Booking a domain name and getting a website going is quite cheap and easy today. However, what people often neglect to consider is that the domain name is not just a web address but actually a part of the brand identity of a business. You cannot simply pick up any name that sounds good and go with it. You need to think in terms of brand image and how to help that image grow before settling on domain name.

A brand is more than just a name. A brand identifies your business and lets the world know who you are, what you do, what you represent, what you stand for, and so on. It is essentially a small communication that speaks a lot so it is important to pick the right domain name. The key thing is for a brand to be memorable. The easier it is to remember and associate with certain things the better it will work. This is why brand names do not use articles like "The" or "A" and avoid hyphenation. They are single words that are easy to remember.

The .com extension is desired universally but you should seriously consider other examples. For example, if your business is such that never at any time will you have a customer outside the United States then why not consider a .us domain instead of .com?

Think of the customers who will need to remember the domain name more than what you like and you will make a better choice.

Try to avoid hyphens wherever possible. Resumewritersdotcom is better than resume-writersdotcom. If you use hyphens, your potential visitors may not, and may end up at a competitor’s website. That is why you should not use a TLD (top level domain) if the .com version has been taken. Many people just add .com as a matter of course, so if you have a site resumewriters.net, people looking for your website will possibly end up at a competitor’s.

It is better to find another domain name. If ressumewritersdotcom and resume-writersdotcom are both available, take them both. That stops a competitor from being confused with your website.

On the subject of the TLD, .com is far preferable to any other. .net, .org and .info are probably the next best three, but if you can get a .com domain name then you should snap it up. Many people will remember the name of your website without paying too much attention to the ending. Others will type into their browser what seems to be an appropriate website name for what they are looking for then add .com, since that is they think websites should finish. So .com should be the order of the day!

If you find that all of the names you can think of are taken, then you will likely have to carry out some keyword research. Using a keyword tool such as the Google keyword tool, enter the name of your primary product or service. Not the trade name, but the name of what you trade in, for example “resume writing”.

Choosing a domain name is not the simple task you might have though that it was. It is not how to choose a domain name that is difficult, but the fact that with every passing minute another twelve domain names or more are registered. Domain name choice is easy: registering your choice is not.