When it comes to picking a good domain name, the real key is to is to pick something memorable, but one that makes sense for your company, or product name. Far too often people try to be cute by picking a name they like that has no connection to their product. This not only makes it hard for the public to remember the name of the website, but also to make a connection between it, and the company or product.

There are always exceptions to the rule, and one exception is the hit CBS television show "CSI". "CSI" had a special series of episodes in 2007 with film actor Liev Schreiber playing a character known as Keppler. To promote this arc, and encourage people to learn more, they ran a website whoiskeppler.com. This led more people to turn into the show, as well as looking at their website.

One of the biggest mistakes new website owners routinely make a different spelling of a major word in their domain name. They believe this makes their site different, unique, and catchy. In actuality this makes it very confusing for web surfers. They may try spelling the word correctly and be sent to a completely different site, or given a "page not found" message. After trying to reach the site a few more times, many users will simply give up, and move on to a different page.

Another mistake that many make is using a large number of hyphens in their domain name. For instance Johnson Realty might decide that johnson-realty-company.com sounds like a better name than simply johnsonrealtycompany.com. This can lead to the same problems described above. Users attempt to find the site, are taken elsewhere or given the "page not found message", and quickly give up. The point of creating a good domain name is to bring visitors to the site, not frustrate them into going somewhere else.

Website surfers like their sites to be easy to find, and have a catchy yet memorable domain name. Think about taking a single project, or facet of the company and building a website and domain site around that. Dr. Pepper chose the domain name drpepper.com, while Coca-Cola can be found at coke.com. If the site you are interested in is already taken, you can consider using a .net, or a .biz at the end of the site name. This guarantees that you will have the domain name that you want.

Learn more about this author, Jennifer Eblin.
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