What is right Domain Name for your site?

Describing your website with a domain name is a crucial marketing decision. It builds credibility - show your customers that you have an established business. Provide them an easy way to remember and contact you. Secure the domain name that best represents your business name and keep it out of the hands of your competitors. Important points to remember are: Choose a Shortest Possible Common with Domain Name Search: Say between 5-20 characters, which will be easy to remember and increase its recall value and can bring more visitors to your site. Your domain name should reflect your business name or the topic your site will cover. Branding is extremely important in establishing your site on the web, and therefore you should try to come up with a name based on a common phrase. Prefer .com or .IN Extension When you are registering your domain name, try to choose a name still available with the generic top level domain .com. Of all domain name tags, .com is by far the most marketable (.IN for Indian Businesses), and thus the most valuable. Domain Name Searches Now find out domain name availability at www.indiahosting.org To save time, make at least 5 different variations of your domain name that you would be willing to settle on. Consider booking multiple domain names A single domain is all you need to set up a website. But with more domains pointing to your site, you can have benefits like: - Bring site visitors who type variations of your domain name - Acquire traffic that might otherwise go to your competition - Harness the marketing power of keyword domains Choosing a domain name extension Should your primary domain end with .com, .net, or .biz, or with a country-specific extension such as .in .ca or .co.uk? If your website have a local target audience, having a country-specific domain can help: - Site visitors will recognize right away that the business has a presence in the country of the extension. They may therefore be more comfortable buying from you. - Some country-specific search results include sites with the relevant country-specific domain extension even if the site isn't hosted in that country. If you're targeting international audience, a country-specific domain is not good. People from outside the country of the extension may be less inclined to buy if the business looks foreign to them. If you want to attract both people within your country and those in other countries, register both. Each domain could direct to the same site, with each audience seeing the domain intended for them. For country-specific search results, the primary domain should be the country-specific one. Domain name length (in characters) A shorter domain names are easier to remember, it has less risk of being mistyped, and it'll fit easily on your business cards and correspondence. It should be a unique and concise name that is easy to say, remember, and spell. The short names you like may already be taken anyway. If your first choice isn't available, try rearranging the word order, adding hyphens, or using abbreviations or locations to come up with a unique alternative. If your business name is up to three easy-to-spell words, it'll probably work as a domain name. For a longer business name, the initials or just one or two words may be easier than remembering a combination of words. Remember, you can use only letters, numbers, and hyphens in your domain name. Spaces or other symbols are not allowed. Secondary domain names Secondary domains directing to your site are for online use: - For people who type your primary domain name incorrectly - For people who search for your products or services online What people search for If you want to find the website of Forbes magazine, you might do a search for it, or you might try typing in forbes.com. If you do the latter, you'll find yourself at the Forbes website. While having keyword domain names may not draw a lot of site visitors, using them is a technique to consider. How to use more than one domain Set up your website with your primary domain, and use that domain on your correspondence and with your customers. Point secondary domains to your site using URL forwarding (also called domain forwarding, domain redirect, or URL redirect). To have the secondary domain appear in the browser, use domain masking. You can set up these features when you log in to your account with your domain registrar (if your registrar offers these services). With domains that are simply variations of your primary domain, you can expect additional traffic just from having set up these domains. With domains that contain keywords, you can get more from them by using them to list your site in online directories. When these domains appear in search results, searchers will see the keywords. The final step in registering a website domain Once you decide on the available domains that you want, register them immediately. They might not be available tomorrow. If you don't already have a business name, you'll find it easier to market your business online if you choose a primary domain and a business name together. If your first choice for a business name doesn't work well with any available domains, consider a business name that you can easily market with an available domain. Once you've registered that domain name and your business name, register secondary domains and put them to use. The next step: Host Your Website - indiahosting.org/hosting.php