Top 10 Domain Tips

I work with clients all the time who beat their heads against the wall trying to come up with that perfect domain name that will work for their project. Many make mistakes when registering their domain names because the are not aware of some of the issues you should consider before you plunk down your money and end up owning a domain name that either you can’t use or that won’t work.

Here are some quick tips to think of when searching and registering new domain names:

1. First and foremost, be sure to not use registered or trademarked words or phrases. Even misspelled versions will have you hearing from the other side’s legal staff. Simply not worth the trouble.
2. Stay away from easily misspelled words. If you must use a word that is misspelled quite often by the masses, then register the misspelled version as well and have it mapped to your site.
3. Sometimes your company name is not as catchy or as memorable as a name that can describe what you do in a unique way. If your company or name is does not carry any branding weight, look for something more creative. Use a neato service like called NameBoy to help you out during the brainstorming process.
4. Try to be as short as possible. The longer the domain name — the more room for typos. And, the longer your e-mail address.
5. Don’t invent words that do not have mass appeal unless they are memorable and easy to spell. The last thing you want to do is have site visitors guessing what your domain means.
6. If the dot com version of your desired name is not available — then find another domain name. No sense owning the dashed version if you do not own the non-dashed version. Folks will intuitively type the entire dot com — without the dash — and find a competitor.
7. Be opening to owning as many domain names that contain versions of your main domain, company name or product. In the future you can then use various domains for special promotions or for tracking purposes. Plus you then keep these domains out of the hands of your competitors.
8. Try to own the .com, .net., .org, .biz, .info of your desired domain. Keeps everything in one place and again, prevent competitors from owning version of your domain.
9. Register your domain for as long as you can afford. Search Engines are now looking at domain registration length as part of the criteria in ranking sites.
10. When registering, set all your domains to “auto-renew” so you don’t have to worry about losing your domains down the road if you miss the reminder e-mails.

Following these simple rules will help to avoid investing in domains that will not produce or are of no value to you in the long run.