Choosing a domain name: Your web site’s birth certificate
By Raffi Darrow
Oct. 2004
© R-Design, Inc.


After the birth of my second daughter I went home and cried. Was it post partum depression? Maybe. But really all I wailed about was, “Did we seriously give her THAT middle name?”

When you start out your web site, its domain name is just that – its NAME. Naming your site should NOT be a no-brainer. It deserves thought and decision. And here’s why.

1. Your site needs to be remembered to be found. Have you ever visited TomsLuxuryCondosInTampaBay.com? Probably not. If you met Tom, would you remember that was the name of his website? Probably not. A web domain name needs to be short and easy to be remembered. It is beneficial for the name of the site to describe what you do. I have created a site for a client called YogaWithHaris.com. Guess what, Haris teaches Yoga classes. If you know her, it’s easy to remember. Notice that she did not name her site Yoga-With-Haris.com. Not everyone would remember to hyphenate her site, and she would lose students that way. Some people make the mistake of using abbreviations in their domain name. Searchers may know that RX stands for pharmacy, but won’t expect that to be in the domain name for Smitt’s Pharmacy. Another part of the “remembering your site” process is trying to find the .com that suits you. Web searchers tend to automatically type in .com. If you go with .net or .biz, or some other extension, your site won’t be remembered as well.

2. You should cover your bases. Remember YogaWithHaris.com? She has one of those names that everyone spells wrong, so she purchased YogaWithHarris.com. That way, when people spell her name wrong they will be redirected to her site. If you are lucky enough that the .com you want for your site is available, you might want to consider purchasing the .net and .biz of the same name as well. That way if the .net is bought by someone else, searchers looking for your site won’t accidentally go to the wrong site. It’s relatively inexpensive and good web site marketing. Originally, .com was for commercial sites, .net was for a network related site, .org was for non-profit organizations and .gov was for government-related sites. Those cateogires are no longer regulated. At the time of this writing, .edu still is.

3. More expensive domain names are not better. When you have a web site you probably pay annually for a few things. One is for the domain name. That charge is for you to keep the name of your web site so no one else can use it. It is a separate charge, normally, from your web hosting. Hosting is the charge to keep your web site “live” on the internet for people to view. Domain name registration should not break the bank. You should pay annually, or once every few years. If you are paying $60/mo just for your domain name, sorry buddy, something’s wrong. Average charges are $10-$30 per year.

4. Your domain name can be purchased by others. Please remember to pay your bill on time when renewing your domain name. Some other business out there may want the same domain name, or a business may want to keep you from having your domain name. They can go on a backwait list, and be notified when your domain name becomes available and snatch it up before you know it. Similarly, if the domain name you want is taken, you can go on a wait list to purchase it.

5. Keywords help with search engine optimization. When search engines are ranking web sites, what they are really trying to do is make the most relevant sites available first to its corresponding keywords. You wouldn’t want to type “cars for sale” as your keyword when you search and end up at a Barbie doll collector’s web site. The search engines know this, and they look at all parts of a web site for relevancy. This may include the domain name. For example, Sea Sense, the Women’s sailing and powerboating school has the domain name www.SeaSenseBoating.com. The domain name includes their company name and their most prominent keyword. It’s easy to remember and describes what the company is about.

In short, your company should have an easy domain name, one that is descriptive of your business, a .com if available, and the domain name should be renewed on time. You can check to see if the domain name you want is available at www.godaddy.com.