get repeat customers. You want people to be able to tell their friends your site name. You want to be able to tell people too, and you want all these people to go to your site, and not someone elses.
Keywords in the domain name are nice, and so are descriptive words about your site. They are nice, and you should see if some names that fit your site are available. But not if it means that your site name is www.keywords-about-my-site.com or www.keywordsstuffedinmydomainname.com.
A direct link to your site will always get there. A search engine result page link to your site will always get there. Computers, browsers, and links will never care what your domain name is. Click the link no matter what the name is and it goes to the right place.
All my reasons above are to avoid human errors, not computer errors. You do not want someone finding someone elses site and not yours. All the reasons try to limit the possibilites of errors.
- The longer the domain name, or the more words, the more oppurtunities they have to forget it, say it wrong, or make spelling errors.
- If you have a non .com domain name (like .net), you can easily send traffic to a .com name because people generally assume .com is the default site.
- If you have dashes, someone may not put the dashes in, or not all of them, or not in the right place, or might not remember the dashes.
Some of my thoughts of picking a name like casinodave.com:
- My site is about online casinos, so I wanted to get a word like "casino" in there.
- 2 words, easilly spelled, short and sweet.
- Notice "dave" has nothing to do with online casinos, bonuses, blackjack, or anything about my site. Yes it is my name and I like personallizing, but using "dan" or "steve" or "dog" or any easily spelled word would work just the same.
- I have the .com
- No dashes, no places for anyone to make a spelling mistake.
Think about telling someone who has never used a computer before your domain name. How confident are you that they will enter it in correctly? If there is any doubt, there may be a better name out there for you.
Keep these things in mind when you are searcing for your domain name in the next step.
1. Shorter is better then longer
2. Fewer words is better then more words
3. Avoid commonly misspelled words
4. Avoid dashes in your domain name
5. Try to get the .com domain name
Personally, I feel that the most important aspect of your domain name should be ease of verbally telling it to another human being. That is my final test if I like a domain name. I want to be able to say "go to casino dave dot com" and have casinodave.com entered and visited by who I am telling.
Why do I care if a lot of my potential is from the search engines and links? You want your name to be easily remembered so that you can get repeat customers. You want people to be able to tell their friends your site name. You want to be able to tell people too, and you want all these people to go to your site, and not someone elses.
Keywords in the domain name are nice, and so are descriptive words about your site. They are nice, and you should see if some names that fit your site are available. But not if it means that your site name is www.keywords-about-my-site.com or www.keywordsstuffedinmydomainname.com.
A direct link to your site will always get there. A search engine result page link to your site will always get there. Computers, browsers, and links will never care what your domain name is. Click the link no matter what the name is and it goes to the right place.
All my reasons above are to avoid human errors, not computer errors. You do not want someone finding someone elses site and not yours. All the reasons try to limit the possibilites of errors.
- The longer the domain name, or the more words, the more oppurtunities they have to forget it, say it wrong, or make spelling errors.
- If you have a non .com domain name (like .net), you can easily send traffic to a .com name because people generally assume .com is the default site.
- If you have dashes, someone may not put the dashes in, or not all of them, or not in the right place, or might not remember the dashes.
Some of my thoughts of picking a name like casinodave.com:
- My site is about online casinos, so I wanted to get a word like "casino" in there.
- 2 words, easilly spelled, short and sweet.
- Notice "dave" has nothing to do with online casinos, bonuses, blackjack, or anything about my site. Yes it is my name and I like personallizing, but using "dan" or "steve" or "dog" or any easily spelled word would work just the same.
- I have the .com
- No dashes, no places for anyone to make a spelling mistake.
Think about telling someone who has never used a computer before your domain name. How confident are you that they will enter it in correctly? If there is any doubt, there may be a better name out there for you.
Keep these things in mind when you are searcing for your domain name in the next step.
posted by Big Dave at 10:13 AM
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