How to Pick the Perfect Domain Name
by: Adrian Mullan
What makes the perfect domain name?
Well, it has to be:
1. Relatively short
2. Simple to remember
3. Easy to spell
I was speaking to a customer recently who had a business called ‘Otway Valley Trading Company’.
The domain name he wanted was:
www.otwayvalleytradingcompany.com
Can you spot some of the problems with this domain name?
Here’s a few:
1. It’s too long:
Having to type a long domain name into your browser is annoying and also increases the chances of your customers making a spelling mistake.
2. Too many keywords:
Having 4 keywords (Otway Valley Trading Company) makes it hard for customers to remember the name of the site.
Try to stick to one or two keywords in your domain name.
3. Easy to misspell:
The word ‘otway’ can be easily confused for ‘ottway’.
4. Makes the email address too long:
An email address for this domain name would look like this:
sales@otwayvalleytradingcompany.com
.. that’s a mouthful for anyone to remember.
Picking a Good Domain Name:
1) The shorter the better
Having a short and snappy domain name makes it easier for your customer to remember your website address, and easier to type into their Internet browser.
2) Go for something catchy
Keep in mind that your domain name doesn’t have to be boring. In fact, if you can come up with something catchy – it’s a great way to distinguish your business from the competition – just ask the people at Yahoo!.
3) Avoid using hyphens
We’ve found that hyphens in domain names tend to confuse people.
Sometimes you’ll see websites that have a hyphen separating keywords (e.g. ace-accounting.com). This is almost always because the preferred name (aceaccounting.com) has already been registered by someone else.
If the domain you want is already being used by someone else, then you’re better off coming up with an alternative name then using hyphens.
4) Avoid using numbers
If possible, try avoiding the use of numbers in your domain name, as this can also lead to confusion (e.g. was that 3phones.com or threephones.com ?).
But if you have to use a number, make sure you register both the written and numerical versions of your domain name (3phones.com and threephones.com).
5) Grab a thesaurus
If you’re struggling for inspiration or finding it difficult to come up with a name that hasn’t already been taken – grab a thesaurus (or visit Thesaurus.com)
Say you run an adventure tour company and you want to register excitingadventures.com – but somebody has already registered the domain name.
Lookup the word ‘exciting’ at Thesaurus.com and you can quickly find an alternative like ‘breathtaking, sensational or fascinating’.
And don’t be afraid to use a little imagination – companies like Google and Yahoo! have benefited a lot by having a unique web address.
About The Author
Adrian Mullan is the author of ‘The Internet Demystified’ and founder of WebDummy.com – a popular Internet marketing resource for small business owners.
China's Baidu Sues US Domain Registrar After Hack – Yahoo! News
Top Chinese search engine Baidu.com has sued its U.S. domain registrar over a hack that took down the Web site, alleging negligence by the U.S. company, Baidu said Wednesday.
Users had trouble accessing Baidu.com for several hours last week after the company's domain name server in the U.S. was tampered with. The Iranian Cyber Army, the same group that took down Twitter last month, also appeared to be behind the attack on Baidu.
Baidu's lawsuit, filed in a court in New York, seeks related damages and alleges “gross negligence” by Register.com led to the service disruption, Baidu said in a statement. Baidu only said Baidu.com was hit by the outage, and that mirror site Baidu.com.cn had not been affected. Domain service providers including Register.com provide the setup needed to take Internet users to the correct Web site when they type a domain name like Baidu.com.
No one at Register.com was available to comment.
Baidu's move comes just two days after Baidu said chief technology officer Yinan Li had left the company. Li was the second high-ranking executive to leave the company in a month, following the resignation of chief operating officer Peng Ye. Baidu said both resigned for personal reasons.
Baidu's business has been hit by recent difficulties switching advertisers to a new bid system.
The events add to uncertainty in the Chinese search market after Google, Baidu's biggest rival, last week said it might withdraw from the country over censorship and cyberattacks. Google's Chinese search engine remains accessible in the country, but authorities have said Google must follow local laws when asked about the U.S. company's plans to stop censoring search results.
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This post was written by admin on February 9, 2010
