For any business wishing to gain credibility on the Internet, it is becoming increasingly important that they register their own domain name (rather than using a Freeserve or other free website provider). This can contribute to traffic levels in many ways.

Gaining a high position on directories such as Yahoo! And Open Directory is one priority. Yahoo! simply sorts entries alphanumerically, so beginning a domain name with 1 or 1st is a good way to climb the listings (the digit 0 will be listed before 1, but in most cases will give a negative impression to customers; what is more, it can be confused with the letter O, so its use is not recommended). Open Directory lists only the meaningful part of the domain name, so 1stGreetingsCards.com will be listed under G rather than 1. Therefore it is a good idea to follow the digit with a word beginning with A. However, it is wise to remember that if you are an established company, it is better to stick to a domain name which reflects your existing company name, rather than confusing your existing customers by changing to something which will be listed higher in a directory.

It may also be a good idea to use an industry-related keyword in your domain name. Not only will this make your website more memorable by association with your product or service, but some search engines favour Domain Names which contain the keyword, so you will receive an additional boost in these cases.

Not only should your domain name be memorable, but it should be easy to pronounce. Using numbers or single letters in place of words may look eyecatching, but the fact that "2" sounds exactly like "to" means that if you are giving your URL over the telephone, customers may be confused. Hyphens may also be problematic, although they are useful if your address would be ambiguous if the words were not separated. In this case, it would be best to register both hyphenated and non-hyphenated domains, and have one redirect to the other.

Finally, make sure that your domain name is not too long (63 character URLs are possible, but hardly memorable), and ideally, try to register your domain with the .com TLD.

By Natalie Catchpole