Authored by Kumara Velu in Domain Names
Published on 03-08-2009
The easiest way to start a website is to register a domain name of your choice. However, if you are setting up a website in a competitive niche, then you may have a hard time driving traffic to your website. You may also take a long time to get a good ranking in the search engines. One way to overcome the difficulties associated with new domains is to look at the possibility of purchasing an expired domain name.
PageRank
The first thing you would want to look for in an expired domain is a high PageRank. PageRank is the rating given by Google to a site as to how important it is. PageRank is important because if you’re going to attract advertisers, they’ll want to look at your PageRank to get an indication of the amount of traffic arriving at your site.
Catchy Name
To keep visitors coming back to your website or blog, you must have a catchy name. True, your visitors would bookmark your site if it’s of value to them, but keeping a catchy name ringing in their ears is a much better option to keep them coming back.
Names must be easy to pronounce and readers should not have trouble with its spelling, especially when typing into the Internet browser address bar. A short and catchy name will also be useful for your visitors to recommend your site to others through word of mouth. Should you decide to sell your website later, you would have a better chance of landing a good price if your domain name is easy to remember.
Relevance
Look out for a domain name which suits the theme of the website that you’ll be putting up xyzdogtraining dot com will not do for a website on gadgets.
Extension
Which domain extension should you choose? Although .biz and .net are freely available, you should, as far as possible, avoid them in favor of .com. A dot com domain is more popular than the aforementioned extensions. When you mention a domain name, people usually associate it with a dot com. Only go for .biz or .net as a last resort.
Brand Domain Names
Avoid buying domain names associated with a brand. If you build a website based on a popular brand name, all the benefits would go to the brand. Furthermore, it would not be ethical to buy a domain name associated with an established brand that had been built with much effort over the years. You can’t really call it your own without guilt.
Buy Quickly
If you see a suitable domain name that catches your fancy, act immediately. You may return minutes later to see it snapped up by someone else. Good expired domain names are much in demand.
Don’t Overbuy
Don’t buy too many expired domain names with the hope of setting up sites or blogs or even reselling them at higher prices. Buy only ones that you need immediately or that you’ll put to use in the near future.
