In the world of 21st century,
it is no longer surprising to find that most business had already establishes a web presence to support their brick-and-mortar businesses. There are many advantages of establishing a web presence on the Internet such as selling globally to prospective customers and disseminating information to the public.
Most business owners would have already understood the importance of a web presence to their businesses. What most of them had failed to understand is that the domain name in their websites can contribute significantly to their online marketing strategy.
First, we look at a few rules of a good domain name. Most would agree that a good domain name should:
1) be able to describe your business when people first look it.
2) include hyphen in between the words to make it easier to read.
3) have an appropriate .com, .net, .biz, .info, .org to reflect the nature of the business.
What I differ in opinion is that a long domain name can be as effective as a short domain name depending on the context where the domain name is used. Many people would probably disagree with me on this point as they believe that a short domain name is easier to remember, but short domain names are easily imaginable and would have already been snapped up before you know it.
Still, when the context is right, having a catchy long domain name such as http://www.dont-miss-a-thing.com or http://www.once-in-a-lifetime.com definitely helps to draw attention to your business rather than promoting your website name like http://www.yourcompanyname.com, which is a usual practice, but remember this: customers don't care much about your company name or even your name until they can find the solution to their needs. When people reach http://www.dont-miss-a-thing.com or http://www.once-in-a-lifetime.com, you are already communicating the meaning of a message before driving them to the appropriate web page. That's why context is so important in aiding keyword research, and having the right keywords in your domain name for increasing appeal.
Thus, depending on the context where the domain name is used, a domain name can actually help to make or break your overall marketing performance.
On the other hand, buying expired or unavailable domains is a smart move. These are truly underrated traffic sources. It's like people going to a shop when it has already closed down and they suddenly teleport (redirect page) to your shop. Once you bought it, make sure the web host company doesn't own it (YOU own it) and you can always transfer the domain to a cheaper host. Do a search for 'purchase expired domains' and you get good leads.
People going to an invalid hair gel site are not going to buy an e-book on viral marketing, so you must buy domains with the right keywords related to your business.
And of course, those cyber-squatters who make a living out of buying and selling domain names (read: GOOD keywords) are playing a different ball game altogether.
