What's in a Domain Name?

When deciding on a domain name for a business, organization, etc. here are some things that should be taken into consideration:

Would you like your domain name to be the same name as your website?

Having a website named after the domain name may seem like the logical thing to do but there are many websites out there that think differently. Either way there really isn't a right or wrong answer to this question, it all depends on what you want.

Having the domain name the same name as the website would be a good choice because when people think of your website they'll also know how to get to it fast and easy if your domain name is the same name as your website. It's less of a hastle, and your website would be easy to access.

What kind of domain name should you have?

Having a generic name as your domain name could be okay in some instances, like if you would like a domain name as a URL to a website that is focused on a broad subject.

Or you could have a brand name for your domain name. For example, maybe you want a website that's focused on not only trucks, but chevrolet trucks so instead of having trucks.com as your domain name you could have chevrolettrucks.com as your domain name. It's more specific and it's much better for people who would like to look at that certain brand of trucks.

Should your domain name be short or long?

I know that most people may think that shorter names are better because they are easier to remember, but easier isn't always better. It's also better if the domain name is specific instead of just straight to the point because I highly doubt that someone would think to type the initials of a clothing brand or a tanning spa before thinking to type the actual name of whatever they're looking for. Longer names are specific and easy to think of especially when the domain name is the same as the website.

Should you use hyphenated names?

It's very easy to forget to add in the hyphens when typing in a web address especially for short domain names. Hyphens also makes it more complicated to access the website because not everyone knows specifically where to add in the hyphens and that leads to errors. An advantage of using hyphenated names is that search engines could distinguish your keywords better so your search will be more prominent.

Should you use plurals, "The" and "My " forms in your domain name?

I would recommend avoiding the use of plural domain names being that the chance of someone remembering not to add an "s" or any other suffix is great. If you are going to use the "the" and "my" forms in your domain name you should advertise/promote your website as the same exact name otherwise people are definetly going to forget.

Should your domain name be .COM, .ORG, .NET, etc?

When choosing one of these extensions for your domain it ultimately depends on the subject/topic of your website. For example most schools and other internet administrative sites like to use .NET for there domain name extensions. The .ORG extension describes the non-profit nature of organizational internet sites and Most settle for the .COM extension which is primarily used for commercial internet sites.

 

SAMSA Internet Team Grows

SAMSA has recently expanded its Internet team. Shawna Lytle, our newest Web Development Representative, comes to SAMSA with the desire to immerse herself in a career of professional development. She first started learning about the information super wave when she was at home caring for her children. To explain her fascination with the industry, she says, "The current was swift. I got caught by the website development riptide."

Shawna brings experience in graphic design and the code proficiencies XHTML and CSS. She also possesses PHP/MySQL programming skills and is further developing her client-side and server-side programming language skills. Shawna adds, "I think programming is challenging and intriguing. To be familiar with the web languages is to be multilingual. Watching a page of text essentially become a cog in the wheel of a dynamic screen machine is a magnificent phenomenon."

We welcome Shawna and are excited to have her on board to help SAMSA continue providing great website development, design, maintenance, and support services.