2.   Acquiring a domain name

If you don’t already have a domain name, then is time to get one.
Make a list of a few domain names that you would like to acquire, keeping the name as close as possible to your business / website profile.
The best domain names are 2-3 short words that together form a single word (that describes at it’s best what the website is about), followed by the TLD (.com, .net, .ie, etc) [e.g. eire-webdesign.ie (eire = Ireland; web design)]
As per example above, you can make use of dashes (-) to separate your words, but Why? it’s explained below.

Now that you have your domain names list ready, go to a trusted domain reseller website and start checking for availability. You might have a great domain name and chances are that it’s already taken, but don’t despair, the right one is just right the corner from you.
Try the same variant by separating the words with dashes (-) as you have seen in the example above, make use of numbers (4 = for, 2 = to, etc.), think of new phrases, but don’t make them too long, don’t use words that are hard to spell, avoid words with double letters (double LL, double MM, etc., unless you can purchase the domain with a single letter as well), try adding “online”, “free”, etc words to your domain list (e.g. freeadvice, onlinebitsnbobs, etc.), you get the point don’t you?…

NOTE: Don’t start shopping for domain names that are part of a trademark, as there is a high risk of loosing them (e.g. NIKE)

If you run out of options, you can always select your business name if you are a registered company. Some TLD’s requirements are to have a company registration number, before purchasing a domain (e.g. .ie for Ireland).

Talking about TLD’s, make sure you are selecting the best one for your website, as together with the location of your hosting IP, will have a high impact in your Search Engine Optimisation techniques.

For example, Google, one of the biggest and most used Search Engine, takes into consideration the location of your website IP address & TLD when delivering the results (SERPs) to a user query.
Having a .ie domain name, hosting your website with an Irish hosting company that have the servers located in Ireland (note the bold phrase? – and Yes it does matter), can help your website ranking for Irish related queries.
Saying that, Google Webmaster Tools, has an option to specify the GEO target of your website, but it hasn’t been proved to be 100% accurate yet (please correct me if I am wrong).

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