Tips on Choosing a Good Domain Name

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Before you rush out and choose your domain name or name your website, you might want to consider the following points:

 

Your Domain Name Should Be Your Website Name

 

Naming your site after your domain may seem obvious to some of you, but you’ll be surprised to learn that not every website is named after the domain name even when the webmaster owns that domain name.

 

Naming a site after its domain name is important, for the simple reason that when people think of your website, they’ll think of it by name. If your name is also your URL (ie, web address), they’ll automatically know where to go. For example, when people think of thesitewizard.com, they don’t have to wonder what web address to type into their browser to get there. The name of the site is also the URL.

 

Imagine if your business (or website) is called “Acme”, but somebody else holds that domain name. Instead, you have some obscure domain name called, say, “mybusiness.com”. What happens when your customers, recalling that Acme has a product they want, type “www.acme.com”? They’ll end up at your competitor’s website. One lost sale.

 

In the modern world of the Internet, where people automatically turn to the Web for information, it pays to have a domain name that reflects your site or business. There are just fewer things for your customers or visitors to remember. Moreover, you don’t seriously think that they’ll try to memorise (“memorize” in US English) an unrelated URL just because you want them to, do you? The only people who’ll commit it to memory are your competitors who want to compare your prices.

 

What if you cannot get the domain name of your choice? It really depends on how committed you are to that particular name. If you have an existing brand name that you’re known for, you’ll probably not want to ditch that name just because you couldn’t get the domain name. After all, it took you a lot of time and money to establish that name. If so, you might simply want to try to buy over the domain name from the current owner. Check up the “whois” information for the domain, and contact that person listed to see if they’re willing to sell it. You probably should be aware that they are likely to want to charge a higher fee than you’ll normally get when buying new domains (assuming they want to sell it in the first place).

 

On the other hand, if you’re just starting out, you might prefer the cheaper alternative of trying to obtain a domain name first, and then naming your website (or business) after the domain that you’ve acquired. So if you’ve acquired, say, the domain name “acme.com”, then your website and business might be named “Acme” or “acme.com”. I know this seems a bit like putting the cart before the horse, but that’s the reality if you don’t want to lose out on the Internet.

 

Generic Names Or Brand Name Domains?

 

I know that a number of people seem to think that your domain name really must be some generic name like “cars.com” if you are selling cars. Witness, for example, how much money those generic names are being sold for. But seriously, if you were looking for a car, you’ll probably already have some brands in mind, and you’re more like to try out things like generalmotors.com or toyota.com rather than just cars.com.

 

For that reason, I personally feel that a domain name that matches your brand name is very important. The very name that you use to advertise your product is the name that you will want for your domain, because that is the first thing that people will try in their browser. It is also the easiest thing for them to remember, and whatever that is easily remembered, will be more likely to be tried out than the obscure domain name.

 

Long or Short Domain Names?

 

Domain names can be of any length up to 67 characters. You don’t have to settle for an obscure domain name like avab.com when what you mean is AcmeVideosAndBooks.com.

 

Having said that, there appears to be some disagreement about whether a long or short domain name is better.

 

Some argue that shorter domain names are easier to remember, easier to type and far less susceptible to mistakes: for example, “getit.com” is easier to remember and less prone to typos than “connecttomywebsiteandobtainit.com”.

 

Others argue that a longer domain name is usually easier on the human memory – for example, “gaepw.com” is a sequence of unrelated letters that is difficult to remember and type correctly, whereas if we expand it to its long form, “GetAnEconomicallyPricedWebsite.com”, we are more likely to remember the domain name.

 

Some of these arguments are actually academic. It’s increasingly difficult to get short meaningful domain names. I have not checked, but I’m fairly certain that names like “getit.com” and “good.com” have long been sold. If you manage to get a short domain name though, the key is to make sure it’s a meaningful combination of characters and not the obscure “gaepw.com” in my contrived example above.

 

Long domain names that have your site keywords in them also have an advantage in that they fare better in a number of search engines. The latter give preference to keywords that are also found in your domain names. So, for example, if you have a site on free C++ compilers with a domain name like freecpluspluscompilers.com, it might fare better in a search for “free C++ compilers” than the corresponding page on my other website, thefreecountry.com.

 

Which would I go for? I’d go for the shorter name if I can get a meaningful one, but I’m not averse to longer names. However, I would probably avoid extremely long names verging on 67 characters. Aside from the obvious problem that people might not be able to remember such a long name, it would also be a chore typing it and trying to fit it as a title on your web page.

 

Hyphenated Names?

 

Should you get a hyphenated name? There are a few things to consider here:

 

• Disadvantages

  1. It’s easy to forget the hyphens when typing a name. Many users are used to typing things like freecpluspluscompilers.com but not free-c-plus-plus-compilers.com. They’ll probably leave out the hyphens and end up at your competitor’s site.
  2. When people recommend your site to their friends verbally, having hyphens in your domain name leads to more potential errors than when the name does not contain hyphens. For example, how do you think your visitors will refer to your site if it is named “acme-books-and-videos.com”? They might say, “I visited Acme Book and Videos dot com yesterday. It was fabulous.” Their friends, remembering that comment later, might type into their browsers “acmebooksandvideos.com”. Oops.
  3. It’s a pain in the neck to type. Enough said.

• Advantages

  1. Search engines can distinguish your keywords better and thus return your site more prominently in search results for those keywords occurring in your domain name.
  2. The non-hyphenated form may no longer be available. At least this way, you still get the domain name you want.

 

Personally, I prefer to avoid hyphenated names if I can, but I guess it really depends on your domain name and your situation.

 

Plurals, “The”, and “My” Forms of the Domain Name

 

Very often, if you can’t get the domain name you want, the domain name registrar will suggest alternate forms of the name you typed. For example, if you wanted website.com, and it was taken (of course it is), it might suggest forms like:

 

thewebsite.com
mywebsite.com
websites.com

 

and the like, if they were not already taken as well. The question is, should you take them?

 

My personal opinion is that if you take the “the…” and “my…” forms of the domain name, you must always remember to promote your site with the full form of the name. Otherwise, people are likely to forget to affix the necessary “the” or “my”. For that reason, I always advertise my sites as “thesitewizard.com” and “thefreecountry.com” in their full domain name forms, rather than just “Free Country” or “Site Wizard” (without the article).

 

On the other hand, I would not take the plural form of the domain name (eg, websites.com) if I cannot also get “website.com”, since the chance of the visitor failing to type the “s” in the name is very great. Think about the famous name tussle between etoys.com and etoy.com. Many people wanting to go to etoys.com were apparently going to etoy.com instead. If it happened to them, it can happen to you too.

 

COM, ORG, NET, etc?

 

One common question I encounter is from people who can’t get the “.com” domain of their choice, but find the “.net”, “.org” or other country-specific top level domains (TLDs) available (like .de, .nu, .sg, etc). Should they try for these?

 

The answer is not as straightforward as you might think. If your website or business caters to the local community, such as a pizza delivery business or recruitment agency or the like, then it makes sense to get a country-specific domain.

150 tips and tricks for web design

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Everyone keeps reiterating the same term over and over: “Content is king” has almost become a mantra which writers of web copy sing from the rooftops. And they’re right to do so!

Whether your content is provided in textual form, vivid imagery or some beautifully implemented audio and video media, ensuring your website’s content is up-to-scratch will help you turn visitors into customers.

When you come to producing the content that will help visitors understand what the website is about, the following tips may give you some relevant advice to keeping your users hooked.

51. There is more to content than text. Providing polls, infographics, or interactive elements that have content-based value can help improve the interest and readability of on-page information.

52. People respond to engaging prose.
Copyright, Content Licensing and Legalities

53. If you’re intending to build for other people, ensure you have some good solid contracts to work from. You don’t want to be unprepared if the client refuses to meet their obligations.

54. Creating paperwork such as invoices, receipts of purchase, questionnaires (for contract work) and other useful materials will reduce your workload if you start doing freelance jobs.

55. Word of mouth constitutes a binding contract, though it’s harder to prove you shouldn’t say you can or will do something unless you fully intend to follow through what you state.

56. All services should have good terms of service, privacy policy and copyright agreements. It’s important that your end-users know what you expect from them (and that works in reverse)!

57. You don’t need to have a copyright statement on your website (though it’s good as a reference). Ignorance of intellectual property does not qualify as a valid excuse.

58. When deciding how to license your finished design, you may want to check out creative commons or open source licenses; they’re pre-written and flexible (which is great).

59. A cheap way of writing agreements or contracts for your website is to examine others and then write your own based on it. You can save yourself a lot of money in potential legal fees.

60. Avoid legal jargon whenever possible and simply state outright what you want to say in an agreement. Your clients will be more likely to read what you say if they can understand it,

61. If you write your own contracts, it might pay to have them read over by a lawyer to get them as watertight as possible. Verifying is often cheaper than having it custom written.

62. Accessibility statements aren’t as important as they used to be (as being natively accessible is more of a requirement), but providing one may be useful to your website’s audience.
Content Formats and Considerations

63. Get the hang of compression — whether it’s using GZIP for content, caching for external files or squeezing extra bytes from images and media. It will increase the speed of your website.

64. Consider the best image format for what you are trying to achieve, while GIF makes for good basic animations, JPEG or its less lossy friend PNG will be better for high-resolution photos. Read The Comprehensive Guide to Saving Images for the Web for more information.

65. Be careful as to what you use images to portray. Not everyone can see images (like search engines) and this may present readability problems if you use them in place of text.

66. When adding video, audio or graphics into your site, make sure alternative content is available for those who cannot take advantage of these mediums due to accessibility issues.
Images

67. Opacity in images is a tricky issue with Internet Explorer. There are fixes for issues in IE6, but you should remember that only full alpha transparency has issues, not single colors.

68. Your logo is one of the most important aspects of your website as it’s what people will recognise you for. Therefore, it pays to have a good, memorable one created for your brand.

69. While the favicon is one of the smallest graphics you’re likely to encounter on a website, it provides a fantastically unique way of gaining recognition in bookmarks and social networks.

70. Producing an Apple touch icon at 57×57 pixels can be useful for users of the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch who can proudly display your site in their home screens (using web clip).

71. There are loads of sites that provide free stock images, audio and video if you’re not much of a pixel-pusher.
Content Writing

72. Even if you’re not an articulate individual, trying to ensure that your spelling and grammar are correct should be at the top of your agenda.

73. If you’re at a loss for what to write, taking a break or using one of the many techniques to help remove writer’s block can prove indispensible to the content creation process. See the Content Strategy category for tips.

74. A simple way to reduce the complexity of content is to take what you have and boil it down to 50%. It may seem a lot, but reductionism can seriously help eliminate the waffle!

75. Writing your content before you start designing your website can help you better approach the coding stage as you can pick the right elements that describe your content’s value.

76. Content is king. If you sacrifice the quality of the content for the design of the website, your visitors may likely hit the back button in their browser and never return as a result.

77. Much of writing for the web is down to practice. Don’t be afraid to start off small with the likes of Twitter or forum posts before building up your credibility as a web content writer.

78. Making content fun and involving is important to being successful. While dry humourless copy might get across the point, being quirky will emote passion.

79. Never be afraid to ask for help and feedback or get colleagues to proofread what you have to say. Often, a bit of critique will help you become a better professional.

80. When linking to another website, ensure you notify the visitor of how the target site relates to the content or element of the website so they don’t end up at an undesired location.

81. Break your content down into easy to manage segments. Using unordered lists, for example, can help increase the content readability.

82. Fluff and poor quality marketing speak is unnecessary. Always keep to the point and avoid redundant technical language. We all hate junk and in the recycling bin it all belongs.

83. Ensure that what you say is factually correct. Citing references will give your words added credibility.

84. Don’t plagiarise or steal other people’s content. If you find people stealing yours, it’s worth taking the time to learn how to send DMCA takedown notices and cease and desist letters.

85. When writing content of your own, simplicity is valuable. If you can strike a balance between being informative and being overly wordy, you could avoid wasting your reader’s time.

86. Don’t span long documents over multiple pages if you can avoid it. Such practices can reduce the readability of content as readers will be forced to break their natural flow to jump pages.

87. If you’re planning on having a blog, ensure that you state if you’re reviewing something and have been paid to do so.

88. There are so many fantastic CMS solutions (i.e. WordPress). If you find less technical people are going to contribute to a site you make, they can be ideal in removing some complexity and speeding up content production.

89. Consistency is important with everything you write. Maintaining a core set of standards and values helps ensure regularity.

90. Always try to put across information in a friendly and non-aggressive tone. Being overly sarcastic or rude can lead to arguments that can degrade the value of your content.

91. Feedback can be just as important in content writing as the written material itself. Using blog comments, for example, can give entertaining and potentially informative extra reading.

92. Write for people, not search engines. Your users are more important than your Google PageRank.

93. If you plan on providing translated content for international users, nothing beats a human translator. With that said, there are some decent translation tools out there.
Multimedia Content

94. If you create a podcast for your website, a good compression-to-quality ratio is 96kbs MP3 (for voice recordings). Large file sizes are a pain, and at this level, you can save a lot of bandwidth.

95. MP3 is arguably the most compatible audio format around. If you’re providing alternative formats like OGG or FLAC, then ensure an MP3 version exists for more restrictive audio players.

96. Embedding Windows Media Player or Apple QuickTime into a page may have problems if people don’t have the players installed. Flash has a higher market penetration than both.

97. Automatically playing music is a sin — it’s annoying, so don’t do it.

98. Remember that Flash-dependent components are not reliable: People with vision and hand-mobility impairments limit them in accessing a lot of Fla

Web Design Cincinnati Ohio

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Cincinnati OH Web Design Company. I am a website design, company based in Cincinnati Ohio. I can build anything, from simple, beautiful web sites to full-scale business applications for the web. My sites use clean, responsive designs and are search engine friendly. I have been crafting premium websites for 10 years built in Cincinnati OH since 2000.

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http://www.northernkywebdesign.com
I am a website design, company based in Northern Kentucky. I can build anything, from simple, beautiful web sites to full-scale business applications for the web. My sites use clean, responsive designs and are search engine friendly. I have been crafting premium websites for 10 years built in Northern KY since 2000.

Web Design Company Northern Kentucky

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I provide a variety of web design services to meet all your marketing needs. All my designs are custom and specifically taylored to meet your specific needs. I will work closely with you to determine precisely what you are looking for and guide you in layout for proper user interface in order to provide you with the best results from the look and feel of your design.

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