Good Domain Names

By Clare Lawrence 13th September 2003 Clare is the CEO of Discount Domains Ltd a leading UK domain registrar

No matter what domain name you buy its unlikely to be assessment of worth $ millions straight away, but with some careful though and preparation you might maximise your domain names potential.

Using hyphens
Almost every word in the dictionary has been registered already so its more than likely that you will have to register a combination of words. Should you buy a domain title with a hypen in it?
Generally speaking the answer is no. There are several reasons why not.
Describing a domain title with hyphens could be awkward. Customers have a habit of forgetting the hyphen and typing in the wrong URL. Its a misconception that hyphens improve search engine rankings, the leading search engines now concentrate on content and pay only limited attention to the URL itself.

Consider a ccTLD
There is no evidence that Country Code Top level domains (ccTLDs) are treated differently by Search Engines, though there may be advantages and disadavantages if your business is regional Submitting your domain to search engines Once you have configured your domain to point to your Web page , you will need to ensure that search engines are aware of it. If they arent, your web site will receive very few visitors - even if you have managed to find a memorable, snappy domain title .

This may be achieved by either directly submiting your URL to the search engines through using a submission accomadation such as the free of price submission service on our page .
Free submissions

Please be careful when using automated submission tools as the Search engine are penalising sites submitted in this way. Ours is manual for this very reason.

Or by linking your web site to others, this is the preferred way for search engine to discover new sites.

Ensuring you own your domain

Just because you buy a domain name doesnt mean you own it. Some less reputable suppliers register domain names in their own title . You can see who owns a domain name by using a lookup call a WHOIS search e.g WHOIS If you look at the registrant details the name here is the legal owner. For example if you enter discountdomainsuk.com you will see the legal owner is us Discount Domains Ltd

Selling your domain name

Is your domain name near to expiry? Dont let it lapse without offering it for sale first, there are lots of dazzling sites who only charge if your domain sells. You might be pleasantly surprised, domain names have fetched a $1 million before now!