Here is why.

The hyphen breaks up a longer domain name to reveal major keywords that describe your website content or theme. This makes it easier for visitor to understand and most importantly allows search engine to detect your keyword for indexing right off bat. Cool, huh?

Moral of story, give your visitor a break, be nice to search engines and they'll be nice to you and give you lots of reoccurring traffic for free.

Debra Gravelle Free Traffic. Free Download. http://www.traffic-n-more.com oolbox.htm admin@traffic-n-more.com

Avoid domain names that are similar or copycat to existing ones. Not only do you want to avoid legal issues, but want your brand to be distinct from that of your competitors. Granted it will take time to come up with a domain name that will work and set you apart from others selling same product or services as you.

Use your domain name to position yourself on Web. If your domain name reflects your site’s core benefits and instantly communicates how different you are from others, your URL will be positioned above competition in minds of your market.

Never use a ‘free’ domain name. This will be worst mistake you can make when setting up your business online. Believe it or not, when consumers are researching online and see that your URL is with a free site or sites of lesser quality, will quickly turn away. In other words, if people notice that your site is hosted with ‘freebies’, they will only assume that your product or service is just as cheap, or worse that you don’t actually respect your products and services that you are offering. If you don’t believe in your products, your own target market won’t either.

Don’t make mistake of attempting to retrofit your domain name to your website. You should have your domain name first and then your business name should be same as your domain name. You would think that most people would have their domain name exactly same as their business name. That isn’t case. Many online sites were not able to get domain names same as their business names as they were not available due to others currently using those particular names online. Hence importance of making sure you have your domain first, then you will be able to have same name for your website. There are domain names out on market for sale that you may be able to purchase, but a word to wise, some of these names come with a hefty price tag. Make sure that name you select truly reflects your business goals and philosophy.

In conclusion, your domain name in itself is ultimate marketing brand and is in fact, most important marketing tool you will possess. Always remember that your domain name also gives first impression for your customers and that alone makes an impression before your customers even reach your website. Without further ado, choose your domain name carefully and wisely, add credibility from get-go and you should fare off very well.