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Choosing A Domain Name
So you've decided to put a web site up on the Internet. In
this article, we will discuss the best way to choose a
domain name for your business web site, but many of the same
principles apply if you are choosing a name for a hobby or
informational site. So, let's choose a name for your little
piece of the Internet.
The best way to avoid mistakes is to be aware of what kind
of mistakes people make and learn from example. After all,
your idea to have a website is to make sure that people can
locate you on the Internet. So, first know the things you
must avoid while choosing your Internet domain name.
Avoid numbers. Many people use numbers in their domain
names on their Internet sites because they think it's cute,
or simply to save letters. It isn't a good idea. It creates
confusion. For instance, a website called
'www.fun4pets.com' is ambiguous. The customer cannot figure
out whether the digit '4' in this domain is the number or
the word, and if it is a word, does it stand for 'for' or
'four'. Thus, the first thing to avoid is ambiguity.
The next point you have to keep in mind is to avoid using a
hyphen in the domain name of your website. Most people do
so thinking putting a '-' in their URL would make it easier
to read. Our example stated above would become
www.fun-for-pets.com. But this is assuming too much as
people might or might not remember this and could type in
the more obvious www.funforpets.com. Hence it would be
better to give a domain name to your URL that is easier to
remember and does not create any doubt. So go without
hyphens.
Now that you know what not to do, let's talk about some of
the things you should do when looking for a domain name.
First and foremost is to ALWAYS use the ".com" extension for
domain names. This is the standard that everyone uses when
typing in a URL to their Internet browser, and if you have
another extension - .net, .org, .biz, etc. - you may be
sending people to another site altogether. If the name you
want is not available with ".com" then pick another domain.
Next, you want to make sure that your name is easy to spell.
There are a lot of bad spellers out there, and if you choose
a name that can be misspelled, it will be. For example, if
you choose something like "www.specialoccassions.com", you
may get any variation of either word, so people may be
typing in "www.spechulokashens.com" (and don't laugh - I've
seen worse misspellings on the Internet!).
It would also be prudent to keep the domain name short. Two
to three words, and under 25 characters, are considered
most acceptable. In this way, the chances of mistyped URLs
could be avoided. The chances of people making mistakes and
missing letters when you give a name to your website such
as www.thebestwebsiteevernomatterwhat.com is quite high.
These are only general tips to take into consideration
while selecting a domain name for your site. There are
bound to be exceptions. However, if you keep these tips in
mind you will come up with an appropriate name for your web
site that will attract potential customers. The more people
visit your site the more chances you have to succeed in
your business.
Encargado Telosh is the owner and webmaster of
FYE Internet, Inc., a
leading Internet portal for internet information. For more
internet information and resources, be sure to visit:
http://www.FYEinternet.com
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