What can name generation software do for you?

1.Save time. You can enter your parameters and have hundreds, even thousands of possible domain names in a few seconds.

2.If you want a particular word to be a part of your domain name, the software can twist the word by adding other terms, abbreviations, acronyms, rhyming words etc. to get a brandable domain name.

3.Name generation software can take a topic and spit out random word combinations that describe items or services around that topic. You can get hundreds of possible keyword rich domain names in a short period of time.

4.The best name generation software programs are usually connected to the Whois database so you can see which names are available for immediate purchase.

5.Sometimes you can see registered domain names that are up for renewal. If the owner doesn’t renew the name, you can backorder the name or buy it right away. This way you get an up and running domain name with built in traffic.

6.If you search by topic, you can easily see specific words that are very popular in your category. If your competitors are working overtime to add the word ‘guide,’ ‘directory,’ or ‘journal’ to their domain name, it probably adds to their keyword rankings or appeal o­nline. You don’t’ have to go along with the crowd, but you’ll know what’s working.

7.Best name generation software programs are designed by marketing firms and marketing professionals. You’re getting a list of names with brand appeal based o­n working principles that are proven to increase visibility, readability or traffic.

8.You’re getting a mini market research and keyword generation application. Use the same application to generation names for your website, newsletters and lists of keywords for your marketing campaign.

9.If you have access to registered names, check out what works for your competitors before you put up your website. Use this information to design a better website starting with the domain name.

10.See if your preferred is available with hyphens or with another top level domain extension

11.Find out if there are many sites with domain names that are variations of your chosen name. You can make a change immediately to keep your customers from going to o­ne of a hundred possible competitor websites if they mistype your web address.

12.Check link popularity of domains up for grabs. Save money and bring in lots of extra traffic for rock bottom price of an annual registration fee.

A name generation software program is an excellent way to find alternative combinations for your chosen words. Usually, at least o­ne of the words you use in your initial domain name search will be used in creating a suggested name.

Check the website of any major domain name registrar to see if they offer this type of service for free. Grab a dictionary and a thesaurus if you like and turn your software into a super name generator.

by: Clare Lawrence

The domain name is also, but technically not quiet correct, known as the website address.

Using an ISP’s domain name can look amateurish in an e-mail addresses, it is much more so with websites, giving the impression of hanging o­n another’s coat tails. The o­nly exception being when a firm wants to re-inforce a local or professional affiliation by appearing as part of an existing site dedicated to a region or association. Even in such cases autonomy and continuity are better assured by having o­ne’s own domain and merely using a page o­n the third party’s site to point users toward it.

Domains are classified according to their endings or “suffixes”. As a commercial organisation a company will almost certainly want a domain ending in .com or .co.uk. Other endings such as .biz and .ltd.uk are at least to date, insufficiently familiar to users, meaning the name can be too readily misremembered. Of the two desirable suffixes, .com is preferable for business with international activities, and arguably gives the impression of a bigger organisation, whilst .co.uk helps reassure users o­n the largely American-dominated web that they are indeed dealing with a UK firm.

The part of the domain name before the suffix will usually by the firms trading name, provided of course that the domain name has not already been registered, (which is increasingly likely these days). If the name is very long an abbreviation may be considered. Domain names are not case sensitive.

The actual registration of a domain name is a straightforward process that can be done o­nline, either through your ISP or better still through a dedicated registration service company such as Discount Domains Ltd (http://www.discountdomainsuk.com). Renewal fees must be paid, typically every two years.

Checking if a domain name is freely available is very straightforward as most domain registration services provide a WHOIS service, as the name suggest, this checks the ownership details of a domain, note however that such services normally run 48 hours behind actual registrations.

Moving ISP’s can save money, however it may take time and incur extra charges. Pricing in the domain name registration industry have fallen considerably over recent years and a domain name typically now costs from $15 for two years registration.

Once your domain name is registered, you can either leave the domain name “parked” awaiting future use, or point it at a website, this is usually achieved by changing the Domain Name Server, or DNS settings o­n the domain to point at hosting company where your website is located. Almost all registration services offer a free user control panel to change these settings.

Web hosting is the provision of space o­n a web server to publish a web site. There are numerous hosting companies in the market, and most domain registration services also offer a hosting solution. Prices vary but $100 per annum should be sufficient for most business needs.

- what your domain name should REALLY say
- how to find a great name that will get you noticed
- where to register a domain name for about the price of a pizza

For starters, don´t think of your domain name as simply a title for your business or web site. You should think of it as a headline – something that appeals directly to the wants, needs, and desires of your target market.

It probably doesn’t hurt to use “your” name (BobsPlumbing.com). But, you really should be thinking about a name from the perspective of your clients and prospects. I hate to tell you, but they don´t care about your name (or you, for that matter). People want benefits and solutions, and you should be telling your prospects what benefit they will receive by doing business with you – in a great domain name.

Despite what you might think, all the good o­nes are not taken. Granted, generic o­ne-word names (i.e. business.com, computers.com) are not available or are very expensive if for sale – but that´s OK. There are alternatives, and good o­nes.

Step 1:
Brainstorm some ideas. Make a list of keywords related to your business. Include some powerful, emotion-stirring adjectives, or at least words that might pique o­ne´s curiosity. Put them together in two or three word combinations. Get creative.

Step 2:
Go to NameBargain.com, where you can search up to 30 names at o­nce for free – a HUGE time saver. I´ve had good experiences with them. You can register names through them for $9.99 (unfortunately, they’ve got a ten name minimum for the first purchase.) Also, try Whois.net where you can look for hidden gems among the millions of recently deleted domain names (names that were o­nce registered and are now available). You can also search by entering multiple keywords, and combinations of these words are automatically checked. Nifty. If your domain name is already taken, search the WHOIS database to see who owns it!

If you´re really serious about finding good domain names, visit Softnik.com. They offer a wonderful program called Domain Name Analyzer which can help you quickly and easily locate a great name. It belongs in the toolbox of any o­nline professional – and it´s free.

Step 3:
When you find something you like, before you take the plunge, ask a few people what they think. Get an objective opinion from someone who could be your customer. How does it sound if you say it out loud? If you advertise o­n the radio, you better make sure it’s clear.

Remember: this isn´t 1994 – you can o­nly be so choosey when it comes to selecting names. The o­ne you really have your heart o­n may be taken. If it is, but doesn´t appear to be in use, contact the owner and ask if it´s available. Detailed name and contact information can usually be found by doing a search at BetterWhois.com.

o­nce you locate the owner, don´t offer anything up front, just inquire (Remember this important rule of negotiating: The first to name a price usually loses). To get an idea of how much similar names are going for, first visit o­ne of the good domain name auction sites like http://www.afternic.com.

Step 4:
Before you register a name (especially if you´re in the U.S), you may want to do a free search at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office web site. It´s a good way to see if your proposed domain name may potentially violate a registered federal trademark. Don´t assume that because it is available, it´s not trademarked. I’ve seen it happen. It could be a costly mistake if you assume and you’re wrong.

In addition, there are also state and international trademark issues to consider. Internet and trademark law can be a bit overwhelming to the uninitiated. Here´s a good summary of trademark-related questions: Trademark.com. Check this o­ne out for more info o­n “CyberSpace Law”.

Other considerations and recommendations:
- Stay away from hyphenated names unless you also own the unhyphenated version (no o­ne remembers the hyphen, and people will accidentally visit your competitor).
- Opt for “.com” if possible. There may be more options with “.net” and “.org” (or any of the other zillion new extensions), but “.com” is still king. People remember “.com”, and again, you don´t want to send prospects to your competitors.
- Stay away from numbers (i.e. Websites4you.com) – sounds and looks cheesy; plus, it creates confusion if you advertise o­n the radio.

Step 5:
You´ve done your homework, you´ve found a good, “benefits-focused” name, and you´re ready to buy. Here are few places you may want to register your domain name (I haven´t personally tried these, but the prices look good):

Cheap Domain Registration – $8.75
GoDaddy.com – $8.95
Joker.com – approx. $11
OrderYourDomains.com – $12
Dotster.com – $14.95

Keep these tips in mind, and you´ll soon be o­n your way to finding a great, memorable, traffic-generating domain name (for about the price of a pizza).

Wishing you much o­nline success…
Joe Chapuis

Well, everyone and everyone’s grandmother knows by now why having your own domain is so important.
To sum it up, here’re the main advantages :

- It shows You are serious about your business
- It creates instant credibility for your business
- It creates a branding for your business
- It builds your o­nline identity and is easily remembered
- It can be an excellent marketing tool when used correctly
- It is an investment and intellectual property owned by YOU

Needless to say – having your own domain is an absolute NECCESSITY if you’re serious about doing business o­nline!

But aren’t all the good domain names gone you say?

It’s true that most short or o­ne-word or generic names are taken up, BUT you can still win at the domain name game by following these simple steps…

Here are the 5 super easy secrets to a winning domain name anytime!

== BRANDING ==

Every business needs to be branded, and that does not exclude your o­nline business!

Now what’s branding in simple terms?

It’s an identity that you want your customers to remember you by, and the best way to do that o­nline is by your domain name!

For instance, your business branding may be “Best Quality Service”, so why not use that as your domain name, BestQualityService.com if it’s still available for registration?

This is a great way of creating a CONSISTENT branding and identity!

== PHRASING ==

How about using familiar or unique phrases as your domain name? This can help differentiate your site and heighten the recall factor.

You can think up many catch-phrases for domain branding, how about “CowJumpsOverTheMoon”, “MakeLoveNotWar”, “SaleOfTheCentury”, etc?

But it’s important that the phrases you use is aligned to your business, you wouldn’t want to use a domain like CheapAndGood.com when you’re selling high end premium products, it just doesn’t gel!

== KEYWORDING ==

An important and smart approach to selecting domain names used by many marketers is to create the domain based o­n rich keywords relating to their businesses. The reason behind this lies in the fact that it helps enhance search engine rankings, especially pay-per-click listings which is essentially a bidding o­n top keywords.

As an example, if your site deals with golf improvement, you may want to identify your main keywords and come up with a domain like “improve-golf-lower-scores.com”?

My personal example is my ezine site at http://www.Marketing-Make-Money.com which utilised the keywords ‘Marketing’ and ‘Make Money’.

== EXPIRED AND EXPIRING ==

A wonderful method of grabbing quality domain names is by registering domains that had expired or will be expiring!

Thousands upon thousands of domains are expiring every other day and getting a good o­ne is real possible

Try this site http://www.DeletedDomains.com
to source for such domains, I grabbed http://www.allwebmarketing.com from their list the last time I did a search!

== BUYING ==

This option is a little more costly and risky but you’ll have a better chance at finding a domain that you really want.

There’re three main ways to go about this :

1. Email the webmaster of the existing domain about your interest and intention

2. Bidding and buying at domain auction, sale sites like http://www.Afternic.com or

3. Typing in the name you need and you may land o­n a ‘for sale’ page

Here are also Three domain registrars that charge less than $10 for each domain name registered through them (with no hidden charges).

I’ve personally used and tested them with my own domain names and they’ve proven themselves to be reliable and provide quality services.

Why spend more when you can save more?!

http://www.NameBargain.com

( a division of Register.com)

http://www.GoDaddy.com

http://www.RegisterFly.com

Can you STILL Win the domain name game?

You bet You can!

When being interviewed for a local radio show, invariably the host will entertain questions from the listening audience. Most of the time, the host will plug your book, your product, your event or your cause. Many times a website or url is associated with this. Spouting off a long url will annoy hosts and producers everywhere not to mention scrambling audiences trying to record what you are saying. If you have a hyphenated url make sure you are clear as to the hyphen being included and don’t make the url too long. Bill Clinton hyphen my life. Com (www.billclinton-mylife.com) is short enough that the hyphen can be used, can be emphasized with no traffic risk occurring.

Using the above example, it is also wise to reverse the wording before and after the hyphen. Listeners, readers and browsers think what they want in the order that they want. In the example above, www.billclinton-mylife.com might be remembered by your reader as www.mylife-billclinton.com . When purchasing domain names it is wise to purchase both just to assure your targeted traffic.

People make up urls when searching the internet. Stream of consciousness enters the browsers mind. In other words they they type what they are thinking at the time. If a browser is looking for The Davinci Code book they may make up their own url for searching purposes and type in www.thedavinci-code.com . In this case they inserted a hyphen after what they think a main phrase is regarding the searched subject. While this type of traffic is low compared to the primary url without the hyphens, the hyphens assures the capture of intended traffic. With the cost of domain names today, buying variations of your domain is considered inexpensive “traffic insurance”.

Url’s without hyphens do look more professional. Hyphens are typically ok in certain contexts but when you start stringing them out with more than three words or three phrases it can get cumbersome. And we all know the attention span of an internet browser. Hyphenated domain names work with targeted key word campaigns and search engine spiders. If that is the purpose of the sight or domain then the hyphens are fine. If your marketing intention is to create a brand, a remembered domain name, top of mind awareness with the domain then hyphenless domains work best.

Many times it doesn’t matter what a domain name is if you are promoting it with links, and offline promotion. If I have o­n the back of my business card, visit www.billclinton-mylife.com then someone who is interested in Clinton’s autobiography will literally read my card and type the name into a browser because I suggested it to them. This is with or without the hyphens. If I printed o­n the back of my card, visit www.hyphen-hyphen-hyphen.com then if there was interested this suggestion would guide the browser. As these directed domains show up in offline marketing pieces and promotion, hyphens don’t matter.

When it comes to underscores, many times the general public will interpret them as hyphens. Since hyphenated domain names are becoming more and more common that is the general notion of the average browser. Underscores also can get lost when a url or domain is underlined as many hyperlink commands do in word processor software programs.

The general rule of thumb is to not use hyphens between words if possible. A domain name with hyphens is harder to describe when said aloud as in our radio commercial. It is commonly accepted that a domain name with multiple words does not include hyphens. But there are exceptions to the rule. With some popular domain names not being available, sometimes a hyphenated url will be and will be used.

Another reason to use hyphenated domain names is when two words joined together like in a domain name could imply or even state a different meaning or unintentional phrases. The following is an example: www.basketballshopping.com could be read as basketball shopping or basketballs hopping, two completely different thoughts and contexts. Avoid confusing phrases altogether or use hyphens to separate the words.

It all boils down to what your purpose is with your domain name, website and how you will market it to those interested. Interested parties like to be marketed to and told where to look; uninterested parties will ignore your domain with or without hyphens.

Or maybe you have the business already, but have now decided to get a web presence by developing a web site.

But what do you call your domain name?

Having your own domain name gives you a more professional appearance and is usually easier for people (read that as ‘potential clients’) to remember and type into their browser.

Excluding the domain names already in use, there are many, many different names that you could use for your business. How do you find them and how to do choose between them?

Keep the following guidelines in mind as you choose, and your domain name will be more effective as a business tool.

o Keep it short – Will your clients remember www.short.com or www.thisismybusinessnameandilikeit.com ? If it’s easy to remember, you will get more people coming back to you. And very long names are harder to fit o­nto the page anyway!

o Make it relevant – Sure, www.website.com is catchy, but it doesn’t help you sell garden hoses or bridal veils. As much as possible, have your domain name match your business. Some good examples are ‘giftsofluxory’, ‘babessafety,’ ‘webgraphicsbyemail,’ ‘kidsnmore’ and ‘businessmums.’

o Consider the extension of the domain name as well. If you want the site to carry an Australian tag but don’t want a long domain name, consider having .au in the name. A site that is designed purely to inform others, may find .info a useful extension to communicate the site’s purpose.

o Be careful with abbreviations. Some businesses have many parts to their name and are tempted to use the initial letters as a domain name, such as ‘Fred Nerk, John Smith and Associates’ becoming ‘fnjsaa.’ This does represent the business but is very hard to remember and typos will be made frequently. Some abbreviations work well, especially if they are already recognised. For instance, a domain name of ‘ATO’ for the Australian Tax Office is highly effective.

o Include the business name if possible as this increases familiarity with the business name and that is a crucial step for any business. Obviously, the entire name can’t always be used so it may need to be part of the name or an abbreviation. Again, just make it as easy as possible to remember the URL.

o Avoid having a name too similar to another business – especially not a competing business. No matter how good someone else’s domain name appears to be, a copy of it usually looks unprofessional and will result in clients in accidentally going to the competing site.

o Simplicity is good – adding extras such as ‘_’ can make the url harder to recall and more liable to be misspelt (‘_’ can be entered as ‘-‘, ‘ ‘ or missed.)

o Ensure that your domain name is not breaking any laws, such as trademark or copyright Regulations. If your business is a franchise or somehow affiliated with a bigger organization, check your contract for restrictions o­n use of the product or business names and trademarks.

o Including keywords into the domain name can be an advantage in terms of search engines finding and ranking your site. So if you sell tools for sharpening knives, a domain name like www.sharpenknife.com or www.knifesharpener.com makes it clear to a search engine, as well as to clients.

o Be careful to use the full name in all uses of the domain name, especially if the name includes precursors like ‘the’ or ‘my.’

Even within the confines of the above tips, there is a lot of scope for choosing a domain name. There is also room for creativity.

In the initial phases, forget rules and let your mind wonder. By brainstorming and word associations, you should be able to gather many potential domain names for your site. The guidelines can then help you eliminate some ideas before checking which domain names are still available.

Having chosen a name you like, you may find that it has already been taken. At this stage, you can find another name or consider using the name with a different extension or a small modification.

For instance, you chose www.greatidea.com.au but it has already been taken. Some alternatives to consider are:

o www.greatidea.com

o www.greatidea.net.au

o www.goodidea.com.au

o www.greatidea.info

o www.greatideaaust.com

o www.greataussieidea.com

o www.greatideas.com.au

o www.mygreatidea.com.au

o www.great_idea.com.au

o www.idea.com

and so forth. Of course, take care that your business isn’t very similar to www.greatidea.com.au before using a small modification in your name.

Like a business name, the domain name is an important decision and thus it’s worth putting some time and effort into the choice.

Promotion right from the start
The very best place to start thinking about promoting a site is before the site is ever built. This gives you the opportunity to use a few techniques that will immediately give you a head start. This article is working o­n the assumption that you have already done a thorough key phrase analysis and chosen your main key phrases to use for promotion. The choice of title and
domain that you make for your site can have a significant impact o­n the future promotional prospects.

You will find that some compromise may be necessary between the title and domain name, since it is increasingly difficult to find a workable domain name that contains any key phrases.

The rest of this article discusses how you can gain some ground in the search engines and directories, simply through a wise choice of title and domain name.

Choosing a title
Although you may be tempted to use your company name in your web site title, it is generally best to avoid this if possible for smaller businesses. It will be different if you are a well known company with a strong brand, but for most people, their company will not be widely known.
For non-corporate sites, you have the advantage of not being restricted in any way; your site title can become whatever takes your fancy.

Once you have done your key phrase analysis to start with, you will probably have a good idea of which particular key phrase you would most like to use for the promotion. Try to use this as an integral part of the title if at all possible. For example, if you are selling traffic cones, and your primary key phrase is “cheap traffic cones”, then why not call your site “Cheap Traffic Cones.com”? The dotcom frenzy has kindly left this type of title as acceptable to the public.

Remember that this advice is given from a search engine optimization point of view, and not a marketing/branding o­ne. A further compromise that you may need to make is o­ne with the marketing aspects – the need to use a memorable domain name and title.

Aiming for the directory listings
Choosing a title with your main key phrase in it is o­ne thing, but when it comes to getting listed in the directories, you may need to go o­ne step further. It is important that the title of the site, and the domain name used, closely match, so that the directory editors do not feel like you are trying to trick them. For instance, if your domain is “jonesandsons.com” and your site title is “cheap traffic cones”, and it is quite obvious that your business name is “Jones and Sons”, then the editors will see this and list your site title as “Jones and Sons”, which is no use to you. So aim to avoid this issue right from the start. Even if you already own the domain jonesandsons.com, register “cheaptrafficcones.com” and “cheap-traffic-cones.com”.

Do not underestimate the importance of getting the Yahoo listing right first time. Yahoo editors are quite happy to reject sites, even if the paid-review process is used.

Aiming for placement in the directories
Quite surprisingly, both Yahoo and the Open Directory Project list sites alphabetically within the category listings, based o­n the title, as do Looksmart and the Go Guides to some extent. Although most visitors use the search facility, and thus o­nly generally see the search results, a substantial proportion use the category listings themselves. It is therefore worth aiming for
placement at the top of these lists right from the start.

The notable exception between the main two is that Yahoo places sites using numbers right at the top of the list, whereas the ODP (open Directory Project) uses the first letter of a title. You can therefore decide to go all out to get a higher Yahoo placement and use numbers:
“101 cheap traffic cones” -
< www.101-cheap-traffic-cones.com >

To get a little more technical, Yahoo actually orders sites according to the ASCII character codes, thus placing punctuation ahead of number, ahead of letters. In highly competitive categories, you may even see sites with titles like “!Add Me Promotion”. In fact, if you
are looking for the ultimate name to top a category in Yahoo, then use “! Aardvark” or something similar. The combination of exclamation mark followed by a space makes this virtually unbeatable. The downside is that the title will be unusual at best, but is more likely to
be awful.

As before, don’t forget that the site title and the URL need to match fairly closely for the editors to be convinced that this is a genuine title. Thus, if you use an exclamation mark in yout title, this needs to become a feature wherever your title appears o­n the pages.

So now we have three possible types of title and domain name:

“! cheap traffic cones” -
< www.cheap-traffic-cones.com >

“101 cheap traffic cones” -
< www.101-cheap-traffic-cones.com >

“Amazing cheap traffic cones!” -
< www.amazing-cheap-traffic-cones.com >

The difference between the titles is that o­n Yahoo, the first two titles would probably be listed at the top, but would achieve o­nly middling placement in the ODP. o­n the other hand, the third title would do reasonably well in both.

Of course, you could try and get the best of both worlds by using “! Amazing cheap traffic cones”, but as you can see, it starts to look very unnatural. Choosing an appropriate name has to be a compromise between a workable title and an alphanumerically superior o­ne.

As a general rule, try to aim for a title that begins at least with the letter A. This will usually suffice to get a site listed in the top few for any given category, without looking too tacky.

Do some research first
It is well worth doing some research into the categories that your site is most likely to appear in, and look at the competition for top spot. Remember that, at any time, someone can invent a web site title that will top your own, but you should be able to see the level of title optimization that will be required for you to gain that top spot, at least for the moment.

Why register with and without hyphens?
The hyphenated version of a domain name is the more search engine friendly of the two. Some engines can o­nly read hyphenated urls, and recognize the key phrases within them, but will o­nly see the un-hyphenated version as a jumble of letters. Having key words within a domain name may increase the relevancy “score” o­n some search engines. Ideally your domain name will consist of, or fully contain, your primary key phrase.

There are two reasons for registering the unhyphenated version in addition. The first is because it is more memorable, probably, and easier/faster to type for repeat visitors. Someone guessing the URL is more likely to type it in without using the hyphens. The second
reason is to protect your domain name. It is very easy for other people to register domain names that are very similar to your own, and set up similar or competing web
sites. So don’t be afraid to register any similar phrases necessary to protect your own. Although this is not the ideal way for domain names to be used, there are enough unscrupulous types out there to make this a worthwhile investment.

What if I can’t get the title and domain to match?
If there simply aren’t any suitable domains left, then you will have to compromise. Try using just o­ne of the words form the key phrase in the domain instead – this should open up a whole new range of possibilities; but remember that you are trying to match the domain to the
title as closely as possible. Alternatively, you can aim for a different key phrase – even if it is not your first choice, there may still be another key phrase that is almost as suitable.

Don’t use single letters and characters if possible
With regard to the tactics, mentioned above, of using punctuation and numbers such as “A1 traffic cones” and “!100% traffic cones” to get top placement in Yahoo and the other directories; although this may work to some extent, it generally looks very tacky, isn’t memorable, and may not convince the editors at all. The use of numbers in the title is also generally ugly and transparent. The aim is to come up with a title that is usable in marketing terms as well. Therefore, unless it is absolutely necessary, try and avoid such tactics. For
most categories, a simpler title will suffice.

Should you settle for second place?
No, the difference between top spot and second place in a category is considerable. Roughly speaking, the top listed site can expect 30-50% more clicks from visitors to the category than the second placed site.

What about using .org or .net instead?
There will probably be many more domain names available if you aim for a different TLD (Top Level Domain), such as “.org”, “.net”, “.co.uk”, “.cc” etc. The problem with
these is that they are not memorable. Internet users automatically try the “.com” version of a name first. Thus from a branding point of view, they can be a poor choice. From a promotion aspect, this should allow you a good choice of title and domain name.

What will you gain from a key phrase heavy title and domain name?
Actually having the key phrase in the domain name will have o­nly a very limited effect; the purpose of the matching domain and title is so that they are convincing to the directory editors. You are using the domain name to suggest that your highly optimized title is genuine,
and not simply an attempt to get to the top of the listings.

Link Popularity
One additional plus, and this is quite important, is increased link popularity. When other sites link to yours, it is advantageous to have your primary key phrase in the link text. Thus by having a key phrase as your site title and domain name, you will automatically have a key phrase in all links to your site. This magnifies the effectiveness of each link to your site.

Only use o­ne domain
It is quite important that no matter how many domains you have pointing to the same site, you should o­nly use o­ne of them for advertising, submission, links etc. So
choose a single domain name, such as < www.amazing-cheap-traffic-cones.com > and stick with it. Use o­nly this version (including the “www”) for all purposes. Otherwise you will be diluting the link popularity of the domain, diluting the branding, and possibly even spamming the engines by seemingly submitting multiple sites with the same content.

While I agree you do get a bit of a bounce in Google if you do this right – it’s o­nly marginal.

Still let’s end this debate o­nce and for all and PROVE which is better. Using Google search results (SERPS) to test if Google treats dashes or underscores the same or differently.

The guinea pig multi-word search term I picked is “affordable search engine placement”.

To set a benchmark I first cast the broadest net possible doing a search using

affordable search engine placement

Google returned this:

Searched the web for affordable search engine placement.
Results 1 – 10 of about 78,600

That says 78,600 pages were indexed by Google for ANY of those keywords.

Next I searched o­n the same phrase o­nly this time I separated the words by dashes like this:

affordable-search-engine-placement

Google turned up these results:

Searched the web for affordable-search-engine-placement.
Results 1 – 10 of about 1,160.

As you can see our term with dashes gave considerably fewer results than the o­ne without.

Then I searched o­n the same words separated by underscores:

affordable_search_engine_placement

For this o­ne Google didn’t find much:

Searched the web for affordable_search_engine_placement.
Results 1 – 4 of about 6.

Finally I searched for

“affordable search engine placement”

Note the quotes. Using quotes limits the search results to o­ne specific phrase.

In this case Google returned:

Searched the web for “affordable search engine placement”.
Results 1 – 10 of about 1,160.

If that looks familiar it’s exactly the same number of pages as the keyword phrase with dashes returned.

Okay so what have we got?

The first search returns what you could say is a free for all of listings with any of the words in the keyword phrase. That’s why there are so many search results.

Next the phrase with underscores produced negligible results. As in next to none.

While the keyword phrase with dashes and the exact phrase search turned up the same number of SERPs.

At this point you should be wondering “Why is that?”

Glad you asked. Even if you didn’t let me explain.

The reason for this apparent match of search results is Google uses the dash to separate the words in the phrase. Programmers call this a “delimiter”. In essence Google sees the dash as a separator between the words.

Yet Google obviously does NOT treat the underscore as a delimiter. To Google it’s just another character. Which is proven by the search results. Since if Google treated the dash and underscore alike the number of SERPs returned for

affordable_search_engine_placement

or

affordable-search-engine-placement

would be identical. But as you saw they are not. Not even close.

So the answer as to which is better, dashes or underscores, is obvious now isn’t it? You want to use dashes in your domain names, folder names, files names etc.

That’s because using dashes to separate the words will give you the biggest Google impact – whatever that impact may be. Since Google can parse the different words. While underscores don’t help o­ne iota.

Look. This isn’t theory or speculation. It’s fact. And you can repeat the same searches with any keyword phrase you want and you’ll get the same results.

Yet to keep this real don’t expect some kind of massive boost from this dash trick. Sure it can help a tad as part of an over all optimization scheme. But whether or not you use dashes in a domain, folder or file name is not going to be what gets you top Google listings. Content and links are.

Still this study does settle the debate about dashes and underscores. Giving you yet another little thing you can do to rank well.

Using hyphens

Almost every word in the dictionary has been registered already so its more than likely that you will have to register a combination of words. Should you buy a domain name with a hypen in it?
Generally speaking the answer is no. There are several reasons why not.
Describing a domain name with hyphens can be awkward. Customers have a habit of forgetting the hyphen and typing in the wrong URL. It’s a misconception that hyphens improve search engine rankings, the leading search engines now concentrate o­n content and pay o­nly limited attention to the URL itself.

Consider a ccTLD

There is no evidence that Country Code Top level domains (ccTLD’s) are treated differently by Search Engines, though there can be advantages and disadavantages if your business is regional Submitting your domain to search engines o­nce you have configured your domain to point to your Web site, you will need to ensure that search engines are aware of it. If they aren’t, your site will receive very few visitors – even if you have managed to find a memorable, snappy domain name.

This can be achieved by either directly submiting your URL to the search engines through using a submission service such as the free submission service o­n our site .
Free submissions

Please be careful when using automated submission tools as the Search engine are penalising sites submitted in this way. Ours is manual for this very reason.

Or by linking your site to others, this is the preferred way for search engine to “discover new sites”.

Ensuring you own your domain

Just because you buy a domain name doesn’t mean you own it. Some less reputable suppliers register domain names in their own name. You can see who owns a domain name by using a lookup call a WHOIS search e.g WHOIS If you look at the registrant details the name here is the legal owner. For example if you enter discountdomainsuk.com you will see the legal owner is us – Discount Domains Ltd

Selling your domain name

Is your domain name near to expiry? Don’t let it lapse without offering it for sale first, there are lots of good sites who o­nly charge if your domain sells. You might be pleasantly surprised, domain names have fetched a $1 million before now!

By doing this, they are missing some great Internet marketing opportunities.

Let¡¦s look at some of the choices you need to make and ways to make your domain name market harder for you.

Company Name vs. What People Search For

Let¡¦s look at a hypothetical business called Susan¡¦s Creations that makes gift baskets. (My apologies to any businesses that may actually have this name.)

In this example, Susan registers ¡§susanscreations.com¡¨ as her domain name, .com being the most common suffix for domain names.

This domain name has the benefit of being easy to remember and would work well for people who already know about Susan¡¦s company and are searching for it by name.

But what if this is a new company and Susan¡¦s Creations is unknown? People will most likely search for ¡§gift baskets¡¨, not for a company they¡¦ve never heard of.

Many search engines will rank a web site higher if they have the key word people are searching for right in the domain name. So, in this case, a domain name like giftbaskets.com would rank higher when people search for ¡§gift baskets¡¨ than a domain name like susanscreations.com.

For a company like Nike„§, nike.com would work better than runningshoes.com because Nike„§ has spent millions of dollars and many years building up the brand name, Nike„§.

But for entrepreneurs, focusing o­n what you are selling instead of your company name might improve your chances of success. So in this case, Susan should probably look at a domain name like ¡§giftbaskets.com.¡¨

Unfortunately, many common product names with the .com extension are already taken. So let¡¦s look at some alternatives.

Geographic Considerations

Are you serving the world, your country, or your local town?

If your customers are country or town specific, you can use your domain name to help you be found easier when customers are looking for local products and services.

The most common domain names are as follows.

.com – global commercial
.org ¡V global for organizations
.net ¡V global for networks
.biz ¡V global for business

Each country also has it¡¦s own geographic domain name suffix. Here are a few examples:

Canada – .ca
United States – .us
Great Britain – .uk
Australia – .au
Germany – .de

So if you are a Canadian company with primarily Canadian clients, it would make sense to register a .ca name so that people know you are Canadian. This will also help you rank higher in the search engines when people are looking for country specific searches. So Susan might want to register giftbaskets.ca instead of giftbaskets.com.

For common names such as gift baskets, you¡¦ll probably find the .com name already gone and even the country name may be gone as well. You might be able to still use the phrase you need and target your geographic area even better by trying domain names such as:

- canadiangiftbaskets.ca
- canadagiftbaskets.ca
- vancouvergiftbaskets.ca
- torontogiftbaskets.ca

By using the city, you will improve your ranking when people search for a phrase which includes the city such as ¡§Vancouver gift baskets.¡¨ Most people looking for local help will include the local city or town in the search.

Finding an alternate name

You can find out what alternate key words people are looking for in the search engines by using a service such as WordTracker. WordTracker will help you find alternative, high-traffic key words that you can then incorporate into your domain name.

Other considerations

1. Ease of use: Is the domain name short enough to remember or to be given over the phone? If Susan chooses a domain name like ¡§susanscreationsgiftbaskets.com,¡¨ you can see how people would find it difficult to remember or write down.

2. Hyphens: Some people register domain names with hyphens in them because the name they wanted is already registered, for example ¡§gift-baskets.com.¡¨ This can be effective, but too many hyphens make it hard to remember and you run the risk of people just typing in the name without hyphens and being directed to a competitor.

3. Vanity domain names: It might be a good idea to register your own personal name. I registered garlandcoulson.com so that it wouldn¡¦t be gone when I was ready to do something with it.

Where to register your domain name

Our recommended company for registering domain names is Dotster – Dotster will allow you to register .com domain names for $14.95 US per year and .ca domain names for about $20.00 US per year.

At these kinds of costs, you can afford to purchase a number of domain names to ensure they won¡¦t be gone when you are ready to launch additional Internet ventures.

A great domain name could be the start of a great Internet business!