Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 5:20 am Post subject: Domain Name: What is considered 'Good Practice'?
From the web-browsers/web-searchers (ie. the humans, not the software!) point of view, are there any "good rules" & "bad rules" for people intending to register domain names for attracting max. traffic to them?
Example: you want to set up a site about how to make chocolate cakes. Which one of the 3 would be the preferred one & for what reasons?:
(2) "www.how_to_make_chocolate_cakes.com"
(more readable, using under-scores), OR
(3) "www.how-to-make-chocolate-cakes.com"
(also more readable using hyphens)
[Quotation marks added around example URLs to unhyperlink them. Admin.]
A friend in the IT industry frowned on (2) & (3)saying hyphens & underscores are not very common. I don't know about that.
(2) & (3) are more readable, making whoever is typing the address into their address bar less likely to make a mistake. I guess the possible disadvatage of using under-scores is that (believe it or not), NOT everyone knows how to get the under-score sign up.
So, in terms of what we all want to do here (ie. get a site up & running to attract max. traffic), is there a list of "Good practice" rules for registering domain names?
As far possible avoid hyphen however depending on the merit of particular domain name or due to non availability of desired domain name (without hyphen) you may consider to use single hyphen, but don't use more than one hyphen! _________________ Micfo International LLC
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I think the best choice is the first one. I think hyphens are ok - in my opinion they look better than underscores. _________________ GETAGRIP Marketing - Now Just $7!
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Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 9:24 pm Post subject: Re: Domain Name: What is considered 'Good Practice'?
Your IT friend gave you the best advice and number 1 is the best choice. Don't worry about appearance as much as what the end user actually has to type. The more underscores and hyphens the more likely it is the end user will have a typo and out of frustration skip your site entirely. Also, consider the number of total characters. Four is better than ten unless you have some phrase that everyone will easily remember.
lonesky1 wrote:
From the web-browsers/web-searchers (ie. the humans, not the software!) point of view, are there any "good rules" & "bad rules" for people intending to register domain names for attracting max. traffic to them?
[Long quotation shortened. Please quote selectively. Admin.] _________________ Jason Canon
The Internet Technology Guide
http://itechguide.com jmc@itechguide.com
Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 5713 Location: by the beach, Australia
Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 10:39 pm Post subject:
You can forget about option (2).
Although various articles exist on the Internet saying that you can use underscores in domain names, you can't.
To check this, I just went to a couple of domain registrars, 000Domains.com and NameCheap.com, and tried to register a name with an underscore in it. Didn't work.
Another option, if you want to think big, is to aim for a memorable name with doesn't include your main keywords, such as Google, Yahoo, eBay or Amazon. Or on a much smaller scale, ForkInTheHead.com. Now THAT'S memorable, even if you don't like it. _________________ Allan Gardyne
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I'm feeling #1 myself. And I think this would be easiest to remember for most people. However, it really depends on how you plan on using your domain name. If it is primarily just for online use then most people will be clicking on your link or finding your website in the search engines anyway. So it's not as important how your URL looks or how short or long it is. As long as it's optimized well and is a keyword-rich domain then you should be good -as far as online marketing goes.
But, if you plan on primarily using a particular domain name for offline marketing, then your focus should definitely be on choosing a memorable domain name.
Many people register multiple domain names for these very reasons.
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