There are a few important things to consider when you first decide you need a website (because you do, really you do). The very first thing, and possibly the most important, is your domain name.

Why get a website? It’s very very important in business to make your customer feel comfortable with you; that’s how you get them to trust and then purchase from you. A website is an important part of the current trust relationship.

Why?

Build credibility

Having a website to send potential customers to, even if you don’t sell retail items on your site, but instead sell your services, builds credibility and makes your business seem professional and worthy of trust. Likewise, having domain-specific email builds trust, as well. Also, it makes it clear that your business intends to stick around.

Online brand

Think of your domain name and your website as your online storefront. It’s your virtual location and should be considered an extension of your brand – to mesh nicely with your other marketing materials.

Traffic

With a large percentage of potential customers searching online for products and/or services BEFORE making a purchase, an effectively built, relevant website is extremely important. Traffic from type in traffic, search engine results pages, referring websites or even from Pay Per Click marketing is an excellent way to help increase your reach.

Is this important? YES! Think of your domain name as your online calling card, your go-to location, your i-Home. It’s the place where potential customers will gather to check out what you have to offer. Some things to think about:

• Pick something people can remember.
• I can’t stress this enough. If someone remembers your domain name, they’re more likely to come back.
• If you can, pick your domain name based on your business name. That way, they’re tied together in the visitor’s mind.

If you can’t pick your domain name based on your business name, stick with something memorable. For example, if your business name is Big Tech Web Hosting and your first choice, www.BigTechWebHosting.com is taken, think about something that will both represent your business as well as stick in someone’s mind.

Maybe something like www.HostAtBigTech.com or www.GetBigTech.com. The point is to find something catchy that is both easy to remember and still represents your company.

• Short and sweet.

In other words, make it short and easy to spell because people are going to misspell it if they can.

Try for keywords, but ONLY if they directly relate to your business and it makes sense to have those keywords. For the most part, a domain that contains keywords is going to rank higher for THAT keyword than another domain name will.

Example: www.WEBSITE.com is going to rank higher for the keyword WEBSITE than www.DesignersDream.com simply because the keyword is in the domain name. USUALLY.

There are exceptions. And given the fact that getting a domain name with keywords is fast becoming almost impossible, it’s not a HAVE TO DO type of thing. If you can, do it; if not, don’t sweat it.

There’s the main points on buying a domain name. I’m rerunning this today because I think it’s still a pretty valid, helpful article…any other ideas when it comes to getting that domain name?