Are valuable domain names all taken now?   No.

You can still create a domain name that represents the subject of your website, but is not similar to an existing registered name.

You need to avoid being similar to existing names if you want your customers to stay with you.

Your domain name should be easy to remember, and therefore easy to spell. Although you can register a name up to 67 characters long including the .com part, such names are hard for people to remember and tell others about. The shorter and simpler the name the better.

e.g. generoushostinganddomannameregistrationdeals.com has only 48 characters but we couldn't hope to spell it from memory, so wouldn't expect anyone else to.

If a long name is unavoidable, it's easier to remember and pronounce if it's hyphenated. However, when people tell others they won't remember more than one hyphen.

If the name has keywords it will help in search engine ranking only if the words are separated by hyphens. For example platypuswebsites.com.au contains the keyword (for us) "websites" but search engines ignore that because in this case "websites" is part of a longer word. We would fare better with platypus-websites.com.au.

If you create a long hyphenated name for the benefit of search engines, you can always create a short version for emails etc. and parked it on the same website hosting.

If the name you want is already registered as a .com, don't take the .net or .org version. People will not think of the other versions — they are more likely to just remember the .com.

If you are starting a new business, it's probably wise to choose a domain name then a business name to match.

Subdomains are another option. Subdomains are free and do not need to be registered. They just need to be hosted with a domain name. So then you register a simple 3 or 4 letter name, say qid.com and host your website at mybusiness.qid.com.

Of course, it doesn't matter what the domain name is from the search engine perspective. Once it's listed, visitors just click on the listing in Google.

Always remember your name should be easy to remember if you hope for word of mouth referrals.

Saturday, 5th July 2008
Sydney, Australia