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Some More Tips on Choosing the Best Domain Name
Deciding on a domain name can be tricky. First you need to come up with something representative to your website and second, it needs to be available. If someone already has your domain name, you will either have to try to buy it from them or choose again. Therefore, we recommend that you come up with a few names before ever checking the availability. This way you have a few backups.
At this point, getting a .com name is still important if you want consumers to remember your website. Most people will have trouble enough remembering the name so you don't need to make it more complicated by changing the ending from .com to .net (or something else). So if branding is even a little part of your overall strategy, you'll want a .com ending. If you are building your website for your personal use then you may still consider .com as it is very unlikely your friends and family will remember anything else. The .com ending has been branded tremendously!
Another factor to consider when selecting a domain name is whether you want to go with the unique factor or the keyword factor. An example of what I consider the unique factor is Amazon.com. The name really doesn't correlate to what their selling. It's just a brand. Names like this tend to stick rather well. If you want to use the unique factor when selecting your domain name be sure to keep it easy to spell and under a few syllables (4 or less is good). Other examples of popular domain names with the unique factor include; youtube.com, yahoo.com, google.com, zillo.com, and ebay.com. Depending on what your plans are for your site,adding in the unique factor may or may not be important to you.
The other factor to consider is what I'll call the keyword factor. The keyword factor simply means figuring out what your site will be about and getting the keyword in the domain name. For example, realtor.com. People looking for the site might type the keyword realtor into the search engines. Having the word realtor in the domain name (in this example it's the whole name), is helpful for getting the site ranked high for that keyword. The site you are currently on, Top-5-Web-Hosting-Charts.com is another example of the keyword factor as we've used the words web hosting in our domain name.
Once you have a list of potential domain names, you will want to check their availability. GoDaddy is a great domain name registrar that will allow you to check the availability of domain names before you buy. If the domain name you wanted was already taken, GoDaddy will also present you with a list of alternatives that are available. From your list of available domain names, you should narrow it down to the final contender and get it registered right away. It is possible someone else will take it if you think for too long!
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