How should I pick a domain name?

The two single most important considerations (in my opinion) for choosing/using a domain name are that it:

1. Be short
2. Be memorable

After that, it is important that it also:

• Be easy to spell
• Have no punctuation
• Have no double letters where not expected
• Preferably not have a double vowel where expected

As for the latter set of considerations, I often tell people to consider telling their domain name to others on the phone... can they communicate it quickly and easily, with no room for misunderstanding or special instructions?

I often get asked if using search engine optimization (SEO) keywords in a domain name is important (You ARE doing keyword research, right?). In my opinion (see a presentation I did on this topic How To Build a Search Engine Friendly Website) keywords in a domain name are of very minimal value when it comes to search engine rankings and positioning. The reasoning for this is simple: search engines know that you usually cannot purchase the domain name that you want, so it's not beneficial to penalize you for that. Page names, page titles, meta keywords and most important of all, content text on pages are directly under your control, and far more important to your SEO position.

One fun and interesting tool that I currently enjoy using to search for available domain names is at www.bustaname.com where you can type in allowable words, set a few settings, and bustaname will search for all available combinations of unregistered domain names. It can take a lot of time out of the process of searching for domain names, and I find it more creatively stimulating than some of the other services, like GoDaddy, where they do different logical matches, alternatives to words you've typed, or appending of prefixes and suffixes to domains that you search for.

Play, experiment, run choices past your friends, try saying them over the phone, and above all - sleep on it! Do not rush into choosing a domain name!

In some cases, you may find what you think is the perfect name, even though it might have some spelling issues (e or i?). So perfect, in fact, that to eliminate any confusion or competition, you feel like you need to buy multiple domains (like toni and tony), or buy multiple top level domains (TLDs) like mydomain.com, mydomain.org and mydomain.net (By the way, DO NOT buy a .us or .tv or .info domain name - not worth it, AND they come with search engine penalties that never go away). Ask your web developer, but many website hosting companies will allow you to do what is called a "Domain Park." Where one domain is functionally identical with regards to email and web service to another domain. This may cost you a little more, but can be very worth it. It's also useful for tracking ad campaigns.

See some examples of domain parks in use at these URLs:

http://kidsfirst.org
http://www.kidsfirstinternet.com
http://www.cqcm.com
http://www.cqcm.org

http://www.santafeculture.org
http://www.santafeartsanculture.org

http://www.santafewatercrisis.org
http://www.santafewatercrisis.com
http://www.sfwatercrisis.org
http://www.sfwatercrisis.com