There has been much debate
on which factors are the most important when determining what
domain to purchase. Choosing a domain name should be deeply
tied to the business plan and the vision of the company. A
domain can be chosen for its advantages in Search Engine placement,
a company’s brand, or as a description of a general term.
One must consider a domains size, pronunciation, how memorable
it is, and if the name is taken in other similar forms or extensions.
For example, if one registers a domain.net, but the domain.com
is taken and developed, creating a brand for domain.net would
be very dangerous and might end up being confused for its .com
counterpart.
Search Engine Placement Domains
The purpose of these domains is to rank high in the search
engines, because the actual domain name contains the keywords
being searched for. Search Engine domains are very rarely
brandable, and are mostly used exclusively as side Internet
properties to redirect traffic to the main site. A company
who sells red widgets would benefit from acquiring red-widgets.com
and redwidgets.com , because it is natural that people
will remember such address, but most importantly, that
domain name has a high probability of ranking at, or very
near to, the top of a search for ‘red widgets’.
A very popular tool used to find what is being searched
for on the net is: Overture Keywords (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/)
Brand Domains
When coming from the offline business into the online, the
obvious choice for brand domains is the offline brand name
as .com and/or .country extension. Country extensions are
used in countries were there is more popularity in their
country extension than on the .com. In the case that no previous
brand existed before moving online, one most be very creative
into the approach of a brandable name. At this point, there
are millions of domain names registered and many times, one
finds that the desired domain is taken. There is a consensus
among most Internet domain experts that the shorter the domain,
the better. A domain that is about 5 letters long is highly
desirable for a brand. However, the domain must sound right
as well. Xyqpt.com would be undesirable, because it cannot
be easily said or remembered to the general public.
General Term Domains
In the height of the Internet Bubble, general term domains
were the most popular choice. Many companies failed, even
though they had the generic word for their market. Companies
like TheKnot.com refused to purchase Weddings.com, because
they were conscious that they needed to focus on brand. Although
this strategy worked for TheKnot.com, generic words have
a value of their own that cannot be ignored. Like Search
Engine Placement Domains, which attract a large number of
visitors through search engine referrals, so do generic word
domains. For this reason, generic word names are still very
much desired and their value continue to rise. What should
be learned about the Dot Com Bubble is that generic domains
are not everything in a dot com business, rather they are
a valuable (yet, not essential) component in an array of
variables that make an Internet business a success. The current
value of these domains, and other domains in general can
be seen at an online publication that covers recent domain
name transactions at: Domain Journal Sales (http://www.dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm)
Article Source: http://www.articlecube.com
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