A crucial building block in setting up a website is the choice of a domain name.  Whether you are a doctor, lawyer, plumber, aluminum siding salesman, or if you want to start up a website to advertise your garage band, the entire enterprise begins with the choice of your domain name.

Then again you might ask- “What makes the best domain name choice?”.  The answer to this depends on what type of site you are planning.  For example, if you are someone who wants to build a website devoted to Spot, the family dog, then your choice of a domain name really doesn’t matter.  Why not?  Because in a case like that you probably don’t really care about gaining a lot of traffic to your website, friends and family are your desired visitors, to keep them informed.  In a case like this, it does not matter whatsoever if you find a domain name like “ourdogspot.com” or not, since most likely you will only be giving out the domain name to a few friends and family and maybe some coworkers.   

The point is that in a case like this, there is no real concern with getting a lot of visitors to the website other than friends and family and coworkers, so there is no real harm in naming the website ANYTHING, because you will be giving out the website address to a select few people.  BUT……

What if the website is for business?  What if you want it to attract attention?

It can bring huge dividends to have a domain name that reflects your site or business.  Depending on the type of business, an electrical contractor for example, would people look for your electrical contracting business online if your website had an obscure name like “bills-business.com?  If you can, get your domain name exactly the same as your business, that is your best bet.  Failing that, at least try to put the category of your business into the name.  For example, an antiques website should have a domain name like antiques.com or bobsantiques.com, something that immediately associates the domain name with the theme of the site.  It’s all about branding, and making a lasting impression on the target audience or customers.

You need to search the WhoIs database to find a domain name that has not already been registered.  For a quick search of your desired domain name, I have conveniently placed a domain name search engine on StartYourWebsiteToday.com for this very purpose.  After searching for the domain name, the results given will instantly show whether or not the domain name is available, and if so, give you the option to immediately register it.  If it’s not available, several alternative domain names will be proposed, to help you fine tune your search, or possibly giving you an acceptable alternative domain name to register instead.