STEP #2

Choosing a good domain name is a very important step. At this point you have chosen a good Hosting plan and now it is time to choose the perfect domain name. That makes this STEP #2 in the new business start-up. If you missed STEP 1 follow this link: Choosing a Host

The Hosting plan I recommend and use is Building a Professional Website with Homestead which you can try for free!.

At this point hopefully you have a good idea what kind of website you will create and your topic. For purposes of simplicity lets say you are creating a rich content website with affiliate links. This is my main website, Money Saving Tips and Stop Money Leaks in Your Home Life. There is a certain amount of research you will need to do before deciding on your name.

First, pick your category or general topic. Do a search in any major browser using what you would think the core of the topic or the words you might use in your title. Your title and domain name should be similar. Check out the top list of websites that pop up with your search and see what your competition is doing. The main descriptive word for your site is your main keyword. Now it is time to check the stats on your keyword and keyword phrases. A keyword phrase is a grouping of words that someone might type into a search browser in order to find your website. For mine, save money tips are my main keywords or keyword phrase.

There are free tools for checking on keywords. Some will give you a trial with limited usage and other will give you a trial membership. Anytime online that you are offered a trial membership be very careful. If you do not cancel correctly you will end up with automatic withdrawals on your money account that you provided. Here is an option I have used:

Search Engine Optimization and SEO Tools

Using Submit Express is an excellent way to start the process of building a solid website. The tools are free and versatile. It is not really necessary to commit to buying any software or signing up for any memberships at this stage. If you decide to get into PPC (pay per click) promotion you will definitely need some advanced software for checking your keywords. For now go to Submit Express and check out the SEO tools link on the top. Plug in some choices for your website title and domain address and see what comes up. For my website, using save money tips is far less productive than using money saving tips. Go figure. If you were creating something for dog food...using dog food is far more productive than using dogfood. That is why you need to research the words first. Once you decide, the next step is to check the availability of your keyword rich domain name. There are a few rules for writing for SEO:

• Always use your keywords in your title.

• The first sentence of your project should contain at least one mention of your keyword.

• Repeat the keywords in the body of the text between 10 and 15 times – more if you can.

• Make sure that the reader doesn’t know you are writing for SEO. They should flow with the writing.

• If you have headings in your piece, use the keywords in the heading

Although it is not necessary, I do suggest that you use your website host to buy your domain name. It is just so much simpler. If you buy your domain name from a different source it will be necessary to redirect the name to your host. That is not difficult but is a little confusing the first time you try. If you use the host to buy your domain name it is all automatic and instant. If you are using HOMESTEAD Hosting buying a domain name is just $2.00 additional a month. That is a very reasonable rate.

So, assuming you are building a Professional Website with Homestead which you can try for free!, go to the HOMESTEAD website and plug in the domain name you have chosen to see if it is available. Go for a dot com as your first choice. The dot com extensions are hard to find now but you will be given many options for the best key words with other extensions, like dot net or biz. Having a dot come use to be extremely important but now there are so many other extensions used widely having a different extension is not a big deal. The bottom line is keep your start up costs down where you can. Also, remember that when someone is searching for a website like yours, they will be typing in keywords not extensions. In the instance of my website, moneysavingtips.biz was four times more expensive than savingmoneytips.biz so I use the cheaper domain name but the title reflects money saving tips.

Here are a couple things to consider in choosing your domain name. Make it direct and simple. When you see a business driving down the road, like Abbey Press, do you know what kind of business it is? If you see a business driving down the road that says, Dollar Mart, do you know what kind of business it is? One is very obvious and the other could be almost anything really. Picking a domain name should closely relate to your website title and should be clear about the kind of business product or information you are offering. Do you really have time or interest in going to websites just to see what they are? Probably not so much. People who search for your website will be searching for keywords and may or may not remember the extension. Make it simple to find. Most people are in a hurry. Try to avoid using numbers. A number in a domain address can be either a number '12' or written out as twelve. Which is it. It leaves too much too error when trying to find your website so best to avoid the numbers. If your website is a content site (content meaning valuable or useful information) or a product site (selling a specific product or service) you want your domain name and website title to reflect this as much as possible.

When the search engine robots crawl your website, they will be looking at the title and rating you accordingly. The higher the rating the better chance of getting a higher rank on the search engine page. Is this important to you? You bet. How many websites do you look at when you do a search. Do you look two or three pages into the search for a website or do you click on the top five or ten?

Now that you domain name is set and you have a good idea about the title of your website, it is time to take the next big step. For information on STEP #3 follow this link: