There are so many ideas, philosophies and strategies behind naming your website, that I don’t think their really is a right or wrong way to do this.
Some people teach that having a keyword specific domain name will produce a top ranking position in the search engines, and I can personally testify that this method does work…
but then again, some of the most popular websites on the Internet today, are not being hosted with a keyword specific Domain name.
So the jury really is out.
From my experience, and from what I have seen on the Internet, if you want to build a site for the long term you could pretty much name it whatever you liked,
But I do suggest that the name of your site contains at least one keyword relating to the overall topic of your website.
On the other hand, If you want to test a market and get the number one spot in Google quickly, then I suggest you do your keyword research homework.
One of the most common naming strategies that most small business owners, who are new to internet marketing implement is, they take the name of their business and use that for the name of their website.
Take my tile edging website for example, I could of given it a keyword specific URL or I could of named it after my business. Which is what I ended up doing.
Stile Edge Tile Edging became www.stileedge.com
I guess my thinking at the time was to create some additional branding for my business.
One point that I would like to make is, I always recommend buying a dot com domain name.
It seems to me, that from reading and listening to what the majority of people in the online community are saying, and by doing some simple testing myself, that In the eyes of most search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN etc…) a dot com website address has more authority.
Try doing a simple exercise and type into google some random search phrases and see what are the top five domain name extensions for your search query.
I would have a guess, that most of them end with a dot com.
I have never used a ‘.net’; ‘.info’; or ‘.org’ for any website that I have created, as these have very little commercial value and from most reports the .info domain extensions are very popular with spamers.
The reason being is that the .info domain names are very cheap to buy and are therefore easily discarded.
So I suggest you just stick with buying a dot com domain name.
But enough said on dot coms… how do you come up with a name for your site?
When deciding on a domain name try and think of the different aspects of your business that will tell your customers something about you and how you can help solve their problems.
Be creative and informative when naming your site, For example…
Lets say the local carpet cleaner cleans his carpets by using a steam cleaner he could consider naming his site www.steamcleanedcarpets.com
Or some other suggestions you could try that will instill confidence with your customers, could be having your guarantee in your domain name something like www.stainfreeoritsfree.com” (after all, you want your clients to feel at ease because they decided to choose you over your competitor don’t you?)
Some other ideas you could consider trying are coming up with something a little catchy, or you could specifically try targeting your local area in your domain name,
You could also use your domain name to promote a high level of quality that you provide for your clients,
and finally… and this is the trick to tapping into a ready made flow of online customers,
Do some keyword research, however, this is a whole new ball game all together and I would not give it justice to try and explain keyword research here.
This can be a more advanced method of naming your website and a quick and easy tool to use is the google keyword tool.
Final thoughts…
It is important to remember you are entering into a Global marketplace when you put your business on the Internet, so don’t let your current business circumstances dictate what your web sites potential could be.
Even if your current business is purely an off-line service that you provide to your local community. What you may discover, (as you become more familiar with building your website,) is you begin to think of new ideas for products and services that can be promoted and sold internationally through your site.
There are many, money making opportunities you can exploit from your website. but choosing the right domain name and deciding on how you are going to be naming your site is something that you will have to live with for the life of your website.
Choose carefully and consider the long term potential when naming your website.
