Help Choosing a Great Domain Name
 
Choosing a domain name is the very first task for starting a new web site because without a domain name you can't get your website on the internet.  If you are going to have to choose one, it might as well be a great one?  Of course.

Great domain names are often as short as possible, represent your organization name or cause so that the name is somewhat intuitive to your viewers.  You should avoid words that have multiple spellings, like won.org versus one.org.  But getting a short domain name with only 4 or 5 letters can be difficult, most of the good ones are likely taken.

Use of hyphens sometimes helps, but makes the domain name less intuitive.  On the other hand, hyphenated words in domain names are more easily read for what they are by search engine spiders and robots, and that can be a big advantage if you choose the right domain naming strategy.

It is important to remember that regardless of your domain name, you can still have search engine rankings for almost anything.

Search Engine Rankings & Your Domain Name

The domain name you choose can have a little influence your search engine rankings, especially on Google.  Google's 2005 patent specification reveals a lot of information about possible ways Google might use your domain name to determine the ranking of your site.  The Google patent mentions specific types of information relating to how a document is hosted within a computer network that may influence the ranking of a web site. For example, Google tries to determine the legitimacy of a domain name.

According to Google, valuable domains are often paid for several years in advance while doorway or throwaway domain names are rarely used for more than a year. To determine the value of a domain, Google records the following information:

The length of the domain registration (one year or several years)
The address of the web site owner, the admin and the technical contact information
The stability of the host company where the web resides once you get it online
The number of pages in a web site (web sites must have more than one page)
Google also claims that they have a list of known bad contact information, name servers and IP addresses that helps them to find out whether a spammer is running a domain or if the registrant of the domain name is an alias rather than a real company or real person.

In addition, the patent specification claims that Google might check the information of a name server in several ways. For example, good name servers might have a mix of different domain names from different registrars.  Bad name servers might host mainly adult or doorway domains, bulk-domains from a single registrar or domains with many commercial words.

In other words, if your website lives in a bad neighborhood, Google will know it.  Thus, choosing a legitimate Hosting company with high standards for what kinds of webs they host is very important.

Great Domain Naming Strategy

Great domain names should be short, if possible
Great domain names should intuitive and memorable in some way, representative of your company or organization, your cause, service or product
Avoid using words with multiple spellings or pronunciations, like one versus won, or for versus fore versus four.
And, here is another strategy you don't hear much about.  Choose a great domain name that is also a great search phrase related to what you do, or that includes good search words related to what you do.

If you need more background on search phrases, learn about keyword services and search phrase research. Wordtracker, the internet's best search phrase research database, is a great place to find keywords that people are actually searching for.  The very best search phrases or keyword phrases, either term works for me, are those that are:

Related closely to what you do
Are memorable
Are searched for frequently
And, most importantly, have a relatively few number of competing web pages using the same phrase on competing search engines

Choosing a great domain name is, in part, a marketing exercise to develop a good strategy for your domain name.

Search engine algorithm research presently reveals that a keyword rich domain name does not add any value to your overall score for your rankings.

Great Domain Names for Sale

If you are considering purchasing an existing domain name from an auction site like eBay, before you do, go do this:

Go to whois.sc and check to see if the domain name is in the blacklist.  You do not want a domain name that is or has been in the blacklist.
 
Go to archive.org and search for the archived files of any webs previously online for the domain name.  If you see any previous association with things like pornography, hate, violence, etc. you do not want this domain.

Good luck with your auction and on the internet.  It is exciting to be online!