Domain name is one of the key for the success of online business. It is the name that others can find/refer to in Internet. You should pick a domain name that can match your business. There are many factors you should consider before registering a domain name.

1. Extension
The domain name extension gives visitors an impression where you are and where is your target market. If you pick a .co.uk or .com.au, you shows visitors that you are come from UK or Australia. If the visitor come from Canada, they may skip your website as you are far away from them.

You should first think about where is your target customer. If you only target on your local market, you should pick a country-specific domain name. This can definitely help your online business for local market. However, if your customers come from worldwide, you should pick a .com domain name.

2. Add Keywords
Adding keywords into your domain name may help search engines in ranking your website. The easiest way is to combine one descriptive word with a keyword to form your domain name.

For example, if you’re running a online business for selling second hand mobile phone. You may choose cheapmobile, cheapphone, secondhandmobile for your domain.

3. Avoid Long Name
Short names is always better. It is hard to find a good short domain name. As mentioned above, you may consider to combine two or three words to form your domain name. Domain name with two words is always easier to remember.

4. Double Check
Try to search your domain name with Google in different combinations or variations. If you combines two words to form your domain name, try to search if there is a domain with a hyphen in between two words. For example, if you want cheapphone, you should also search if some already register cheap-phone.

Another issue you should consider is the plural form. You should if someone already got the plural forms of your domain. If you find something similar, you should think again whether you go ahead with your choice or you pick another domain name instead.
If you go ahead with your choice, your customers may get confused with those variations.

5. Registration
Find a famous domain name registration company with good reputation. Most web hosting companies also help their client to register the domain name. You may ask them to help for registration. You should pay attention on the following two issues.

- Some domain name registration company is the agent only and they just get the customer and then pass the information to another company to process. They only take the margin and provide nothing to you.

- Check and ensure the registration is under your name or your company name. Some agent or web hosting company register the domain under their names. You may get trouble if you want to take back your ownership.

Domain name is your corporate identity in the web. The best approach is to choose the domain name that match exactly with your company name. Of course, you can pick the one different from your company name.

There are many choices to choose the top-level domain name, like .com, .biz or .net. You are suggested to choose .com as it is the most acceptable and recognizable domain. People can easily identified the .com web site is owned by a company. .biz and .net may bring confusion to your customers.

If your business is localized or you want to emphasis where your company located, you can add the corresponding country code, like .uk or .au

Don’t pick those free hosting web site, like geocities.com. This kind of free domain only reduces your company reliability.

Beside the mentioned points, you have two important factors need to consider when getting your domain name.

1. Copyright

You need to ensure that your domain name do not breach copyright or infringe trademarks. Even if you can get the domain name now, you may be sued later if you violate the copyright law.

2. Own your domain name

If you use a web designer or third party for your domain names, ensure they are registered in your name. That is your domain name is owned under your name, not the web designer, web hosting company or other third party. Ensure you have a signed agreement with the company that they will release all the details (including password) to you. If you move your web site to another hosting company, you need to have a domain password to proceed for the change. However the domain password is normally kept by the party who help you register the domain name. Be sure you can get back the domain password from them.

1. Do you offer shopping cart software and provide e-commerce hosting services?

It is important if you want to integrate shopping cart/e-commerce services into your website. It can save your time and effort to implement those feature into your website.

2. Do you provide web site statistics?

Web site statistics is very important. It allows you to track your web site visitors and use the stats for Internet marketing analysis.
Besides raw log files, web hosting company should provide you with a number of web stats software for analysis.

3. Do you provide any guarantees?

A solid web hosting company must provide guarantee on server uptime and customer support. This can ensure your web business runs smoothly.
It is better if your web hosting company also provide money-back guarantee.

4. Am I the owner of the domain name registered with you?

Some web hosting company may own your domain name instead of you. You should check carefully with your web hosting company on the owner of the domain name.

5. Can I transfer domain name registration from you to any other company?

The answer should be Yes if you own your domain name. However, you should check if there is any hidden cost for the transfer.

1. Using Your Business Name

Your business name should be the first choice for your domain name. This can helps your customer remember your website address and it can bring a professional image to your business also.

2. Less characters

If you can find a 3 letter domain name, get it now. But there are none available right now. So look for 4 or 5 character names.
It is always easy to remember a domain with less characters.

3. Choose extension

Choose a domain with a.com extension. If that is not available then the alternate should also be a top level domain type, like .net.

4. Don’t Confuse Your Customers

Avoid domain names that include: “2″ for “To” or “4″ for “For” or “u” for “You”. Use these wordings can make your domain look “cool”.
But it brings confusion to your customers. They need to guess which one is the correct address.

5. The keyboard relationship

Keyboard relationship may affect the impression to your customer. It is always easy to type “weio” than “pqoz”.
You may consider whether your domain name is easy to type.

There are many things to consider when choosing a domain name. For example,

- think about .com or .net or .com.hk

- think about whether the domain is easy to remember.

- is there any similar domain name already exists.

- pick up other domain name vaients (e.g. shortform)

Actually, you need to consider something else also. Below are the two important issues you may ignore when choosing your domain name.

#1 Copyright

You need to ennsure that your domain name do not breach copyright or infringe trademarks. Even if you can get the domain name now, you may be sued later if you violate the copyright law.

#2 Own Your Domain Name

If you use a web designer or third party for your domain names, ensure they are registered in your name. That is your domain name is owned under your name, not the web designer, web hosting company or other third party.

Ensure you have a signed agreement with the company that they will release all the details (including password) to you. Because if you move your web site to another hosting company, you need to have a domain password to make the change. However the domain password are normally kepted by the party who help you register the domain name. Be sure you can get back the domain password from them.