How to Start a Small Business Online: Choosing the Right Domain to Be Successful Online

Do you know that one of the hardest decisions you’re ever going to make when you set up a business online is creating your domain name? It’s true. You can’t mess up with that one. Most definitely, it’s the domain you’ll use all throughout the life of your business. Most of all, it has such a huge role in the success of your venture since it acts as your address right on cyberspace.

So how do you come up with your domain name?

Integrate keywords. Unless you’ve already set up a very successful and popular brick-and-mortar business such as Nike or IKEA, you have to depend on keywords so your website can be found. You really don’t have to use your targeted keywords as your domain, but you have to find a way to use them. For example, if you’re planning to sell second-hand laptops, it’s better to use http://www.usedlaptops.com than http://laptops.com.

Make it short. In the real world, you don’t want to deal with very long addresses. They are just too hard to remember. It’s the same thing online. Extremely long domains are often ignored, unless they have already been bookmarked by Internet visitors. Make it short—and easy to spell.

Use dot com. You pick dot com as an extension not because it’s the ongoing trend, but because it’s essential. Almost all of those who go online believe that websites should end in dot com. Besides, this is the most ideal extension for those who are putting up e-commerce websites.

Get rid of the hyphen. As much as possible don’t use hyphens. It’s one of the most forgettable parts of a domain name.

Come up with several domain names. So you don’t get stuck in the registration process—or feel frustrated because your preferred domain is already used—create at least 5 to 10 domain names. Play around with keywords or even their sounds. Doing this too is good, since you can determine which among them would likely suit your website the most.

Other Tricks of the Trade

• If you’ve already found the domain to use, register it immediately before others do.
• Try to register a lot of domain names. This way, your competitors wouldn’t have the chance to steal them and use them to redirect your visitors to their website.

Avoid domains that sound like those of huge companies. You may simply find yourself in legal trouble.