“Domains have and will continue to go up in value faster than any other commodity ever known to man” -Bill Gates

It is true! The domain names industry is on its peak, but not saturated (yet). Making a decision on what your (own, business’ or customer’s) domain name will be is not easy at all. Picking up the correct domain name for your website requires an in-depth knowledge of the industry your website is categorized, and a deep understanding of the “web” industry: search engine optimization tips, internet marketing strategies & techniques and domain name tips. In this article I am listing 7 tips that someone should consider in order to choose the Great domain.

Tip #1
Always use your business name as the domain name. Your visitors should have only one name to remember your business.

Tip #2
Your domain name should be short and/or easy to remember. Domain names that are short and easy to remember names enhance the returning visitors percentage to increase and increases your website’s visitors loyalty.

Tip #3
In addition to Tip #2, avoid using more than 4 words in your domain name. For example, avoid www.bestfreesoftwareontheweb.com!! It is both difficult to remember and type. Although it is increasing difficult to buy short domain names, it worth to try!

Tip #4
On top of registering a domain using your business name, register another domain name that is related to your business sector. If you are operating on the luxury hotels industry, I recommend you purchasing a domain with your hotel’s name, e.g. www.HotelABC.com and an additional domain www.LuxyryHotelsDenmark.com. You can then point both domain names to the same website.

Tip #5
If you need to use abbreviations, use only those that made sense and/or easy to remember. For example, instead of using www.cyprusinstituteofpsychologists.com, it might be easier to using www.cip.com.

Tip #6
Avoid using hyphenated domain names. The advantage of hyphenated domain names is that it is easier to spot when printed. For example: www.Cyprus-Institute-of-Psychologists.com is easier to read as compared to www.cyprusinstituteofpsychologists.com. The downside is when the domain name is communicated verbally. To really make sure the person you talk to get to your website, you have to pronounce it as “www dot cyprus hyphen institute hyphen of hypen psychologists dot com” as compared to pronouncing it “www dot cyprus institute of psychologists dot com”. Imagine if you had to tell a customer, or a friend, to visit such a long url with hyphens and maybe numbers, over the phone!

Tip #7
Avoid using “to” or “for” or numbers in your domain name as your visitors may type “2″ or “4″ instead (and vice-versa).

All steps that you mention above about Domain Name selection are very very important. Because Domain Name is help you to optimize it easily. You must set it user friendly.

Even though tip#5 is good, it is very hard to find usable short .com domain. Thanks for nice tips.

Very nice tips there. I'd like to add that http://bustaname.com is an amazing website to find names- you enter a few key words and it mashes them together and checks if they're available. Managed to get a few very brandable domains via that site.

In 6th point, I guess there should be no confusion using numbers like 2,4.

turn the clock back to circa 1990 or so and register what you want or open your wallet really wide

Good list for a newbies. After purchasing more then 350 domains right now I do it like this:
Get the keywords and after this try all possibilities till I find something that I like.
You can also get a domain with no meaning ( google, yahoo ) as what you do on that site is important.

Nice List! Good for me to start investing in domains!

Looks like you didn't follow TIP #6 when you've chosen your domain ah ?

Thanks for the tips.

Thanks for the tips
Please expand on your reasoning for Tip 4.

Very Important Tips.

Tip #4 - Its ok to redirect your domain to your main domain but do not use same contents on both domains

For tip#7 - just register both the "to" and "2" variants

But you missed a vital extension to #4

register (and use) domains specific to your products/services/brands - creating mini-sites for each of them

Yes, if you're a-n-other-chemical-co you should register a-n-other-chemical-co.(tld) but there's a lot of potential if you can also have domains:
spotcream.???
exteriorpaint.???
etc

Very nice list there to help people out with registrations. I have come across a lot of people that wanted to have every word in their domain name to explain their business thinking it would be good for SEO. Abbreviating is a good thing and makes it easier to remember.

Those are some great tips; is it okay if we use a few of them on our sites?

I strongly believe that the domain should be short, memorable, descriptive, and catchy..
A good domain is good money in your pocket!