Domain Name: Questions to ask before you get that domain name

For people getting their own domain name the first time, whether it is for your business, self or as an investment, there are a series of questions that you might want to think about before you get a domain name. Here are some questions to ask before you get the domain name that you want…

Purpose

– What is it for? –

What is it for? Is it for personal use, business use or generally an investment? This question is important as for each one, you’d have your expectations that it should meet. For example, I’d be expecting lots of traffic and sales generated thru my website if it was for my business use.

Idea & Keywords

– Have you thought of the name? –

Do you have an idea on which domain name you want? If yes, make a list of around 20 – 30 domain names that you’d want and try to search them in registrars. If not or if it’s not available, think about your ‘keywords’, like a car dealer selling cars might be thinking car and shop which could be used as CarShop.COM. A good idea is to add keywords like:

• Location
• Activity
• Product
• Service
• Business name or Brand
• etc…

Target Market

– Are you targeting the whole world or one country? –

Who’s your target market? This is important because this is concerned to which domain name extension you’re going to get. For example, if your target was worldwide Global Top Level Domain names (gTLD) like .COM, .NET, .ORG, .INFO would be great; but if your target was the whole U.S., a country code Top Level Domain Name (ccTLD) like .US might be a better domain name for you.

So how does this make a difference? ccTLDs get better Search engine Optimization (SEO) in the local search engines. So in the case of .US, you’d be more visible in the U.S. market when someone searches in the search engines.

Availability

– Is the domain name taken? –

Is the domain name and extension available for you to get? If it’s not available to register, try to go to domain name auctions, like SEDO, Contact sellers or owners directly, or Find some in the expired domain names list. There are many ways to find yourself a good domain name, it just takes time and effort to get that one that you’d really want. I’ve written before about “what to do when the domain name you want is taken” before.