Register your domain name before you start your site so you will be able to match your content to the name, not the other way around. You will be lucky to set up your site first and then get a name that matches it perfectly. If you get the chance to find a good name that is not already taken, register it before someone else does.

When you come up with a name, share it with the other people near you. Ask your family and friends what they think of your domain name. If you get too many questions on what the name means or people stumble over saying it aloud, you might need a new name.

Choose a website name that is the same as your domain name. This way, people will think of your site and know where to go. Think of about.com, their name is the same as their domain name. There will be no mistaking them for anybody else. If you have a product and a domain name that are not the same, get domain names for both the product and the domain. This way, you will be able to point customers to either site depending on whether they know you by your product or your domain. You might want to corner the market on your name by snapping up hyphenated and misspelled versions of your domain names as well.

Choose a specific name for your business. If you sell Tony the Tiger dolls, you would want your sight to be tonythetigerdolls.com and not a generic name like dolls.com. The more specific you are, the more easily your customers will find you.

You can choose a name of up to 67 characters. This does not mean you should use all 67 of the letters in your domain name. While a short name may be easier to remember, it is difficult to get short names anymore. You will have to be creative to think of one that is not already used. If you can come up with a short name, use it.

Hyphenated names have the disadvantage of being difficult to type. People have to look for the hyphen key because they do not use it all the time. In addition, if a person does not type the hyphens, they could end up at your competitor’s site. It also takes too long to say the hyphens when you are talking about your site. However, if you are determined to get a name and the only way you can get it is to add the hyphens, chances are it is available because somebody else did not want to use the hyphens.

Suppose you can get domain site name you want with the only problem being that you have to add “a” or “the” to the beginning or you have to pluralize a word? Take it if you will remember to promote the full name of your site. Remember that it is easy to forget the article word and the plural version so again, people may be looking for you and still land on your competitor’s site.

If you cannot get a .com extension and you have to use a .net or .org, use the full name in all of your promotions. If you do not, people will assume it is a .com address.

Add a keyword in your domain name. Choose a word that you think people will use as they search for your content or products. Make a compound word with your keyword to devise a new domain name.

Did you remember all that? Now, go out and name that domain.

The governments of most of the world’s countries have specialised domain extensions, for example, the UK has .gov.uk and the USA has .gov. This differentiates them from unofficial sites and acts as an instant, clear reassurance that visitors are on the relevant governmental website. In this way, they know that the information they read will be relevant and accurate, and any data they submit will go directly to where it is meant to be. It is now being argued that a special extension should be created for banks and building societies to provide the same reassurance for their customers.

This proposal has come from F-secure, which is a security company, in an attempt to fight phishing. This is a criminal activity that involves the fraudulent acquisition of the financial details of unsuspecting internet users. For example, a phisher (a perpetrator of phishing) may send out emails claiming to offer an extended credit limit, providing the recipient with a link to a form, where they can enter their current credit card details. The phisher can then use this information to use the victim’s credit card online - many millions of pounds are stolen in this way each year.

If a domain extension, also known as a TLD (top level domain), existed exclusively for banks - the recipient of the fraudulent email would be able to check the url of the virtual destination they have been sent to, upon finding that the url did not contain the appropriate TLD, they could simply close the window and mark the email as spam. Perhaps, more usefully, the user could forward the email to the fraud department of any related financial institution.

The organisation that decides whether this apparently good idea will become a reality is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). However, ICANN argue that the only way to limit access to a specific TLD is to price it beyond the means of phishers and this would be of detriment to smaller financial institutions.

What is the first step in creating a website for your company; setting up web hosting, hiring a designer, writing a press release or developing content? It’s a tricky one but, in truth, it is none of these. There is one thing that must certainly come before all else. If you wish to start a website you must first select a domain.

Many people have a name in mind for their site and develop everything around this, without checking if the name is available. It should come as no surprise when they inevitably find their domain name has been taken and that they have wasted hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds on a design, content and press release based on a name that will never be theirs. To save yourself the hassle, stress and financial loss, read this article and learn from the mistakes of millions of other budding webmasters.

Simply use a search engine to find a domain name provider, its easier to choose one which offers cheap web hosting as well so that you can get your site up and running imeediately. An approximate yearly fee for a .com domain name is no more than $10. In most instances it is not worth purchasing any domains other than the .com. In general, the .com extensions takes 90% of the traffic for that domain name, so by buying and promoting a .net, .org or any other such extension, you are simply helping to promote the site belonging to the owner of the .com - who, worst of all, is probably your rival.

Another very important rule is to keep your domain as short as possible. Forget grammatical accuracy, above all else, your domain name needs to be catchy to ensure you achieve maximal return visits. This may seem to somewhat contradict what I have just noted, however, if possible, it is a good idea to include keywords in your domain name for the purpose of search engine optimisation. A domain name with keywords is more likely to rank highly in organic search listings than one without.

In summary, make sure you get your domain name first, make sure it is a .com, keep it catchy and if you cannot keep it catchy - pack it with keywords.

To the web hosting industry, a domain name registration operation is vital in the race to attract as many customer as possible, but why do they work so well together?

The simple fact is that you cannot have one without the other, especially if you are setting up a new business. As soon as you have spotted the domain name that you have been looking for, the next port of call might be a host. What better opportunity for a host to advertise themselves, than next to a domain registration option?

While the domain registration industry operates on very low margins, the volume of numbers is so high that a few companies around the world are making a great income from this area alone. Godaddy are one such company which have a strong presence in the domain name market, as well as a variety of hosting options which they can throw at you as soon as you have bought your domain. All in-house, all instant, the attraction has been too much for many to ignore!

Even though the web hosting industry has been around for some time now, competition is growing more and more intense and we have seen a number of smaller companies go under, or be taken over by larger competitors. It is now becoming more and more expensive to attract new customers via the normal advertising channels. Therefore large press releases about new services and new offerings are essential, as are the smaller services such as domain names - which will always attract the online webmaster looking for that next big site.