When you’re setting up a website, one of the first things you’re going to have to come up with is a domain name, that URL that people need to type in to get to your site. This is a great thing about the Internet.  Nowhere else in life do you get to choose your own address. Well, you may get to choose it, but you don’t get to choose what it’s called. You’re stuck with: 5489 Drab Place or whatever. Online, your address can be whatever you want it to be.

Available Domain Names

Within limits.  You can’t choose anything obscene and for that matter, anything with an “X” anywhere near it has probably already been co-opted by some porn site. Pretty much every four letter or fewer letter combination has already been used, as is probably every word in the English language not in combination with one or more other words.

My Name Is URL

So what’s a name-maker to do? Keep in mind that your domain name is also your URL, the thing people have to remember in order to type it in to their web browser in order to get to your site. Try to make a domain name that describes your product or service without getting too wordy: WeCleanYourDrains.com rather than TheBestPlumberInTheWorldThatOffersaVarietyofPlumbingServices.com. I’d also avoid too many syllables and too much alliteration. ResplendentRedRackets.com sounds like a distinctive name for your site that sells tennis gear, but it may be more trouble that it’s worth. Was it RedResplendent or ResplendentRed? What was that first word again? Try to keep it simple.

Welcome to Your Site

While the choice of a domain name may not seem that important in the greater scheme of things, the fact is, it is your introduction, the first thing people see about your site, and like they say in the commercial, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression."