Your Domain Name is Your Best Asset - Choose it Wisely

Do you want to know what your most important asset is as an online marketer? Your domain name. It doesn't matter whether you have a blog or a sales page for your product your domain name can make or break your site. Here's some tips to help you make the right choice.

1. Purpose

Your first question should be; what is the purpose of the website? Are you trying to establish your credibility in a certain niche? In that case you should undertake some keyword research to find out what search terms people use as a domain name using these terms would rank well. A domain containing keywords is quite likely to rank well in the search engines for those keywords.

Are you trying to promote a product? You should definitely consider creating domain name based on the product name. You should only do this if you own the rights to that product name.

2. Hyphens

If your chosen domain name has already been taken then you might want to consider using hyphens. The general rule of thumb is to not use more than two hyphens in a domain name and to avoid them altogether if you are going to use any form of offline promotion.

You can also try adding a prefix or a suffix to the keyword you wanted to use, such as blog or store.

3. Potential

You should also consider whether you are planning on creating a small niche site or whether you wish to build an authority site in your niche. Your choice of domain name should also be determined by how much growth you are expecting for your site over time.

For example plussizedbridesmaidsdresses.com might work well for a small niche site, but if you are planning to build a larger authority site then a domain like perfectwedding.com might have more leeway.

4. Top Level Domains

Unsure of the difference between a.com and a.net and a.co.uk? These top level domains (TLDs) allow users to distinguish between different types of websites. A.com is a commercial site and as the most popular and well recognised should be your first pick. Alternatively you might want to try a.info or a.net.

5. Price

It's possible to get virtually any domain name that you could possibly want as long as you are willing to pay for it. An unused domain name will generally cost between $7 and $12 depending on which company you are using to register it. If you really want a domain that someone else has already registered then you could contact them and ask if they'd be willing to sell it.