The right domain name can have the same impact as the right cover for a book. It should describe your website and be as interesting as possible. If however, you are too creative and come up with a really off the wall name (such as google or Yahoo), you will have to do a lot of branding for your website. The previous examples show you that it can be done, but you will have your work cut out for you.

If your domain name is not a keyword, the search engines and visitors will not be able to easily figure out what your website is going to be about without a bit of content. The best thing is to find one that has your keywords in it if possible. This can be quite hard to do, especially if your niche is very competitive. Finding a domain name that has your main keywords in it is great for both the search engines and your visitors. Search engines really seem to like keyword rich domains and they give them an initial boost in rankings. Your visitors will like it since it will be easier for them to remember your website.

The first thing you will want to do is some initial keyword research. You need to figure out what people are searching for. If you choose a keyword that nobody searches for, it won’t help you much with ranking. Google has a great keyword tool for keyword research. Just enter in your keyword and it will display all kinds of information such as how many searches per month and variations of the keywords.

Once you figure out your keywords, it's time to see if your ideal domain name is available. The domain companies have a search box set up for finding out if a domain name is available or not. Most of the time, if your domain name is already taken, you will be given a list of alternative names. You will also get a list of alternative extensions. The most common extension is .com. If the .com is taken, maybe you can get the .net or .org. I would personally stay away from .biz or .info. These types of extensions don’t seem to get the love of the search engines. The .com .net and .org are considered to be the best extensions and get treated as equals in the eyes of the search engines.

If you can get a domain name that doesn't sound too stupid and still has your keyword in it, you might want to just go with it. A lot of times the alternatives given to you will contain filler words along with the keywords. I had this same problem when picking out my domain name for my website. I wanted a domain that had to do with web hosting. This is a pretty competitive niche so I had to pick one that had a filler word. I chose qualityhostingnow.com. This is not my ideal domain name, but I figured it’s not too bad and I would have good content so I would make up for the less than desirable name.

While your choice of domain name might seem like the most important thing to your website, it isn’t. You could have the best name in the world, but without decent content, your website will most likely fail. Conversely, I’ve been to plenty of great websites with lousy names, and I keep coming back to them.

Need to learn more about domain names? Stop by qualityhostingnow.com for much more information and tips.
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