1. Choose a keyword-rich domain name. Like europemaps.com or exoticcheeses.com to reflect your products or services
2. Buy an existing/expired domain name. Google ranks old domains higher, so look for domains that are at least 1 year old. Use Checkpageranking.com to verify the domain, including checking for a spoofed page rank.
3. Choose a TLD (Top Level Domain Name) – examples: .com or .net or .org or .info Alternatively, country specific TLD is good too – so for the UK: .co.uk
4. Check if all TLDs are available for purchase. Use a service like godaddy.com The extra cost will prevent problems down the road.
5. Buy the primary domain name for 10 years: Google ranks higher for domains that are purchased for extended periods!
6. Short and memorable is better for repeat visitors: easier to remember.
7. Choose a domain name ideally without hyphens, so chateauxproperty.com is better than chateaux-property.com. If there is no suitable alternative, choose a domain name that does NOT have more than one hyphen. It will look like spam and there is evidence that Google is penalizing NEW sites with lots of hyphens.
8. Don’t choose an existing brand/trademark name, you won’t win!
9. You can only use letters, numbers and hyphens. There are no spaces! We think numbers are spam, so 1product.com or product1.com are not good choices.
10. Use a registrar to buy/park your domain names. It’s much easier when you have to update contact information, renew new domains, etc. Use a reputable provider like godaddy.com or 123-reg.com. Keep your contact information up to date on the Registrar site, especially the contact email address. Who wants to lose a valuable domain because they never received the renewal information?
