Choosing a domain name is as crucial as choosing a trading name for any other business. Let me correct myself. It is even more important than choosing a trading name for your business. Reason is, it doesn't only affect the branding and perception but also your search engine placement.

Let's start from the beginning. If you are thinking of a website for your existing company you have two eligible choices:

1. A domain which is an exact match, acronym or abbreviation of your business, products or services

2. A Domain which name is close and has a substantial connection to your business, products or services

The first choice is just using your existing company name (assuming it is available). It is best suited for companies trying to keep and enhance their existing brand and those who would like their website to come up under a query for their name in a search engine.

For example, if my company's name is: Soho Projects, then if I would register www.sohoprojects.com.au as my domain, it is very likely that under a search for "Soho Projects" my website will have a good placement under the organic results (not paid).

Nevertheless, the domain name says nothing about what Soho Projects does as a company or the services it provides.

The second choice means that a company like Soho Projects, which I can tell you are Shop Fitters, can choose a domain name which has a close connection to the title of the website and its services and content. For example: ShopFittingSolutions.com.au (BTW, I just checked it and it is up for grabs if anyone wants it - probably won't be after a shop fitter reads this)

Using a domain name which bares a connection to the title and content of the website will help your SEO efforts (search engine optimisation). Why is it good is a topic that goes into SEO methods, and will be discussed in a future posting.

So assuming you have made the right choice and decided to go for a domain name which will be better for SEO  these are the guidelines that I would reccomend:

1. Research the most popular keyphrase - there are many research tools available. But start with the natural search query that you would use to search for your products. Then, start using research tools. The following link will help you to see the popularity of specific keywords: overture. In the future I will probably write a more comprehensive guide to keyword research.

2. Ask your friends and collegues for suggestions - I have done so with my friends from the office. I actually offered a prize for the winner and I got more than 40 suggestions.

3. With or Without hyphen -  Hyphenated domain name is more search engine friendly. Nevertheless, it is less friendly and natural for our human memory. People find it hard to remember the hyphen where it's not used in a natural way.  

4. What if the name is taken - Well, I say that there is always a domain that someone did not think of. If you are considering .net or .org you must take into consideration that people usually search for a .com first. If there is already a website with that domain, then your customers are on their way to your competitor. Think about that.

5. With or without numbers - that doesn't have much affect except that it is hard to remember and not so user friendly. For directories purposes, some directories actually list the websites by their first character and a website with a number before the name will be listed at the top.

6. Using a few domains - you can have a few domains pointing to one website, but you must make sure that you only use one domain for your marketin purposes. Otherwise instead of making one domain strong, you are divising it between a few.

Now, since so many domains are already taken, I suggest that when you come up with a domain that you think can serve your business in the future, go and buy it.