I have my favorite newspaper bookmarked. But when I'm in front of another person's computer, sometimes I type in the name and up pops ... a porn site. Darn, did it again! Forgot to type in "the" as part of the newspaper's name.

You certainly don't want your customers taking unplanned detours when trying to get to your website.

The Internet's answer to "location, location, location" is "domain name, domain name, domain name." So you need to choose a name that will lead customers to your site without confusion or delay. Here are some quick tips:

1. Describe your product in the domain name (e.g., "livelobsters.com") for those who don't know your company from a hole in the wall but know what product or service they're looking for.

2. Have a second domain name that uses your company name for customers who do know it.

3. Keep the spelling simple and obvious. One letter missed or mistyped can take a customer to a strange destination.

4. Stick with the .com extension, even if your top choices are already taken. Though you have a much better chance of getting your first-choice domain name if you go with a different extension, it'll be a guessing game for your customer when you don't finish it off with ". com."

NB: It's also good to get .net, .org and .biz extensions to prevent competitors trying to steal your business idea should you hit on a winning formula.

If you want to generate ideas for a unique domain name get domain name generator tool

David

Small Business Resource