When deciding on the URL (domain name) it’s important to consider a few options (keep in mind that I’ll purchase the domain for you when you pay the first installment of the $300 pack). First off, what is the purpose of building a website for your small company or hobby? The purpose, hopefully, is to assist potential customers or readers in finding your website. Having a beautiful website and a clever domain name won’t mean much if people cannot find it. If you’re a start-up business, and you’re not using a nationally recognized business name, then picking a domain name that’s the name of your business may be a horrible idea. Let me explain…
My wife needed a website to promote her new photography business. Her first desire was to try and obtain “ktmphotography.com” because that was the name of her business… ktm photography. I had to spend some time explaining to her why choosing that domain name was a bad idea. Google Search Engine ranks websites according to what googlebot thinks the website is about. And since we live in Hattiesburg, Mississippi… google search engine would have no way of knowing that ktm photography has anything to do with Hattiesburg.
As I explained to my wife, what is a person in Hattiesburg going to type into google search engine if they need a local photographer? Are they going to type in “ktm photography”… or are they much more likely to type in “hattiesburg photographer”? Obviously the answer is “hattiesburg photographer”. Therefore I convinced my wife to purchase the domain “myhattiesburgphotographer.com”. One of those pesky domain name squatters was sitting on hattiesburgphotographer.com so I didn’t bother contacting them to see how much they would sell the domain for. The one I selected will work just as well for our purposes.
You have to ask yourself. Am I a well established business? Or am I a start-up that few people have heard of and I need to use the internet to lure in potential customers? The answer to those two questions will have much to do with how we select the domain name.
Unfortunately, sometimes those harmless-looking, perfectly-named domains may have a checkered past. Before picking up a domain name that may be banned or blocked due to previously delivering malware, trojans, or porn, you need to do a background check.
There is a free Domain Background Check cheat sheet at http://siteriver.com/domaintest.php - just enter the domain name you are researching and over a dozen links are created to domain check, anti-malware, and other tools. You can quickly check if your domain name is ready for business or is still on parole.