The domain name is the absolute most important part of your website.  If you have the greatest website in the world, but a horrible domain name, your return visitors will be minimal.  Okay, to the point, here are a few simple tips that can help you choose a truly unique and successful domain:

- Keep it common with a .com, .net, or .org TLD… plain and simple.  Sure, you can find better names with a strange, or less common extension”¦ I even have a two letter domain in another country code, but it”™s useless.  If you want a site to be successful, stick to the main three.

- No dashes; that makes it more complicated to remember and easier to forget.  If you”™re going for repeat visitors, try to keep the margin of error as low as possible.

- Think of something that flows when spoken, like MySpace. Nothing with awkward vowels or multiple words with the same sound starting and ending, for example: pandas anniversary.com.  It doesn”™t have the same ease of flow like “œMySpace”.

- Don”™t choose a name that”™s too long. The longer the name is, the harder it is to remember”¦ and type in.  As a rule of thumb, keep it under two words.  thebestwallpapersiteontheinternet.com may be catchy, but isn’t practical.

- Choose a domain that cannot be confused for a plural tense… nothing that a plural version of one of the words would still make sense (grey area here). For example, there is an existing site called car-wallpapers.net, however, there is another, completely different wallpaper site at www.car-wallpaper.net.  Something as simple as a plural noun in the domain can be the difference your advertising and branding helping someone else”™s monetized website.  Try to choose a name that the plural wouldn”™t make sense, or is a completely different word (less common), such as Amazon”¦ very few people would confuse that and type amazons.com.

- I’m trying to think up a brandable name. Something like DieselStation.com (another car wallpaper site), which is catchy, but applies. A name like car-wallpapers.net is simply not brandable. It should be clean and simple, but catchy and apply directly toward your product in general.  Be unique, and creative.

- Sub-product branding.  The psychological side and branding is everything in a domain name.  The longer a visitor stays on your site, the more engraved your domain name should be in their mind.  For example, HostGator, a rapidly growing hosting company, names all their packages along their brand lines, such as Hatchling (small package), Baby Gator (medium) or Swamp Gator (large package).  This might sound cheesy, but it drills the name HostGator into the visitor”™s mind.

- Do your research.  Ensure there”™s no preexisting website out there that is similar to your name.  Even if it”™s a letter or two off, you want to ensure your domain brand is your own.  A perfect example of this is the car aftermarket lighting company I”™ve done web development for, Umnitza.  There is another, completely separate company called Umnitza-East, and whenever anyone tries to support Umnitza-East, the majority of the people end up going to umnitza.com and buying from the wrong vendor.  Granted this is completely their mistake, the same concept applies.  You don”™t want to tell someone to buy something from your store at miceparadice.com, and them accidentally buy from mouseparadice.com, your biggest competitor.

That”™s about all the tips I can come up with for now, however I do plan on expanding this in the future, and branching off a completely different article on website branding, so stay tuned.  :)  Feel free to leave comments with questions or suggestions.

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