How To Choose A Good Domain Name? by Zac H
So now you understand the
importance of your own domain name
, how can you ensure that you pick a good one? Consider these factors:
Good Extension
Dot com is still the best. If you are looking for a site only knowing its name
but not its extension, would you try xxx.tv first? Few people will do that. So
get a .com if at all possible.
The same applies to .com.sg.
By the way, I don't see much difference between .com and .com.sg for most
businesses unless yours has branches in many countries. Then you should, or
have to, use respective extensions for each of your offices.
But the difference in price of .com and .com.sg is significant. You can get a
.com for US$8-10 while a .com.sg will cost you around S$65.
Another reason to use .com.sg is that you can hardly find a good one or two
word .com nowadays.
If you can get a short, eye-catching, crispy .net, it could be as good as a
.com.
You can get .biz, .info, .us, .tv ...if you have a really good reason, say,
your site is all about information, then .info is perfectly ok.
Short
Short names are easier to remember and have less chance to be miss-typed. So
keep it short if possible.
One or two words are wonderful - if you can find it. Unless you are to create
something similar to Yahoo, your chances of getting a meaningful two word name
is next to impossible. But it all depends on your business. In your niche
market, you may still work it out.
Descriptive
A good name should describe exactly what the site is about so that surfers can
easily make a decision when they see your site name at search engines and
directories.
A descriptive name is also easier to market and be remembered as a brand name.
Of course, many companies have succeeded using a non-descriptive name like
Yahoo. But how did they make these names successful? Through huge marketing
campaigns designed to establish brand awareness. Surely it's better to have an
instantly-recognizable name than to spend millions to tell people what you do!
Keywords
A keyword-rich name is much easier to get higher positions at search engines.
It's possible for a name to get into top 10 without other optimizations for
search engine in a niche market.
Of course, keyword-rich also helps to be descriptive.
You may have noticed that our domain name
SingaporeWebHosting.com
is a .com, descriptive and keyword-rich. But it's a bit long because
"Singapore" is a long word ;-). And It's really hard to find any meaningful
two-word combination of web, hosting, services, and the such. So we decided
just make it keyword-rich and descriptive.
Where to register your domain name has nothing much to do with where you host
your site. So shop around for a good price. Just make sure you can easily
change DNS (Domain Name Server) record and point to your web host. Most domain
name registration providers allow you do it in a control panel.
Feel free to use this article in your publication or web site. It's pre-licensed
to you. The only requirement is to include this resource box at the end of the
article:
About the Author
Article by Zac Hewlett at Singapore Web
Hosting
Visit
http://www.SingaporeWebHosting.com for more web site design and
promotion articles, proven online marketing tips and techniques.
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