Choosing The Right Domain Name For Your Blog Or Business

February 21, 2010 by
Filed under: General 

When I first started out in internet marketing, I didn’t know the first thing about “domain names”.  All I knew is that I wanted “chrishoyt.com”!  (Which thankfully was available).

In the years that followed, I learned so much more about domain names and why it’s important to pick the “right” one.

I’ve bought many a domain name over the last few years.  Some of those have been pretty good and some were not so good.  I’m at the point now where I put a lot more research into my names before I make a purchase.  When I’m researching a domain name for a niche, I want one that as soon as it’s indexed, will rank pretty high in Google for at least one or two decent keyword phrases.  Now I’m positioned to move to the top of the heap with the least amount of effort.

What does it mean to get a “good” domain name?  “Who cares” you ask?  There are various reasons for picking the right domain, but one of the most important in my opinion, is the free web traffic that you can pick up if you’ve done your research.

I created a guide that I’d like to give away to my visitors.  Please visit this page, provide your name and email address and click the submit button.  The guide is nothing fancy, but hopefully it will help people who may not already have a domain name.  And if you do have a name, you can always pick up a 2nd, 3rd or more for future websites.

If you download this little document and have questions, please don’t hesitate to use the contact button.  I tend to write something like this and I’m blind to the obvious things I might have forgotten to include.  (I really need a proofreader!)

I do plan to follow this up with several more documents that will take you through the steps of getting a domain name, making sure it’s available, registering it and then actually setting your website up with a web host.  Who knows where it will go from there.  So…even if you have a domain name, go ahead and download this guide anyway so I can include you on my list for future documents I put out.  I hope to do these over the next few weeks.  If you’re just getting into business…these might be really beneficial for you.

Let me know if there are questions and I’ll be happy to try and help you.

Wishing you much success!!!

Chris

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Comments

61 Comments on Choosing The Right Domain Name For Your Blog Or Business

  1. courtixhosting on Sun, 21st Feb 2010 10:12 pm

    2. This is a nice post. Thanks for sharing with us. Visit affordable hosting to get more information about web solutions.

  2. pens parker on Mon, 22nd Feb 2010 4:36 pm

    3. Quite agree i never really considered the domain name was that important till about 2 years ago… now it the first thing i consider when developing a site a domain with the correct domain effectively reduces by about two thirds the number of links required

  3. Music Teaching on Wed, 24th Feb 2010 7:55 pm

    4. I agree that choosing the right domain for your business can be critical, something easy to remember, write down and tell people is very important.

  4. RROD on Thu, 25th Feb 2010 5:24 am

    5. I’ve noted, during the last year, that having a domain with the exact words, it is not enough to rank for these keywords in google. I believe it has to do with the domain’s history, and if it is a new domain, sometimes it needs many months, before ranking.
    What is your experience with this?

  5. DataPeople on Fri, 26th Feb 2010 11:35 pm

    6. Thanks for your nice post. Its very important.

  6. Leslie on Sun, 28th Feb 2010 4:04 pm

    7. Thank you for your post and the document on choosing a domain name. I really found value in narrowing down exactly what the people are searching for. I’ve always wanted to go deeper than just keywords and find out what’s going on in the mind of the searcher. Your information has given me a new tool for developing my new domain names.

    Leslie

  7. computing virtualization on Wed, 3rd Mar 2010 2:53 am

    8. I am totally agree with this post you have to Choose the right Domain Name For Your Blog Or Business, because if your domain name is matching with your theme then it helps to generate a lot of traffic on your site.This is really an informative post.Thanks for sharing this post with us.

  8. VM Ware on Thu, 11th Mar 2010 10:58 am

    9. Great post. Most people don’t put a lot of thought into choosing a domain. They’ll check to see if their first thought is available and if it is…then that’s their new domain. But, like you said, it all depends on what you’re planning on using the site for and whether or not the extra traffic is what you’re looking for.

  9. Arnel@hyip on Mon, 15th Mar 2010 2:47 am

    10. Great post. Thank you for this information

  10. Usemeplz on Wed, 17th Mar 2010 12:07 pm

    11. Well, that’s a really interesting and useful article. Though it is obvious that your success depends on domain name you chose most people don’t think about it. The problem is that sometimes really good names are already taken.

  11. SMS on Thu, 25th Mar 2010 3:43 am

    12. hi, really great items.

  12. Cliff Maxwell on Tue, 6th Apr 2010 11:31 am

    13. I don’t think that one size fits all. If you plan to promote through search engines, the keywords in your domain might help. If you plan to promote over radio, the name must be both easy to spell and easy to remember. And most people will type .com even if they hear .info or .biz , so that is also important.

  13. Brooklyn Apartments for sale on Sat, 10th Apr 2010 5:47 am

    14. It is very important to have the right domain name for your business. It should reflect your business and your name. People hearing it over any advertising means should be able to relate to it.

  14. modern rugs on Sun, 11th Apr 2010 11:35 pm

    15. It is not enough to rank for these keywords in Google. I believe it has to do with the domain’s history, and if it is a new domain, sometimes it needs many months, before ranking.thanks..

  15. Doug Slater on Tue, 13th Apr 2010 9:55 am

    16. It’s so hard to find good keyword rich domain names available now. Either they’re already being used or someone has bought them with the intent to sell at a higher price. That’s why it’s a good idea to come up with a brand name and then tie that with a keyword to create a good domain name.

  16. cee jay on Fri, 23rd Apr 2010 12:16 am

    17. Good thing I found this blog post because I’m into this niche research and buying domains thing and I find it very hard to find a very lucrative but easy to rank for domains. I’ll definitely read your guide! Thanks.

  17. serenity @ online casino on Sat, 24th Apr 2010 3:06 pm

    18. Thank you for sharing us this ebook. I found out that for a business website, it is an advantage to put your keyword in your domain name as it will be rank faster and higher. Then this will bring you more traffic and profit.

  18. Lisa @CyberKnife on Sat, 1st May 2010 5:37 pm

    19. I always do my keyword research first and then choose the domain name. If the keyword appears in the domain you have a much better chance of ranking in the search engines.

  19. Website Monitoring on Mon, 24th May 2010 3:46 am

    20. Very nice post. I totally agree with you, domain name is really very important.

  20. Seran on Mon, 24th May 2010 5:34 am

    21. i like short domain names)
    article is very nice) thanks for such informashion))

  21. Michael on Tue, 25th May 2010 10:51 am

    22. This is something that has to be planned out before and not after. Many times I have started a blog or registered a domain name and later realized it was not ideal or it was not SEO friendly.

    good tips.

  22. free website monitoring service on Wed, 26th May 2010 10:46 pm

    23. 100% agree with you; You shed a light on very important topic over here. Appropeate Domain name is really very important. Thanks for great share.

  23. Dona on Thu, 27th May 2010 6:55 am

    24. That’s really nice. We have all issues especially about domain names..so hard to decide. Thanks for sharing.

  24. xander on Thu, 27th May 2010 9:43 am

    25. nice post. I agree that domain name is really very important

  25. Geoff Dodd Software Club on Sat, 29th May 2010 4:34 am

    26. Thanks for the tips about domain choosing. I have some domains from 1998 and 2000. They are long and packed with related keywords, separated by hyphens – and they’ve always done well, especially now that they’re aged domains as well. Google marks those keywords as bold in the search engine results pages which rather proves something …

  26. Dachdecker on Tue, 1st Jun 2010 8:16 am

    27. This is a great post und very good information for me. thanks to the Writer

  27. Mower Jack on Tue, 1st Jun 2010 8:18 am

    28. I usually try to find the exact matches for what I consider to be the most searched terms. Sometimes, I can’t find anything related, some niches are really tough and crowded.

  28. Bounceland Castle Bounce House on Wed, 2nd Jun 2010 1:33 pm

    29. As for me, I usually just start by looking for a keyword with high demand that fits my niche. Then when it so happens that the domain is already taken, I then start adding stop words.

    I also prefer .com, .net and .org.

  29. Michael on Thu, 3rd Jun 2010 8:59 am

    30. I used to always pick the name of my blog or website first and then wish I could change it later. It is very important to plan it all out first so you don’t wish to change it later.

  30. Yulia on Thu, 3rd Jun 2010 9:42 am

    31. Choosing the right domain name is really important because once you buy a domain name and setup a website, it’s much much harder to change things…

  31. charleston custom home builders on Wed, 9th Jun 2010 12:09 pm

    32. Domain name Is very important.

  32. free web traffic on Fri, 11th Jun 2010 12:53 am

    33. Just like everything else, plan before taking action

  33. Web Development Irvine on Mon, 14th Jun 2010 11:12 pm

    34. I think picking a domain should be based on your business’ name, basically, and what your business caters. For example, if your business’ name is “Halbert Clothing”, your domain should be named “www.halbertclothing.com”. To say in simple terms, you’re just like naming a business too but with uniqueness.

  34. Outsourcing Providers Philippines on Tue, 15th Jun 2010 12:51 am

    35. Thanks for the article! It makes so much sense but I never though about it like that. This is maybe true sometimes but I think as long as the domain name is “easy to remember” and has a strong anchor to the site category then a lot of these problems go away.

    For example, if you can choose a domain name that is a generic keyword domain name then that site is anchored in the person’s mind as being an authority for that particular niche.

    This will make it much more easy to remember when the viewer wants to go to the site later. (i.e. “what was that domain name of that Seattle mortgage broker that he was telling me to go to – oh yea, duh, SeattleMortgage.com”).

  35. Matt on Fri, 18th Jun 2010 10:55 pm

    36. I’ve also found out how important domain names are.

    One thing that I think is useful is to try and make the title of your site the same or very similar to the domain name. Then it’s a lot easier to remember. (That definitely helps for word of mouth traffic, which can be very good quality.)

  36. "The Team" on Sun, 27th Jun 2010 12:39 am

    37. nice blog…great info…thanks it was helpfull…

  37. Royal Bengal Web on Mon, 28th Jun 2010 5:05 pm

    38. I can say, its great valuable resource. Its (Domain Name) important also for SEO, SMO and branding.

  38. Clinical Research on Wed, 30th Jun 2010 3:24 am

    39. I believe that if you have keywords in your domain you don’t need to work much on SEO for that particular keyword for sure.

    There are many web owners who have acted shrewd and they are using some numbers like 123 and then using the keyword and then the appropriate tld’s..

    And not to forget, your posting has even helped me to gain some points and will help me in future..

    Anyhow, i have bookmarked your site over delicious and would love to revisit it again as you have many interesting articles!

  39. Top Engineering College in Jaipur on Thu, 1st Jul 2010 4:01 am

    40. Domain names are initial part of starting an online business or blog. Just before that it is always recommended to do some keyword research. This will help you find a domain which have that keyword in your domain!

    Even if you don’t want to use keyword in it you can use your company name in it and then try to build reputation power for it!

    It adds great value to your optimization.

    Not to say, but i would be downloading the document that have prepared for all of us webmasters.

  40. Charley @ Online Dating on Sat, 3rd Jul 2010 1:17 am

    41. Thanks for the excellent post.Now a days there are lots of business is running through sites, so domain names are very important for the online business. I think if we have a good domain name which is explaining our business clearly then our online activities will surely success.

  41. InfoZooms on Wed, 7th Jul 2010 8:06 pm

    42. Good points. If you have a nice domain you should also remember to register any possible extensions like .gov, .info, .biz, etc. to surround it well from others.

  42. Best Registry Cleaners on Fri, 9th Jul 2010 5:50 am

    43. Choosing the right domain name for your business website is the first thing and the first step towards having your website hit a success. Always choose your website in a way that it contains the keywords from your business.

  43. Spanish Lessons on Fri, 9th Jul 2010 2:23 pm

    44. Of course it’s very important. Chosing the right domain name will define the right path of your success. You need to identify which will be your main keyword and you long tail keywords.

  44. Via Empresas on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 8:31 am

    45. I totally agree. And I believe that the domains name is step one in web building…
    Thanks for sharing!

  45. ella on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 3:35 pm

    46. Thanks for this guide, I had wondered what weight the search engines gave to the domain name compared with keywords and so on.

  46. tracy on Tue, 20th Jul 2010 12:08 pm

    47. great how to guide

  47. infotech 9 on Wed, 21st Jul 2010 12:58 am

    48. Choosing The Right Domain Name For Your Blog Or Business
    February 21, 2010 by Chris
    Filed under: General

    When I first started out in internet marketing, I didn’t know the first thing about “domain names”. All I knew is that I wanted “chrishoyt.com”! (Which thankfully was available).

    In the years that followed, I learned so much more about domain names and why it’s important to pick the “right” one.

    I’ve bought many a domain name over the last few years. Some of those have been pretty good and some were not so good. I’m at the point now where I put a lot more research into my names before I make a purchase. When I’m researching a domain name for a niche, I want one that as soon as it’s indexed, will rank pretty high in Google for at least one or two decent keyword phrases. Now I’m positioned to move to the top of the heap with the least amount of effort.

    What does it mean to get a “good” domain name? “Who cares” you ask? There are various reasons for picking the right domain, but one of the most important in my opinion, is the free web traffic that you can pick up if you’ve done your research.

    I created a guide that I’d like to give away to my visitors. Please visit this page, provide your name and email address and click the submit button. The guide is nothing fancy, but hopefully it will help people who may not already have a domain name. And if you do have a name, you can always pick up a 2nd, 3rd or more for future website
    _____________________
    Link Building

  48. gallery67.com on Wed, 21st Jul 2010 3:59 am

    49. This blog gives the knowledge of marketing by choosing good domain for business.

  49. Borla Muffler on Mon, 26th Jul 2010 2:30 am

    50. Having the right domain name does make things easier but I do feel its ultimately the service you are offering that counts in the larger picture… Not to say that one must totally be careless regarding the choice of domain name :) I would agree with the domain name being as close to your “target” – single most important keyword or the title of your site…

  50. Burak on Mon, 26th Jul 2010 9:19 am

    51. it works, nice.thanx for it

  51. ??????? ????? 2010 on Sat, 7th Aug 2010 6:20 am

    52. nice tutorial

  52. celine on Mon, 9th Aug 2010 1:47 am

    53. thank you Chris…I guess i just have to try my own domain name… But I really thank your offer….you are really a good person who shares his idea to his fellows…

  53. emrem on Mon, 9th Aug 2010 9:28 am

    54. thanks for your wrint its very useful

  54. evgen on Fri, 13th Aug 2010 12:06 am

    55. This is a nice post. Thanks for sharing with us.

  55. Ilya on Wed, 18th Aug 2010 9:30 am

    56. Today in my country is rather hard to by a good domain name (i’m russian), the most of “nice” names are already bought.

  56. villas italy on Thu, 19th Aug 2010 8:58 am

    57. it is so vital to ones business, if the right domain is chosen makes a major difference.

  57. xjmaster on Mon, 23rd Aug 2010 3:26 am

    58. thanks for sharing…

  58. Jackson@Surveys For Income on Tue, 24th Aug 2010 12:21 pm

    59. This is definitely key to gaining popularity in your niche. I have bought tons of domains and some I thought would do well, didn’t and vice versa. I’ve put a lot more research into it lately.

  59. Mike on Wed, 25th Aug 2010 8:06 pm

    60. A good domain name will attract logs of users. Just trying to put it all together can be tough.

  60. C faqs on Thu, 26th Aug 2010 1:21 am

    61. Thanks for sharing this info.I am totally agree with you .
    keep it up……………

  61. Clickprefect on Tue, 31st Aug 2010 5:41 am

    62. Thanks for this post ! and I agree with you because right domain name is very important for your users and your web traffic.

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