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Choosing a domain name SEO style

So, you plan to setup a website for your business and you have big dreams for your online store. The first thing usually is to get a domain name like http://www.yourdomainname.com right? But how do you choose your domain name? What is the correct way to go about it? Just anything that pops right into your mind ? Or something cool sounding? Well, I would certainly recommend you NOT to do that if you are aiming for good search engine rankings. Major Search Engines do place some importance on domain names, so it would be prudent to choose wisely. Once you have choosen your domain name, it is impossible for you to change it (for Search Engine Optimization) unless you want to start all over again. Here is a simple FAQ to help out sort out this rather confusing step.

If my company name is Happy Enterprises, what should my domain name be ?

The most important tip is to keep it short, try using "happy.com" not "happyenterprises.com". But that's not optimal for SEO. What are you selling or what are your services? Selling clothing? Then perhaps you can try "happyclothes.com". You can see the "clothes" keyword in that domain name. That can help in search engine rankings for the word "clothes". How about "happy-clothes.com"? Easier to differentiate between happy and clothes but I would not recommend this as the domain name isn't long enough to justify a hypen. Try to register the later first, if it is already taken, then go for "happy-clothes.com". If it is possible, take both of them. Just redirect the alternate domain to your main domain.

I am starting an online business, and I have already decided on a company name. What domain name should I choose?

Again, try to keep your domain names short. If you have already decided on a company name and your main form of business communication is throught the internet, then keeping your domain name short is doubly important. And make sure your domain name is something people would easily to remember.

Let's say your company name is "Harold Lee Business Ideas" and your business is all about helping small business startups with reasonable loans. What's the choices you have here? Well, make sure you keep the keyword business in your domain name. But which is better? "haroldlee-businessideas.com" or "hl-businessideas.com" or "hl-businessloans.com" or "hl-smallbusinessloans.com"?

For "haroldlee-businessideas.com", this domain name has your full company name, but is it really needed? Is anyone going to search for "harold lee" in the Search Engines? Are you willing to spend huge amount of money advertising your company name? Looking at big online entity like Google, you can see that they have their names as domain name. Very unlikely. In fact, if you did, you should just use "haroldlee.com" as your domain name. People are not directly looking for you or your business but looking for information or a service/product. So that's why you should advertise your PRODUCT or SERVICE!

How about "hl-businessideas.com"? This is much better. Although it does not directly tells your visitors that your company name, it gives at least a shortform. After they visit your site, they will know that "hl" stands for Harold Lee. The domain name here is shorter and has one of your main keyword "business" in it. But the "ideas" part is redundant.

Now let's try "hl-businessloans.com". This seems better for rankings than the previous domain name. It has both of your keywords "business" and "loans" in it and doesn't look too spammy either.

Okay, let's try the last domain name - "hl-smallbusinessloans.com". Probably the best for Search Engine rankings with three important keywords. But as you can see, the domain name is longer as well. It would be hard to decide between this or "hl-businessloans.com". Take your pick. Again I have to remind you NOT to OVERDO it with the keywords too. Having three keywords in your domain name should be the limit and make sure they are short keywords. Do not go beyond that or it would look spammy. Think of a site with the domain name like "cheapsmallbusinessloans.com", would you really take out a loan with them? Do you find them trustworthy enough to do business with them?

Note that I have place a hypen between the words. Why? Because in this case your domain name is long. For long domain names, I would recommend a hypen to make it easy on the eyes when reading. But if you don't want to have the hypen and you feel that it doesn't look good, then ditch it.

My prefect domain name I have choosen is already been taken! What can I do?

Ok, let's assume that your prefect domain name is "hl-businessloans.com" and it has already been snapped up by someone else. What should you do next? How about changing the keywords? Even removing the plural? Try "hl-businessloan.com" ? Or "hl-businessfinancing.com" or "hl-ventureloans.com" or "hl-businesslenders.com" or "hl-corporateloans.com"? However, you have to remember to change which keywords to optimize later on because even with a keyword rich domain name, it is useless without content or other onpage optimization.