HOW TO CHOOSE A DOMAIN NAME?

After you have decided to make a BLOG (or any type of Website) this question would surely come to your mind – How to choose a domain name? Now if you do a search on Google with this phrase – How to choose a domain name?, you will get some millions of results on the search pages, visit some of the sites and you will get a whole lot of discussions and explanations  on this topic – these are useful but at the same time will also confuse you and thus may also delay your decision of choosing a domain name. Here in this post I will try to make your task of choosing a domain name a bit easy by highlighting the main points you must consider before selecting a domain name in as short but clearly explained manner as possible.
STEPS TO A BETTER DOMAIN NAME
1.    MAKE A PICTURE IN MIND – You must have visited hundreds of sites before you decided to have one for yourself – so you must have seen domain names ranging from very short(four letter ones) to very long(sixty four letter ones), from the most sensible and meaning full to the most meaningless ones, etc – so you must be having a pretty good idea of what domain names can be – you must have also liked some domain names and wished if they could be yours – so you must be having some likes and dislikes in your mind – this will be your starting point.
2.    USING KEYWORDS OR YOUR NAME – You must have seen many websites having keywords relevant to their content in their domain name and also must have seen websites having the owner’s name in their domain names – both have some positive and some negative aspects. Keeping keywords relevant to your content helps visitors get an one glance understanding of what your site is about and it also helps in on-page optimization thus keeps you ahead in terms of Search Engine Optimization. Using your name in your domain name does not have the aforesaid aspects but does give better branding and uniqueness on the contrary. You may think of using a combination of both but it will only make your domain name too long and also has more disadvantages then advantages.
3.    CHOOSE .com domains – If available choose .com domains because it is more synonymous with the online world and people are more used to typing and seeing .com domains then others. Other options available are .net, .org, .edu, .info, .biz, country specific ones etc.
4.    MAKE IT EASY TO REMEMBER – In this online world every single visit and visitor counts so choosing a domain name that is easy to remember does have an added advantage. Easy to remember names are also important for branding and marketing through word-of-mouth.
5.    DO NOT USE SPECIAL CHARACTERS – Using special characters only will confuse with the domain name without it besides making your domain name harder to type and of course difficult to remember. Common sense, isn’t it?
6.    CHOOSE SHORT – Choosing short domain names obviously has the “easy to remember” advantage in addition it also fits better in your card and in other offline media.
Now go through the points I have mentioned once more. Finished! Those are the factors you would have to take care of when choosing a domain name but the other truth is that the domain name that you may have choosen may not be available – it may have been already registered by somebody else so while choosing a domain name side-by-side you would have to check for its availability.
Do a search for “Domain Name Registration” and go to any of the sites and there you can find all necessary instructions for checking the availability of a domain name –  normally you will find a search box in the home page of the domain registration site in which you would have to type in your desired domain name and press enter or the search tab – you will get to know if the typed in domain name is available or not and you will also be presented with many other alterations that may be available at that time – infact this process is just cakewalk. If you do not want to register a domain name now then too I would like to advice you to try the process once and you will know how easy it is.
SOME RESOURCES – There are many tools online that will help you in choosing domain names by helping you to do keyword research as well as helping you make different combinations. Here are some resources that will greatly help you in choosing a good domain name for your site.
1.    BUSTANAME.COM – This is a free tool available online which will not only check availability of a domain name but also help you in getting different combinations of the words that you have typed in thus helping you in getting a perfect domain name. They also have a special deal with Godaddy.com(most trusted and famous domain name registrar) and you can get a discount on the price if you register through them. You can also buy hosting through them at Godaddy.com.
2.    GOOGLE ADWORDS KEYWORDS TOOL – This is a free tool from Google which will give you different keywords combination ideas with the search volume for each combination on Google per month for your chosen keywords and its related alterations.
3.    GOODKEYWORDS – From this site you can download a collection of tools some for free and some with a cost that will help you in your keyword research and even further in your online journey.
4.    EXPIREDDOMAINS.COM – Expired domains (domains which were registered previously by somebody else but are no longer active so you can take them) are also great option to choose from because they may prove to be a readymade source of quiet a number of ready visitors made by the previous owner(through the links spread over the Internet). My domain is an example of an expired domain that I have registered for my site.
I hope this post will surely help you in choosing your domain name. If you think this post can be made more informative then please send your suggestions by leaving a comment. I am always eager to hear from you’ll because you’ll are the life of my blog.