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If you need help choosing a domain name, talk to Fireworks today! Call 1300
880 648 or email 
Domain Names are Extremely Important
There's a saying in the Real Estate business - they say that the 3 most important
things are location, location and location. Well, in regards to a new internet
business, it's domain name, domain name and domain name. Yes, a domain name
is that important.
In the early days of the internet, domain names were fairly easy. There were
so many good names still available, but as more and more businesses migrated
to the internet, the best names were taken. As the time passed, finding a good
domain name to register has become increasingly difficult.
Why is a domain name so important? For one thing, a domain name can help you
get the traffic to your website. If
you don't get traffic, you might as well not even have a website. There's no
doubt about it, if you want to make money, you need traffic.
A domain name can help you to get traffic in a couple of ways. First of all,
if your domain name is catchy and easy to remember, that will help people to
find your website and to return for future visits. It's also a good idea if
your domain name gives some indication of the type of business you have. For
example, if you want to have a website that helps people consolidate their student
loans, it would be a good idea to have a domain name that contained some or
all of those words. You might do good with "studentloans.com" or "studentloanconsolidation.com"
or something similar. You can even use hyphens in the domain name, like "student-loan-consolidation.com",
etc.
The point here is that your domain name should be descriptive of your business.
After all, if you were looking for a new dentist, would you be likely to visit
"BigBubbaMotorcycles.com" or "GreatDentists.com"? If Big
Bubba is a dentist, he's probably not going to get many new dental patients
through his website.
Let's talk about the domain names with hyphens before we move on. Contrary
to what many people think, having hyphens in your domain name does not hurt
your search engine listings. Most of the search engines treat the hyphens as
a space, so the hyphens make it a little easier for them to separate out the
individual words.
About the only downside of using hyphens is that when people type in your URL,
they may forget to put in the hyphens and go to a competitors website instead.
Personally, I don't think this is too much of a problem, since most people find
websites thru search engines, so they'll be clicking directly on a link to your
website instead of typing it in by hand.
Again, it's really important to embed keywords about your business into your
domain name for good search engine ranking. Although some domains, like ebay.com
or google.com do get a lot of traffic, it's not because of any keyword in the
domain name. What is an 'ebay' anyhow?
You'll find that most of the high traffic websites with short, unrelated domain
names get their huge amount of traffic thru paid promotional campaigns. They
use radio & TV ads, high volume email advertising and other such methods
that might be too expensive for a small business just getting started.
A good way to find your domain name is to develop a list of keywords that are
strongly associated with your business. Write down as many keywords as you can
think of, as long as they're on your subject. Once you have your list, you can
use one of the several free online tools to help select just the right domain
name for your new website.
The domain name registrar at www.godaddy.com has a search feature where you
can check the availability of domain names and the results will even show you
other closely related domain names that are available. Another handy suggestion
tool is at www.domainfellow.com Either one of these online tools will help you
to find a good domain name that's still available to register.
Here's a good tip for you when trying to find a domain name that has your keywords
in it - If you can't find a domain name that has your keyword and is still available,
you should consider using sub-domain names instead.
What's a sub-domain name?
A sub-domain name is a prefix to a normal domain name. Let's say that you're
in the retail computer business and you want to sell computers at your website.
That's a fairly competitive business, so you'll probably have a hard time coming
up with a good domain name that's not already taken.
An alternative would be to choose some sort of generic term for a domain name
and then use a sub-domain for your computer business. For example, let's say
that you register the domain name "lowestprice.com" That's pretty
generic, wouldn't you agree? Now that you have that domain name registered,
you can create all the sub-domains you want, limited only by your imagination
and the size of your web hosting account.
Remembering that you're in the computer business, you could now have your website
at the sub-domain "computers.lowestprice.com" Using this same approach,
you could go into just about any other business and have sub-domains like "insurance.lowestprice.com"
and so on. See how it works?
Another good thing about sub-domains is that they don't require registration.
You only pay to register the main domain name. By using sub-domain names, you
can easily embed your keywords and it won't cost you any more money. And the
search engines treat each sub-domain as a totally separate entity, so your search
engine ranking for one sub-domain won't be dependent upon you having a high
ranking for your main domain name.
Once you find your new domain name, you'll need to register it. Fireworks
can register your domain name for you.
Secrets of Having a Good Domain Name
How do you pick a good domain name? Does it even matter what your domain name
is? Will you choose a .com, .net, .org, .biz? Which one best suits you and your
business?
How do other businesses choose a good domain name? Why do some domain names
become so easily memorable while others just seem to not be there at all? What
makes a domain name memorable?
Why Does A Good Domain Name Matter?
It is vital to your website and business to have a good domain name. Having
a good domain name is just as important as your business name, logo, and possibly
even more important. First you have the choice of the actual domain name, such
as Yahoo, Google, or eBay, for example. Although these domain names do not seem
to match the websites or businesses in any way, they work because of brand name.
If you tell people to go look something up on Google they know to type in http://www.google.com
or to simply type Google into their favorite search engine. People know Google
is a great search engine. It has become a household name because of their choice
of the domain name, and successful advertising and promotional campaigns.
Your domain name needs to match your business well. You can choose a simple
name that immediately lets people know what the website will be about before
they even get there, such as Wikipedia. Since it sounds like encyclopaedia,
people assume it is just that before they even get to the website, and it is.
You also have the choice of creating or making up your own name. It could be
anything, and does not have to be a real word. However, as a general online
business rule, your domain name should be the same as your business name.
Sometimes it is best to search available domain names on a web hosting website
so you can see what is out there that is up for the taking. Think about whether
you want your website domain name to end with a .com, .net, and the other many
available endings.
Secrets Of A Catchy Domain Name
Your domain name has to be catchy. People need to be able to remember it, pronounce
it and write it with ease. The shorter your domain name, the better. People
will have a difficult time remembering longer domain names. Yahoo is easy to
remember. It has only five letters in it. It is like yelling Yahoo!. That’s
why people remember it so easily.
Catchy domain names are straight forward, to the point and short. Some are
humorous. Some remind people of something else. Some are controversial. Some
are just plain silly and make people laugh, but they remember it.
The more catchy your domain name is the more likely it is that you will have
more website visitors. Think carefully about what you want for your domain name
before you choose it.
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