How to Choose a Domain Name for a Personal or Business Website

You already have you small business set up and running, and you tend to get pretty good business by word of mouth. But, you want more business. A great way to get more advertisment for your small business is by using the internet and creating a website all about your business.

This may be a big concern for you. Maybe you don't have any designing skills or you're not too creative. Well, you can hire someone to design and create your website for you.

But, before you get into designing, you'll want to have a domain name picked out. You can go to websites like goDaddy to register for a domain name and to check for availability.

Because you already have a business with a business name, you will want to try that first. If your business's name has multiple words, such as 'Home Grown Hippies,' you can address this in different ways.

1. You can use a hyphen: www.home-grown-hippies.com
2. You can use an under scroll: www.home_grown_hippies.com
3. You combine the words into one: www.homegrownhippies.com

Although many sites use hyphens and under scrolls in their URL address (the domain name), it's not ideal. Having hyphens and under scrolls in a URL address can be hard to remember and easy to mess up.

So, your best bet is finding a way to configure your business name into one big word (homegrownhippies) versus using hyphens and under scrolls.

If you run into a problem with your first option (which should be your business's name) you should find a way to incorporate your business name into the domain name.

In the case of Home Grown Hippies, if www.homegrownhippies.com is taken, you may consider www.hgh.com or www.homehippies.com.

When choosing a domain name, you want to keep it short and simple. You want people to be able to remember your website when spreading the word about it, so the shorter the better.

Again, if you are able to, try to get your business name as the website URL address; it will be even easier for people to remember.

If you have one customer or client recommending your services to a friend, it will be easier to remember, "Just go to homegrownhippies.com," versus something unrelated to your business's name.

Remember to avoid hyphens and under scrolls as best as you can.

It just doesn't roll off the tongue as easy, when you have to say, "Check out home hyphen grown hyphen hippies dot com" or "Find more information at homegrownhippies.com just add hyphens between the words."