Choosing a domain name is the very first task for starting a new web because without a domain name you can't get your website on the internet.  If you are going to have to choose one, it might as well be a great one?  Of course.

Great domain names are often as short as possible, represent your organization name or cause so that the name is somewhat intuitive to your viewers.  You should avoid words that have multiple spellings, like won.org versus one.org.  But getting a short domain name with only 4 or 5 letters can be difficult, they are mostly taken.

Use of hyphens sometimes helps, but makes the domain name less intuitive.  On the other hand, hyphenated words in domain names are more easily read for what they are by search engine spiders and robots, and that can be a small advantage if you choose the right domain naming strategy.

Search Engine Rankings & Your Domain Name

The domain name you choose can influence your search engine rankings slightly, especially on Google.  Google's 2005 patent specification reveals a lot of information about possible ways Google might use your domain name to determine the ranking of your site.  The Google patent mentions specific types of information relating to how a document is hosted within a computer network that may influence the ranking of a web site. For example, Google tries to determine the legitimacy of a domain name.

According to Google, valuable domains are often paid for several years in advance while doorway or throwaway domain names are rarely used for more than a year. To determine the value of a domain, Google records the following information:

• The length of the domain registration (one year or several years)
• The address of the web site owner, the admin and the technical contact information
• The stability of the host company where the web resides once you get it online
• The number of pages in a web site (web sites must have more than one page)

Google also claims that they have a list of known bad contact information, name servers and IP addresses that help them to find out whether a spammer is running a domain or if the registrant of the domain name is an alias rather than a real company or real person.

In addition, the patent specification claims that Google might check the information of a name server in several ways. For example, good name servers might have a mix of different domain names from different registrars.  Bad name servers might host mainly adult or doorway domains, bulk-domains from a single registrar or domains with many commercial words.

In other words, if your website lives in a bad neighborhood, Google will know it.  Thus, choosing a legitimate Hosting company with high standards for what kinds of webs they host is very important.

Great Domain Naming Strategy

• Great domain names should be short, if possible
• Great domain names should intuitive and memorable in some way, representative of your company or organization, your cause, service or product
• Avoid using words with multiple spellings or pronunciations, like one versus won, or for versus fore versus four

Choosing a great domain name is, in part, a marketing exercise to develop a good strategy for your domain name.  Branding is more important than any other factor.

Search engine algorithm research presently reveals that a keyword rich domain name adds small points to your overall score for your rankings, especially with Google.