Website Development – Tips for Choosing Your Domain Name

Website Development – Tips for Choosing Your Domain Name

Austin Web Design

When you are developing a website of your own, one of the things you’ll need to do is to come up with a domain name for the site. Basically a domain name is a name that represents the website and the domain that it takes up on the internet. This makes it possible for you to get around online, since every site has a specific domain name or address of its own. Of course, it’s not always easy to come up with a domain name, so here are some tips that can help you choose one for your new website.

Tip #1 – Ensure the Name Goes with the Site
First, it is definitely important that you go with a domain name that goes along with the site you will be putting up. Don’t make the mistake of choosing a name that has nothing to do with the site. For example, if you are selling car parts online, don’t make your domain name about something unrelated, such as flowers. Names that don’t go along with the topic of the site can be confusing to visitors and it will make the name difficult for them to remember.

Tip #2 – Keep it Short
It’s best to keep your domain name as short as possible for your website. It’s a lot easier to remember shorter web addresses than it is to remember long ones. You want people to be able to remember your site, so keep it short.

Tip #3 – Use Your Keywords
At this point, you should have keywords for your website. Make sure that you try to fit some keywords into your web address while keeping it short. When you can get a keyword or two into the domain name, people are more likely to remember it as well. It also can help you to get better search engine placement as well. So, instead of going with sarahssite.com, going with sarahsflowers.com for a flower site will be a much better option.

Tip #4 – Consider the Use of Hyphens
Sometimes you may find that the domain name that you really want is taken. In this case, you may want to consider using hyphens within the name. For example, if sarahsflowers.com is already taken, sarahs-flowers.com may be available to you. However, you definitely want to avoid having visitors accidentally forgetting the hyphen and ending up at a competitors website.

Tip #5 – Register for Multiple Extensions
Not only can you get .com extensions today when it comes to domain names, but you also can end up getting .org and .net extensions as well. When you sign up for a website, consider registering for those extensions as well. So, not only will you want sarahsflowers.com, but you’ll want sarahsflowers.net and sarahsflowers.org as well. The reasons that this is important is because it keeps someone else from trying to copy your domain name.

Thought Mechanics is an Austin, TX based web design company that can help you with SEO, Web Design, and Video Production.  Our team of skilled experts can guide you through the ever changing world of digital marketing.