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In this article, we'll look at some tips when it comes to registering domain names.
First, you'll need to decide what you want your domain name or website address to be; and although this may sound like a pretty easy task, you'll want to take into consideration a few things first.
For Brick and Mortar Businesses. If you have a brick-and-mortar business; that is, a physical store where people purchase your goods or your services, you'll want to try and get a domain name that is as close to the name of your business as possible. For instance, if your business name is "Carl's Coffee" then an obvious choice would be to register a CarlsCoffee.com since by default, most of your customers will type in this website address to get to your site.
For Internet Only Businesses. If you only do business online and do not have a physical store, you'll then want to do a little bit of keyword research first. First, decide what your website will be about and then enter that term into Google's free keyword research tool which you can find by searching within Google for "Google Keyword Tool". After entering your main keyword into this tool, take a look at the terms that real people are searching on within the search engines. Make note of those terms that have at least 3,000 searches a month globally but that aren't so competitive that you'll have a difficult time being found online. These would be those terms that are one- or two-word phrases and that get hundreds of thousands if not millions of searches each month. Write down those phrases that seem to fit best with what your website contents will be.
When choosing your domain name, you may be tempted to go with a hyphenated domain name if the website address you want is not available. If at all possible, attempt to choose domain names that do not require hyphens. They're very difficult to remember and very difficult for users to type into a browser.
If the website address you want is not available, consider adding modifiers to the term you want to use. For example, if you wanted to register "CarlsCoffee.com" but someone else already had that registered, you could try "CarlsCoffeeOnline.com", "CarlsCoffeeHouston.com" (or whatever city it is that you're located in), "CarlsCoffeeStore.com" or even "CarlsCoffeeSite.com".
Which domain extension should you use? Should you use.com,.net,.org? Whenever you can, always choose the.com version of a website address. This is due to the fact that people in general typically type in.com after a website address; it's just something that we've all become accustomed to. After all, you don't want to inadvertently send your customers to a competitor.
All in all, finding the perfect domain name all depends upon the kind of business you're running. Online-only businesses need to focus more on the keywords within their domain names, and brick-and-mortar businesses; more on the name of the business.
This is not to say that brick-and-mortar businesses absolutely have to stick with just their business name. If the intention is to also get found online within the search engines and the website address is not strictly for their local customers, you can always choose the same route of picking out keywords instead.
It all comes down to where you expect your customers to be coming from.
About this Author
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Kristine Wirth is a full-time Internet Marketer who began her career creating websites in 1996.
She has helped thousands of people understand how to create websites, use social media tools, and get their head around difficult concepts such as affiliate marketing and SEO so that they can grow a successful online business.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kristine_Wirth
