subject: Choosing The Right Domain Name For Your Website [print this page] The Domain you choose for your website is probably one of the most important decisions you will make as you start your internet business. The domain is what your customers will predominantly know you by. In addition, this domain is the portal to your site and the search engines weight the content of the domain and address very heavily when it determines which sites are the most relevant to searches.
One of the first factors to consider is whether you have a new brand you are trying to introduce. If you have created a new product with a distinct brand that you are hoping to be known by in the future, then this is likely what you want in your domain. For example, we created the Sweetly You Bath and Body Company and spent a lot of money registering the word mark Sweetly You. While initially we did not expect people to find us by searching for sweetly you, we did expect that as our brand became more aware, people would search for Sweetly You and we wanted to be the site that came up. Plus, because we had registered Sweetly You as a word mark, it was logical to protect that registration by owning the domain sweetlyyou.com. Finally, because the domain is identical to the trademark name, people who are looking for us would logically guess this is our domain name if they wanted to go straight there. While we are a bath and body company initially wanted to compete for the keyword "bath and body," in the long run it was more important to have a domain that customers could identify with when then wanted to order again.
The next thing to consider is the keywords present in your domain name. If you are selling other peoples brands or a large mix of different brands, then the name of your site is less important because people will be searching for the products you sell and not necessarily your site. Therefore, it is generally better to register a domain name that has your most important keyword in it, and if possible be identical to your most important key phrase. For example, our company also sells bath and body gift sets. We wanted to target the key phrase bath body gift sets. So we registered the domain bathbodygiftsets.com. Within 1 week of registering the domain, this site was ranked number one for the key phrase and stayed at number one until the redirected the site. If the match is perfect the search engine can interpret the search as looking for this specific site, but even if it is not perfect, if the keyword is in your domain, then as far as the search engines are concerned this is a key subject on your site, and you will rank better for phrases that have this word.
To summarize, the domain that you choose depends on what you are trying to accomplish online. If you want to create a trademark name that will become its own future keyword then find a domain name that is as close to your trademark as possible (but memorable). A domain that someone can easily remember. If you are selling other brands, then choose a domain with your most important keyword in the domain. Either way, put the words in your domain that you expect people to use to find you.
