It’s easy to overlook the importance of choosing the right domain name for your new website, and these days it can be next to impossible to get the domain name you want without paying big bucks for it. Analyzing what you intend to do with your site and coming up with creative alternatives to the popular & already taken domain names is key to your sites future.   So what should you consider when getting ready to choose and purchase a domain name for your project?  There are two schools of thought on domain name selection, and it really depends on how you plan to market your site.

First you need to determine if you are going to “brand” your new site?  With branding you are giving your business, website, or project a name and promoting it with that name only.  When people think of search engines, Google or Yahoo is generally what comes to mind.  When you think of computer software, Microsoft is the first thing you think of.  These companies have branded their names to a specific niche or type of product.  Brand recognition is extremely important to these companies and they work hard and spend big to make sure they are the company you think of for their the products they sell.  You can do this too, if it’s the way you want to go.

How does this relate to picking a domain name?  If you decide to “brand” your site, the most important thing to remember is you want to pick a name that is memorable.  It can be a clever twist on an existing name or product, or even a two part name that rhymes is a great way for people to remember you.  The site JibJab is a perfect example of a domain name that’s creative, cute and clever, but automatically conjures images of your face on a cartoon body jumping around to song.  JibJab’s branding, while not as intimidating as Coke or Ford Motor Co. works extremely well.  Is this what you want to do with your site?

If you don’t intend to brand your website, then choosing a domain name which contains your main keywords is the other way to go.   Lots of SEO’s swear by having your domain look like this:

http://www.newbluewidgets.com/new-blue-widgets/new-blue-widgets.html

This is not necessarily the way to go.  Feel free to experiment with this idea, but I don’t necessarly think it will help your SERP’s much.

If your site sells new blue widgets, see if you can get www.newbluewidgets.com.  Chances are it’s probably taken, in which case you’ll need to find an alternate solution.  www.New-Blue-Widgets.com is another way to go, and the hyphens are actually recommended by Google as the bots have an easier time reading it in that format.  Hyphens are also preferred over underscores, by the bots, so keep that in mind.

You don’t necessarily need to have all of your keywords in the domain name.  You can always create a variation such as www.BuyBlueWidgets.com or www.BlueWidgetSpot.com and you’ll receive the SEO benefit of having the two keywords in the name.

Try to keep these ideas in mind the next time you’re choosing a domain name for your next site.  It will be much easier for people to remember who you are and what you do, and you’ll benefit in the SERPs as well.

Ok, so now that you know how to properly acquire the information you need from Google to successfully transfer your name out of their clutches, you’re on the road to being domain name independent.  Having the right web hosting service and domain registrar is one of the most important decisions you will make when getting ready to set up your websites.  Unless you’re fortunate to have your own servers available for hosting your sites, you’ll need a reliable host service and registrar.  I’ve been using Host Gator and GoDaddy.com for quite some time now and they are the only two services I recommend.

Sure I could have my hosting and domain names at the same place, but I like the sense of security by splitting them up.  That way if one of them goes down, I still most likely will be able to access the other.  At Host Gator, you get full C panel access to your hosting, and you host unlimited domains with unlimited bandwidth for around $15.00 a month.  GoDaddy had domain names from $1.99 a year to $9.99 a year.  Check both of them out and compare.

GoDaddy.com

Host Gator Website Hosting