6 Important Considerations in Choosing a Good Domain Name

When setting up your website one of the most important aspects will be to choose a domain name.  It’s that domain name that will stick with you for the lifetime of your site.  You can change the template, change the purpose of the site, fire a designer, hire  a designer, but you just cannot change that domain name (unless you scrap it and do a redirect).  Finding an available domain name that you like and that is appropriate for the purpose of your site is complicated.   Here are a few things to think about when choosing a domain name:

1. Match the domain name to actual name of your site

One of the easiest and best alternatives is to get a domain name that matches the actual name of your site.  It’s a duh statement but so many people forget to match the site.  You will increase your branding as well as make it easy for visitors to remember the name of your site.  The worst thing that can happen is if people fall head over heels for your site but can not find it again simply because the domain name is not the same as the name of your site.  For example if you have a bakery site, don’t call it StubbornNelly.com.  No one will have a clue what your theme is.  Call it, TastyPastry.com, or even Anne Cookies around the corner.com.

2. Keep it short – and Keep it Simple Stupid (KISS)

Keeping the domain name short is a challenge if you are looking for a .com domain as all three and four letter words are already taken.  Yep, and all standard English words are gone too (designer.com, awesome.com).   Coming up with a name that is short will be easier to remember and pass along by word of mouth.   But remember, a domain name should however not be kept short just for the sake of keeping it short.  Do not use acronyms as a url if they look bad as an acronym.  Think of all those failed websites because people did not see different words as one word.  Like don’t come up Patterns, Octogons and Other Pics and give it POOP.com.  That’s a failed domain name.

Some great short named domains:

• IBM.com (why call it international business machines)
• digg.com (i dig you, you dig me)
• Match.com (find a matching partner)

3. Use keywords

Optimizing your domain name for search engines is a big help.  In using one or two of your single most important keywords you will have better chances of getting a higher rank on the search results, thus increasing traffic.  This will not be easy, as most “natural” names already are taken.  Combine an important keyword then with something secondary. These sites came up with great names:

• GraphicDesignBlog.com
• TutorialMagazine.com
• Dev-Tips.com

4. Describe your site

Your domain name is an excellent way of describing what your site is all about.  Say for example that you manage a site about fishing. Your domain name should in some way describe that fishing is exactly what your visitors will find on the site. Again, fishing is a major keyword of your site, so exploit it with a well picked domain name.

5. Avoid confusion

In general, domain names are not expensive.  Register domains with misspellings of your original domain if you want to make sure you catch most type in domain traffic.   Redirect those misspelled domains to the main website.  This is a great for sites that use hard to spell words or need to protect their brand identity. Examples:

• Google.com
• Googel.com
• Gogle.com

6. Consider alternative domain extensions

If it is impossible to find a good domain name with the prefix .com you might want to consider using an alternative domain extension. Many countries have opened up their country code top level domain for international registration.  This is perhaps your chance to create the perfect domain hack. Examples:

• Del.icio.us
• Ma.tt
• Designm.ag

Picking a domain name will take time, energy and some creativity from your side but its worth it in the end. The last tip is to checkout recently expired domain names at snapnames.com – many names will be awful or cost a fortune, but once in a while you will be able find a real gem at a reasonable fee.  Good luck on finding the domain of your dreams!

The World Wide Web turns 20; time for an overhaul?

The World Wide Web created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee is 20 years old today. Even though I’m not the most qualified person to say this, its seems like several eternities have passed when you take a look at all that’s been accomplished.

And yet at the same time, it also feels like things have only started falling in place—ubiquitous and high-speed connections, uncompromised content delivery on mobile devices, live streaming and other real-time services, data portability and APIs, and so on. Some feel that the Web can be better, but it has to be rebuilt from the ground up:

Instead of merely jury-rigging fixes into the existing Internet, Peterson and Rexford believe much can be learned about possible improvements by designing a new network from the ground up — one that parallels the existing Internet, on which researchers can run their most innovative experiments.

If we have to revamp the Web it’s better to do so now, or sooner rather than later.

Maybe the infrastructure itself doesn’t need the overhaul, but only certain features. Thomas Baekdal considers a new domain system. Internet Explorer is reportedly getting a brand new browser rendering engine, taking a cue from Google Chrome. And dare I include the Web 2.0 phenomenon, which to its credit wasn’t a complete fad: we got YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter from it, after all. All address different aspects of the Web, but each one’s a game-changer in its own right.

The key here is people are rethinking rather than building on top of things. But will it come full circle, only for people to realize too late that starting from scratch was a much better way? The endeavor feels so large and drastic that it’s too daunting to even consider.