There is much discussion about what factors are most important when deciding to buy a domain name. The choice of a domain name should be closely linked to the company's business plan and vision. A domain may be chosen based on its benefits for search engine ranking, for a company's brand, or to describe a general term. Consideration should be given to the size of the domain, its pronunciation, its memorability, and the fact that the name is assigned under other similar forms or endings. For example, if one registers a .net domain while the .com domain is already taken and developed, it would be very dangerous to create a trademark for the .net domain that could eventually be confused with its .com counterpart.
Domains for search engine positioning.
The goal of these domains is to achieve a high search engine ranking because the domain name itself contains the keywords that are being searched for. Search engine domains rarely have brand value and are usually only used as secondary sites to redirect traffic to the main site. A company that sells red gadgets would be well advised to acquire the domain names red-widgets.com and redwidgets.com because people will naturally remember this address, but more importantly because this domain name is very likely to show up in or near the first place in a search query for red gadgets. A very popular tool to find out what people are searching for on the Internet is: Overture Keywords (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/).
Brand domains
When moving from an offline to an online business, the obvious choice for brand domains is the offline brand name in the form of a .com and/or .country extension. Country extensions are used in countries where the country extension is more popular than .com. If no brand name existed before going online, it takes a lot of creativity to find a name that can be used as a brand. There are currently millions of domain names registered, and often the domain you want is already taken. Most Internet domain name experts agree that the shorter a domain is, the better. A domain of about five letters is highly desirable for a brand. However, the domain must also have a correct sound. Xyqpt.com would not be desirable because it is not easy for the general public to pronounce or remember.
Generic Domains
At the height of the Internet bubble, domains that contained generic terms were the most popular choice. Many companies failed when they had the generic term available for their market. Companies like TheKnot.com refused to buy Weddings.com because they knew they needed to focus on their brand. While this strategy worked for TheKnot.com, generic words have their own value that should not be ignored. Just as domains with search engine placement attract a large number of visitors via search engine referrals, so do domains with generic words. For this reason, generic word names are always in high demand and their value is constantly increasing. What we should learn from the dotcom bubble is that generic domains are not everything in an Internet business, but rather a valuable (but not essential) component in a set of variables that make up the success of an Internet business. The current value of these domains, and others in general, can be found in an online publication on recent domain name transactions: Domain Journal Sales (http://www.dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm). The most important factors in the decision to purchase a domain name are the subject of much debate. The choice of a domain name should be closely tied to the company's business plan and vision. A domain may be chosen based on its benefits for search engine ranking, for a company's brand, or to describe a general term. Consideration should be given to the size of the domain, its pronunciation, its memorability, and the fact that the name is assigned under other similar forms or endings. For example, if one registers a .net domain while the .com domain is already taken and developed, it would be very dangerous to create a trademark for the .net domain that could eventually be confused with its .com counterpart.
Domains for search engine positioning.
The goal of these domains is to achieve a high ranking in search engines, since the domain name itself contains the keywords that are being searched for.