This is the first in the series for Building Your Business Online.

My analogy references building a house so keeping with that where do you want to put it? Do you want it to be on a main thoroughfare seen by everyone? You definitely want to make it as easy as possible for everyone to find it rather than being on a quiet side street with little or no traffic.

The domain name will be the unique location for your site. There are two options for choosing a name:

1. Keyword based – these are words that are related to your business. The advantage is that Search Engines will notice them when people search. This works well in niches that are smaller. In broad areas such as automotive, reality & computer it will be more difficult to find unique names. A good example is Digital Photography School

2. Branding – Choose a name that is related to the brand of your business. This is effective for big companies like Google, eBay, etc but it’s equally effective for small companies too. As you search for domain names you’re probably more apt to find available options that use your brand name. A typical example is www.DetroitLakesFord.com

Here is an overview from Network Solutions’ suggestions for choosing a domain name.

Make it memorable – Ultimately keep in mind that you want to find something that is easy for your customers to remember.
Pick the right extensions – What type of site is it? .com is usually used for businesses, but there are others if that’s taken
Check your spelling
Test different name combinations
Register your domain name ASAP
Register variations and multiple extensions
Don’t give up! there are options if your chosen name is registered

In some respects I think that choosing the domain name is the hardest part in this process. Once that is decided the next steps are much easier. The next post in this series will cover choosing a hosting package.