So you have you have an idea for a website, you have the hosting and a plan for the design and content – one thing his left, the domain. We’ve all been at this stage; you sit blankly staring at your computer screen wondering what to call your site. “No that doesn’t sound right”, “wait, yes, no that isn’t right either”. Frustrating isn’t it? It’s like writing the perfect novel only to have a case of writers block when it comes to penning the last chapter.

You domain name is perhaps the most important piece of advertising when it comes to your website. It needs to capture what your site is about and also have a nice sound to it, something that can roll of the tongue. Let’s take a good example; there is a domain for sale on sedo.com called ‘ringtonesforyou.net’. Why is this a good domain name? Well just by looking at the name you know what the site is about; mobile ringtones. Furthermore you can tell that it is not just a site that informs you about new ringtones or ringtone news but that it is a website where you can get those tones on your phone; the ‘foryou’ part. So someone who is looking for a new ringtone will see the name of this site and think: ‘Hey, that’s where I can get the new ringtone to jazz up my phone”.

Imagine you called your ringtone site ‘cell-phone-extravaganza.net’. Apart from the fact that ‘extravaganza’ isn’t the easiest word to spell it doesn’t really convey what the site is about. Yes, cell phones, but what about them? Someone looking at this site would not instantly know that it sold or providing ringtones; it could just be another cell phone site like thousands of others.

Your domain needs to articulate in a simple way what your site is offering. ‘ringtonesforyou.net’ is great as it expresses what the site is about and it is a simple phrase. It is ok to use two or three words in your domain but keep them simple and straightforward and also on point.

A bad domain will inevitably harm your site, don’t complicate matters keep it plain and easy to remember because ultimately the domain is what most people remember.