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The "No-Dash" Rule In almost all of the cases, dashes (hyphens) and underscores will hurt your domain name in the efficiency department. This is because many times you won't be able to give your web address to people in written form, but all you'll get instead is the opportunity to say it. Let's take Mommy Mentors as an example. Mommy Mentors' domain name is mommymentors.com. If I were to tell someone about Mommy Mentors (in person, on the phone, in a radio ad), all I'd have to say is "Go to mommymentors.com." Conversely, if the Mommy Mentors domain name would contain a dash (i.e. mommy-mentors.com) I'd have to use "mommy dash mentors dot com," "mommy mentors dot com and don't forget the hyphen," or any number of other ungracious formulas. To say nothing of the fact that a lot of people will know about Mommy Mentors from an offline source and will intuitively type in their browsers "mommymentors.com." Some argue that a hyphenated name will allow search engines to distinguish actual words in your domain name and, provided that those words are some of your target keywords, you could get more traffic from search engines. But chances are that, for most domain names, it won't happen. Too many variables would need to fall into place: you'd need a domain name which will contain a good search engine keyword, that keyword should be not too popular (to avoid competing with unbeatable sites for search engine traffic) and not too obscure either (no one would then look for it), and other factors. Besides, the increase in traffic you'd be gaining from this trick would not be worth losing the traffic that a good, non-hyphenated domain name could bring you. Also, it's been shown in studies that when trying to guess domain names, average Web users will first go straight for the no-dash version of the domain name, even when it's made up from multiple words. Only Use Digits When Appropriate If the name of your company is 1 800 FLOWERS, for example, you will definitely want the digits in your domain name. It would look like 1800flowers.com. which is perfectly acceptable. But there are a lot of domain names out there whose use of digits only hurts them. Chances are no one will readily remember a domain name like cars33182.com. Make It a "Dot Com" Most people will remember your site's name without the TLD (that is the part after the dot). Their intuition will guide them to assume that .com is what they need to type after the name of your Web site, since it is the most popular TLD. To illustrate, they will know it's "mommymentors" that they will have to type followed by, most likely, .com. In this case they would be right. Rarely will it occur to the average Web user to try .net, .org, .us or others, when trying to reach your Web site by typing it in their browser. That is not to say that .org and .net are never good. They are, but in case you opt for one of them, it's ideal that you also get the .com version of your domain name and redirect it to your actual Web site in order to make sure you capture the visitors who will try to reach you at YourSite.com. If not possible, get the alternates (.net, .org, .us, .info, etc.), but only if you find a really good name whose .com version is already taken. The Shorter, The Better (Usually) A friend bought a long time ago the domain name www.buenosaires-best-lodgings.com. When I saw it for the first time, I got a little dizzy. Lucky he didn't stick a couple numbers and an underscore in there too. There are more chances that a typo will occur in that name than there are letters in it. That is a very dangerous name, as it will very likely cause its owner to miss a lot of business due to typos. In order for a domain name to be efficient it will either have to be logical and intuitive, like mommymentors.com, or else pretty short. Think Google, Yahoo, MySpace, YouTube, Wikipedia, MSN, AOL, Altavista... There's a reason why the most popular Web sites have short names. First, they're easy to remember. Second, the shorter the name, the fewer the chances that it will be misspelled by potential visitors. If your company name is too long, use its initials as your domain name. For instance, what could have been work-at-home-moms.org (what a disaster!) is WAHM.org. Short and sweet. That doesn't mean you should always throw away a perfectly good word, such as "mentors," and make it into "mtrs" or something similar. If you have a good couple of words that you want to use and that will be easy to remember, go right ahead. Just try to keep it to two words and only use more when they're fairly short (e.g. ilikecandy.com, dancewithme.com). If the combined total of characters in your prospective domain name is over 15 (www and the TLD excluded), it would probably be a good idea to look for alternatives. How to Register a Domain Name I recommend always using a reliable domain registrar. Companies that have been in business for quite a few years usually provide good, reliable service. The last thing you want is to lose your domain name, after working hard to make it popular, because of inadequacies in the way your registrar does business. To be safe, it's always good to hang out with the big kids on the Web.
Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com
Barbara Theodosiou is the founder of Mommy Mentors. Mommy Mentors goal is to encourage and assist every woman to share her inspirations, hopes and dreams with other women throughout the world. We know that by sharing our weaknesses we can build strength, and by sharing our strengths we can become stronger. This article is part of an ongoing series “Internet Tips for Women.” To learn more visit ww.mommymentors.com.
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