Once the thought of setting up your own online business crosses your mind, you need to consider a lot of factors including domain name selection. More than 100 million Domain Names have been registered worldwide. You'd find countless people opting for whacky domain names that do not match their business type and objectives. Trust me, you can have a hard time finding a that's unique, in demand and matching your business goals since it would reflect the products and services offered by your online enterprise.

Take a tour of the essential points that you must keep in mind before making a choice:

1) Where to look for it?

There are a lot of online platforms such as 1and1.com, Register.com, LimeDomains.com etc., where you can check for the availability of domain names that you wish to buy for your website. If it's available, go ahead! Even if it's not available, you get suggestions from a registrar like LimeDomains and you can then make your own choice from the available options.

2) What message does it convey?

The name that you wish to choose must clearly reflect the business you've taken a plunge in. It's recommend that the URL comprises of some main services offered by your online enterprise. However, what you need to keep in mind is that the URL must not be too long or complicated. It can have up to 67 characters. Try to keep it short and simple, clearly representing your ultimate business objective. The shorter, the better!

3) Is your domain name suitable for SEO objectives?

Most of the major search engines are quite aggressive in screening URLs and attach a remarkable importance to the domain names since they screen out a number of brands for the same search query. So, it's recommended that the URL of your website must comprise of the name that matches the keyword search query.

Some people say that keeping a hyphenated domain name can be really useful while others say that it can be potentially dangerous especially when people are acquainted with the original name. If you choose a domain name that's already very popular and hyphenate it, it's quite possible that most of the users type the non-hyphenated form and land up on your competitor's website.

If anybody asks me, I'd certainly prefer hyphens (or dashes) over underscores since my logic says that if some percentage of the target audience is not Internet savvy then it will tend to misinterpret an underscore for a hyphen or dash and an average user will more likely be using a hyphen rather than an underscore.

For example, you have an online store featuring a large bouquet of products that you wish to sell online. You can keep as whacky a domain name as www (dot) allstuffatoneplace (dot) com but rest assured that search engines would never pick up that name. However, if you keep it www (dot) onlinestore (dot) com, chances of a search engine picking it up quite fast are maximized. Also, if you attempt back link building then you're in a win-win situation!

4) Should you choose a TLD?

There is a broad array of TLDs available on the Internet such as .com, .net, .org, and .biz etc. However, .com still continues to rule the World Wide Web as it was the first domain extension to be put to commercial use and fetched a lot of media attention.

Try to grab '.com' domain extension. However, if your luck does not favor you then you can opt for .net domain name since after.com, it is the second most popular extension on the Internet today.

5) Should you register multiple domain names for your domain?

If you want to protect your domain name adequately, it's recommended that you register 'multiple domain names' for your online business, which will prevent your competitors to register the same name with varied domain extensions. This practice would direct your potential customers to your website only and help you enjoy the benefits of your brand value.

We hope that these simple tips would help you make an intelligent choice of domain name and move forward in your online business with absolute confidence. Once you have chosen a good domain name, all that's left is finding a good Domain Name Registrar.