When you decide to set up business on the internet you do need a domain name. Your site's name identifies your business online among all others. Think of it the same as the sign out front for a brick and mortar business.

How to select a name to identify your website

Give some thought to choosing your domain name. Something short and memorable is best if you can get it. This is not always possible.

Much has been written about whether or not adding dashes make a difference in SEO and other factors. I have not seen that it makes a difference. If you need to add hyphens to get the name you want, I haven't seen that adding them has any adverse effect.

Your domain name should reflect what your online business is about. If your business website is focused on dog training, you certainly want to fit dog in somewhere. This helps searchers know that your website it about dogs, and it also helps with SEO.

As time goes by, and your online business website begins to get links here and there around the internet often it will just be referred to by your domain name. Including your main keyword will be a real plus. Each time a search engine sees your site's url on another website, even if there isn't explanatory text the search engine will pick up your keyword in relation to your site.

There has also been a lot of fuss about the length of a domain name and hyphens being difficult to type in. How often do you actually type in a url? Let's be real. Most people either click on a url, or they simply copy and paste. How hard is that? If getting a good, meaningful, domain name requires a little extra length or hyphens, I don't see that it is a big problem. Short is always better, but do what you need to get your keyword included.

How long should you register a domain name for?

If you are serious about building a successful internet business, you should register your domain name for a minimum of two years. More is better. There is some evidence that registering for more than a year gives you an edge with the search engines. It is thought that this gives the search engines a reason to believe that your business will be around for a while.

Domain names can be purchased for under ten dollars a year. This is a very low expense considering that the cost is for an entire year. At ten dollars a year, it would cost you roughly 83 cents per month to give your internet business a worthy and relevant name. If you can't afford that, then you can't afford to be in business online.

Keep track of when your domain name will expire, and renew in advance. You don't want to lose it. There are people who watch for expirations and will snap them up. I know this for a fact. A domain name I once owned was bought by speculators. At the present time this exact name is being offered for over six hundred dollars online.

If you use a credit card and set your domain name up for automatic renewal, do be on top of when your credit card expires, and go back to your registrar and update your credit card information. This is how I lost mine. My credit card renewed, but the registrar had no way of knowing that and could not use my information as it was. So they did not renew it. A good domain name is a real asset to an online business. Protect yours.