One of the most important decisions when starting up a website is what to call it. In 2007 about 33 million domain names were registered (according to VeriSign) bringing the total number of domains registered to over 150 million. With so many domains already registered, how do you go about choosing a good domain?
- Easy to remember
Your domain name should be easy to remember. Choosing a domain name like cbooks.com is a lot harder for your customers to remember than cookingbooks.com.
- Relevance
Keep your domain name relevant. It is no good owning woodenchairs.com and selling computer hardware. Google does put some relevancy on the words that make up your domain name and consumers will find it confusing!
- Length
Ensure your domain name is as short as possible. The longer it is the harder it is to remember.
- TLD
Choose a relevant Top Level Domain (TLD), for example if you want to rank in the UK you should choose a .co.uk domain rather than .fr (although a geographic preference can be set in Google Webmaster Tools).
Remember your domain name forms only one small aspect of your overall SEO strategy.
Sam
SEO Programmer
