by EssjayNZ

Know-How about Domain ? I

The article talks about how to choose a domain name by following some simple rules. This article is a part of series Know-How about Domain that talks about every term related to domain.

Domain name is the name that gives unique identity to a website on the Internet. It’s synonymous to your name being your individual identity. For example: www.znetlive.com is a domain name.

Technically they are substitute for IP addresses as it is difficult for humans to remember IP addresses, which can contain as many as 12 digits.

How to choose a domain name?

Short and simple domain name – Domain name should be remembered and its need to be short in order to get remembered.  They need to be short because user needs to enter that domain name; if it’s too long people will not be interested in typing the same.
Suffix – Suffix stands for extensions like .com, .in, .net, .co.in, etc that comes after your domain name. Technically they are known as TLD (top level domain).The most opted suffix is .com as people assumes that site name will be www.yoursite.com. The suffix too depends on the motto & the country you are located in. For ex - .org suffix denotes that the site is of nonprofit organization, .in denotes Indian companies, .com stands for commercial organization, .co.in stands for company in India, .net stands for network, etc.
Character Types – Domain names can only use letters, numbers, and dashes. Spaces and symbols are not allowed.  Domain names are not case sensitive.
Singular vs. Plural – Check whether user will search for singular or plural of your domain name and if possible get both the domains booked and use redirection. For example – if you have a site that delivers gardening solutions then gardeningsolutions.com will be apt rather than gardeningsolution.com.
Avoid Numeral/Slang Substitutions – Sometimes numerals in a domain can shorten the domain name but it may sometimes lead to confusion. For example, try not to use the numeral “4″ instead of “for”, “2″ instead of “to”, “u” instead of “you” etc.
Easy to Type – The easier the domain is to type then the better the domain will be.
One Possible Spelling – Choose a domain name that only has one possible spelling. Choose simple words and not confusing spelling. For example color is somewhere spelled as colour, organization is somewhere spelled as organisation, etc
Keyword Rich – Try to choose a domain name that contains keywords related to your website. For example – if you website is about books then the option can be bookshub.com. The keyword rich domain name will help your site to get easily searched by search engines (google,yahoo,etc).
Easily Understood – Your domain name should speak of what your website is all about.

Check out Know-How about Domain - II to know more about domain registration and other domain related terms. Know-How about Domain – II discusses about registering domain name, sub domains, domain renewal and domain parking. Know-How about Domain – III will discuss more about domain like setting DNS, etc