As simple as it may sound, face it; picking the right domain name for a website is crucial for any business that’s on for a successful online mission. That’s because it represents your brand online. And most importantly, it`s the only way people are likely to find you or anything about your business over the internet. That being said, or before you even think of web hosting and designing the site’s template, here are 6 matters of crux to consider while choosing the most appropriate domain name for the site:

image source: entrepreneurweb.com

The domain name you choose is your brand online

Your domain name establishes the identity of your website. Apart from that, it reflects whatever you`re trying to promote online. For instance, if your website is about loaning services, your domain name must somehow reflect debts or loaning. In short, the name of your business and the domain name you choose thereof must be more or less the same.

The length of your domain name

Generally, domain names are limited to a maximum length of 67 characters. But that`s not to say you should choose anything close to 67 characters for a domain name. Neither does it imply that you should settle for an extremely short domain name. In actual facts, a long domain name can be considered SEO friendly because of the number of keywords it contains, but your online viewers may find it more confusing and very hard to remember. Short domain names, on the other hand, may be easy to remember but may not contain all the keywords to describe your business fully. That said, it`s advisable to stick with something that`s not ridiculously long and, at the same time, is also very easy to remember.

Using hyphen

Often times, when web masters fail to find the domain name they want, they simply resort into using hyphens. Well, to a certain extent, this may be to your advantage since search engines can easily distinguish between your keywords making it more SEO friendly. But if by any chance your viewers end up forgetting to type the hyphen while searching for your website, they’ll be directed straightway to your competitor`s website.

Trademark and registration

Before you actually decide to register any given domain name, it`s recommended that you first check if it`s already trademarked by someone else or another company. Otherwise, you may end up paying huge amounts of money for violation of trademark. Also important, ensure the registration is done as immediate as possible, since thousands of new sites and blogs are usually created on daily basis.

Domain name history

There are several domain names that are hitherto not taken but were once operational. The problem, however, is that some of these domain names might have had a bad reputation in the past, which may adversely affect your business. For example, if that domain name was once used for scamming, what would become of your business once you start? For this reason, the specialists from WMD advice to read through the history of a domain name first before registering it. This might save you a lot of trouble so take the time and do some research to be on the safe side.

Alexa site and page ranking

For marketing and advertising purposes, you may as well consider checking for Alexa and page rank of the domain name you`ve selected first before you think about web hosting or registering it. Actually, this is recommended if you’re having a number of domain names to choose from and you`re actually spoilt for choice.

Article contributed by Romeo Demes, a graduated graphic designer and passionate writer who has two years of experience as a techncian in the field of hosting and domain registration support.