Sharing With You, My Internet Marketing Tips and Advice

Domain name registration is a necessary, easy and important first step in establishing an online presence, whether it is for a business purpose or otherwise. A well chosen domain name can help your website be a success in several ways, particularly when it comes to being found within search engines. It can also help with brand consistency if you can match it closely to your business name or service.

Registering your domain name is easy, but some important decisions are needed before you make the final choice.

Below are five factors that can influence your decision and determine just how successful your domain is in driving traffic to your website.

Domain extension:
The original and still the most popular domain extension is the .com. Most people having been very familiar with this extension for a long time. Many people associate the .com extension as the standard extension for a business and it is the tendency of many users to look for the .com version of a website, whether it exists or not, before checking for other extensions. The .com is also one of the most sought after extensions when it comes to premium domain / aftermarket sales, where owners privately sell domain on for inflated prices.

Thinking towards extensions has been changing in recent times, with less emphasis being placed on the extension and more on the words used before it i.e. ‘yourcompany’ .com, ‘mycompany’ .com because this is will have bigger impact on brand consistency and search rankings to a certain extent rather than the extension itself.

However, the correct extension is still important. Nowadays there are a significant number of other domain extensions to choose from including .co.uk, .net, .org, .biz, .me, .tv, .eu, .teland many more. Most domain extensions today are just as likely to be spidered by search engines as any other.

It’s also worth considering name protection, by registering your chosen name in multiple extensions. Some of the most popular extensions are .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .co.uk so, if you do want to protect your domain then it would be worth checking it is available in these extensions as well.

Keywords
Your chosen domain keyword(s) (the part before the extension) is an important aspect to consider when choosing your domain name. You should try where possible to embed a main keyword or phrase into the domain name. This keyword or phrase could be your company name, a service you offer, the name of a local group etc but should, where possible (and if available), be relevant to the focus of the website. For instance, if you sell red widgets, look at domain variations such as yourcompany.com, redwidgets.com, widgets.com and remember to try in different extensions.

Relevant and well thought keywords within your domain can have a significant impact on how your website will perform in search engines, not just for brand searches, but also for searches related to the service you are offering.

Hyphenated Domain Names
Should you get a hyphenated domain name? Hyphenated domain names are slightly more difficult to remember and to communicate correctly. There is a tendency to forget the hyphen or mention it in the wrong places when information is passed by word of mouth and hence it is wise, if possible, to avoid them. This is purely a communication issue so, if there is no choice but to choose the hyphenated version, just do so. Search Engines do not discriminate against hyphenated domains, you just need to make sure you communicate the domain correctly.

Short and Memorable
Choose a domain name that is memorable, short and easy to pronounce. A shorter domain name is always easier to remember than a long one. Word of mouth advertisement is considered to be one of the most popular forms of advertising in a business so a short and memorable domain is ideal for people to remember your website and pass the word around. Try to keep your domain name registration topically relevant, whether it be brand or service related. As search engines get smarter and smarter, sites that display total relevance will rank higher than catch all sites.

Trademarks and copyrights – Be sure to avoid other companies’ trademarks and copyrights when choosing your domain name. Legislation has been passed making "CyberSquating" illegal. Be ethical in your domain name registrations to avoid possible legal pitfalls.

Finally, treat your domain name as an asset. Keep your domain name passwords and all other details safe. The last thing you want is for somebody to steal your domain name and redirect it on the internet.

Rakesh Packer is a consultant for a domain names registration company in the UK.

Article Source: Five Things To Consider When Registering Domain Names

A premium domain name is one that is currently of value. For example, a very popular search for domain names will include any single word ‘.com’ domain name. The fewer the letters, the easier to remember, the better of a domain name it is. As a result it is worth more. What many domain sellers/resellers aim for is finding a high interest domain name they can purchase and resell or use. Another way of telling if a domain name is a premium domain name is if it has been advertised before. If the domain has traffic heading towards it, this will increase its worth because much less work has to be done to get the domain name out into the world. These sell almost instantly and for hundreds if not thousands of dollars in the domain network. The easier the domain name is to remember, the higher quality it is. For example, if I had a domain named ‘ibox.com’ it would be very pricey. The ‘I’ is a very popular thing in this day in age because of the ‘I-Pod’ and the fact that it is only 4 characters makes it insanely easy to remember. It also has a very small word in it, and is very easy to say. ‘I-Box’.

Another reason why domain buyers crave premium domain names is their marketability. Not only are they usually already out in the search engines, but they are very specific to what you will have on your website. This allows your website to rank higher in most places and even be found without doing a search. Marketers use this to their advantage when looking for places to advertise with. Also, people will crave to advertise with you because of your relevance to the topic they are looking to get an associated with. Your website will become very popular and in a very high demand almost entirely because of the domain name. A common mistake is people thinking that a domain that is ultra specific is better. Meaning a very long domain like ‘wearesellingstuffherecheap.com’. This is simply incorrect. Even though you are selling stuff on your website cheap, you do not want to name your domain exactly what you are doing. If you had the website ‘cheapstuff.com’ that would be very valuable because you know what they have in the website, and that they are probably selling it just my looking at the domain name. After all, everyone wants stuff for cheap.

Premium domain names are very important in order to get your website popular quickly, and can also be sold and resold for profit by those domain sellers that choose to do their business this way. Either way, they are well worth the investment.

If you would like to buy a Premier Domain Name and name your own price then visit the authors site here http://premier-domain.com

Article Source: Premium Domain Names – What Are They?

Biz is a domain name most commonly used by businesses. The name dotbiz came as a phonetic spelling for the first syllable of the word business. When the domain name dotcom was increasingly used by business groups and commercial centers, the demand for some of the domain names become very high. This made it difficult for some users to get a domain name according to their interests easily. To relieve this great demand, there introduced the biz domain name. This helped businesses with an alternative when their demanded domain name was used by other websites.

The use of biz domain name is somewhat liberal except that, they must be used only by businesses or for commercial purposes. There are no specific legal constraints of geographic restrictions governing the registration of users for biz domain name. The legal remedies existing in the trademark infringement are applicable for this domain name as well.

The creation of this domain name happened in 2001. This was under the control of Neulevel and was administered by them. There was no sunrise period for the domain name. In the initial stages, they did not get first chance registrations. They followed a different procedure and here; they can claim for intellectual property well in advance and later challenge an eventual registrant. This was done through a policy named stop.

Through this manner, various domains from other registrants were obtained successfully by the trademark owners. Dotbiz domain name was started to be used only by businesses. But, the lack of proper restrictions has created a situation wherein, the dotbiz is being used in an unrestricted fashion.

The biz domain name has much recognition as a widely used domain name in internet. But in several instances, it is found that only some of the reputable institutions use dotbiz for domain registration, where as a number of low reputed organizations make use of dotbiz to register their websites.

There occurred some instances when .biz was used as a domain name, this was found to be already in use in one or more than one domain name server roots. This created a situation wherein, the domain name could point to a different IP address, based on the DNS server where it was used. Neulevel has created a control where the DNS server has to be officially registered with them, before it being registered with WHOIS for a domain for their website. This was expected to decrease the confusions existing in the use of the domain name by several websites from different domain name server roots. However, dotbiz continues to be a leading domain name used by a large number of websites online.

Barry Fenning is the Marketing Manager of ICANN accredited domain registrar http://www.LCN.com, one of the top UK providers of domain names and web hosting. Please visit http://www.LCN.com to register a .biz domain

Article Source: An Industry Overview Of Biz Domain Names