Not All Domain Names Are Created Equal

Choose the right domain name and your business is one step ahead of competition. Get it wrong and you will get left behind. It's as simple as that.

Domain names are fundamental to the ranking of your website in the search engines. And the search engines will account for 90% of the traffic that arrives at your site. You need traffic. Afterall a website without traffic is like a shop empty of any customers.

So give the choice of domain a lot of thought. It actually accounts for more than 20% of the factors a search engine considers when ranking your site. In other words get the domain right and you will rank higher and get more traffic...get it wrong and you will be making work for yourself trying harder to get the domain noticed in the search engine listings.

So where to start.

First and foremost, you need to know your target market. What is the nature of your business. Boil it down to one single word. Any business can be decribed in just one word. What is yours? Don't try to describe your business in 2 words or a phrase. Think again and get it down to one single word...it can be done.

Then find a domain that contains this single keyword. But why make one up when you can find one that may already has a search engine listing or at least some back links to it

You can find some really great ideas, and absolute bargains by registering an expired domain name. An expired domain is one which the previous registrant has neglected and for whatever reason has decined to re-register. Expired domains can be a real goldmine! A good resource for expired domains and one which I use myself is 'Deleted Domains' at: http://www.deleteddomains.com

You can search for domains which have expired within the last 24 hours, last week, or within the 30 or 60 days and which are available to register. The advantage of a deleted domain is that it may already have a search engine presence and if you are really lucky you may find one with a ton of back links to immediately kick-start your search engine marketing.

Search for a domain containing your keyword and as few other extra letters as possible. The shorter the domain the better. And keep away from hyphens and numbers. Regardless what you hear on the forums, hyphens and numbers do not help search engine ranking. In fact you want as few charaters as possible. The most important being your actual keyword itself and a .com ending.

So remember, all domain names are NOT created equal when it comes to search engine ranking.