by Encargado Telosh

So you've decided to put a web site up on the Internet. In this article, we will discuss the best way to choose a domain name for your business web site, but many of the same principles apply if you are choosing a name for a hobby or informational site. So, let's choose a name for your little piece of the Internet.

There are some blunders that people make while choosing a domain name for their site that inhibits its popularity. A good domain name of a site allows people to find your site easily on the Internet. The following would give a fairly good idea of what to avoid while choosing a domain name.

Avoid numbers. Many people use numbers in their domain names on their Internet sites because they think it's cute, or simply to save letters. It isn't a good idea. It creates confusion. For instance, a website called 'www.fun4pets.com' is ambiguous. The customer cannot figure out whether the digit '4' in this domain is the number or the word, and if it is a word, does it stand for 'for' or 'four'. Thus, the first thing to avoid is ambiguity.

Next, try not to use a hyphen in your domain name. You see a lot of sites out there that think it's better to put a "-" in their URL to make it easier to read. For example, you might have a domain like "www.fun-for-pets.com." But, you are assuming that the potential customers are going to remember that there are hyphens and won't type in "www.funforpets.com" because it makes more sense. Remove the doubt and go without hyphens.

Now let us consider some things that you should do when looking for a domain name. The first and foremost thing is to always use a '. com' extension for domain names. People are accustomed to typing in the URL to their Internet browser. Use of other extensions like - .net, .org, .biz, .org have the risk that you might send people to another site altogether. But if the name is not available with '.com', then you have to pick another domain.

Next, you want to make sure that your name is easy to spell. There are a lot of bad spellers out there, and if you choose a name that can be misspelled, it will be. For example, if you choose something like "www.specialoccassions.com", you may get any variation of either word, so people may be typing in "www.spechulokashens.com" (and don't laugh - I've seen worse misspellings on the Internet!).

It would also be prudent to keep the domain name short. Two to three words, and under 25 characters, are considered most acceptable. In this way, the chances of mistyped URLs could be avoided. The chances of people making mistakes and missing letters when you give a name to your website such as www.thebestwebsiteevernomatterwhat.com is quite high.

[Editor's Note: Attorneys should also consider including practice area or geographically descriptive term in their URL - www.miamientertainmentlawyer.com.]

You could assume the guidelines stated above to be of a general nature. There are always going to be exceptions to the rule. Just keep in mind these when you give a domain name to your website and you would find that your business would thrive as people would find your website with ease.

Encargado Telosh is the owner and operator of FYE Internet, a leading Internet directory for internet information. For more internet information and resources, be sure to visit: http://www.FYEinternet.com

If you are interested in submitting an article for consideration for a future issue of the Internet For Lawyers newsletter, send it as an attachment (in Microsoft Word) to editor@netforlawyers.com.

For more information about creating effective Web sites for your practice, see:

• Effective Attorney Web Sites