The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their correct name.…Chinese proverb

How to choose a good domain name? Why should you worry and bother so much about the dying process? Is it really that important to “get it right”? Every day I hear business owners ponder this question. Time and time again the mantra is “I need a good domain name but all the good ones are taken!”

Choosing a domain name that captures your company’s brand, is optimized for local search, and is scalable for your growing and rapidly changing business needs can seem daunting. Does it have to be such a difficult process for such an important task? NO! In fact, it’s a lot easier than you think if you follow a few common sense tricks and traits and get a little creative in the process.

Basically, selecting a domain name requires using the following criteria:

It should be easy to write to avoid confusion.

Easy to pronounce/read

Free from .info or .biz TLDs that are hard to remember

· Does not use hyphens, underscores or periods between words and letters

Short so it’s easy to remember.

You have no words that end with a letter that is also the first letter of the next word (i.e. firsttimeecommerce.com)

It is easily markable

If you have friends who are really good at games like Scrabble or Boggle or are champion crossword solvers, it might be a useful exercise to ask them to help you with naming conventions for your site. Keep in mind that when you create your domain name for your website, you are creating the one thing that has the most long-term impact on your ultimate site traffic. Choose well! Whatever name you choose will reside not only on the web, but also on your business cards, letterheads, invoices, and any other PR material you decide to generate. It should be easy to give verbally over the phone and in conversation, so make sure it’s easy to spell and intelligible. Select a domain name that makes sense and is easy to remember.

In the days of strictly brick-and-mortar businesses, naming your business relied heavily on originality. He had to make sure his company’s name didn’t look anything like his competitor’s in order for his company to stand out. Today is not so different! Now you want to make sure that your domain name communicates who and what you are, is ‘dialable’, and also works as a strong email address. That way, you’re marketing even when you’re sending emails.

According to Ries and Trout in their books “Positioning: The Battle of Your Mind” and “The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing”, domain name selection is a form of positioning. It’s often the first point of contact consumers have with you and your marketing messages. It’s subliminally critical, according to Ries, to make a positive first contact with your target audience. Your name must convey specific information that is classified from the perspective of the consumer. For example, when people search for auto repair shops, do they search under the word “auto” or “automotive”? Looking for a “dentist” or “dentist”? Think like a consumer and how they will search for your business and how they will remember your name over and over again when selecting your domain name.

How do you make your name easily located, remembered, and differentiated from hundreds of thousands of others on the Internet? Differentiation is important, but the real goal is to attract the most potential customers to your site. By incorporating the right balance of keywords, location targeting, and branding, you can potentially dominate your market with just a little effort.

Keywords are the trigger words used by local search engines in combination with some other SEO tricks to give your site a “position” in web directory listings. Keywords are similar to categories in that they are the words and phrases used by consumers searching for information on the Internet. Geotargeting is a physical location associated with your business. Search engines know where you are, and through the consumer IP address you are using to search a directory on the Internet, the Internet knows where you are geographically. Many Google searches will generate a search result that has a map with local listings followed by “normal” search engine listings related to the search phrases used. All businesses displayed on the map list have geographic relevance to the search. All of these things tie into the naming conventions you employ when creating your domain name. For example, if you own The Pizza Palace in Seattle and sell gourmet pizzas, you should strongly consider selecting a domain name that incorporates keywords, geo-targeting, and branding elements: GourmetPizzaPalaceSeattle.com or Seattlegourmetpizzapalace.com

The name is somewhat alliterative (Pizza Palace) so it’s easy to remember, has a geographic target (Seattle) and keywords (Seattle, gourmet pizza, pizza). It is also not too long and easy to read. It is essential to try to strike a balance when trying to incorporate these three elements into the selection of a domain name. As long as it’s catchy and easy to remember and strikes that balance, you can’t help but have a winner on your hands. The right domain name is worth its weight in gold.

Now hurry up and buy your domain name before someone else does!