Choosing a domain name is often a spur of the moment decision, and takes place when you want to register a domain quickly so that no one else gets it before you. This is normally not an ideal way to go about it, when a domain name is an essential component of your online identity and has an impact on your search engine rankings. Take a look at the following tips taken from a sitepoint article, to help you effectively choose your domain name:
- Good Extension: If your market is a local audience, then it makes sense to go with a local domain extension. So if you're in South Africa serving a South African audience, I'd go for "co.za". If you have an international audience, then the most well known domain name extension is "com". If you can, reserve both .com and .co.za domains - you never know when you'll be branching out
- Short: The shorter your domain name, the easier it is to remember, and to spell
- Easy To Spell: if people find it difficult to spell, then people will find your site difficult to reach
- Descriptive: try and choose a domain name that describes what your site is about
- Keywords: having keywords in your domain name will really boost your search engine rankings. If you are a company that sells car parts, then haveing carparts in the domain name helps describe the site and will improve search engine rankings