Guidelines For Selecting A Domain For A Niche Market

Following are the guidelines that I use when I am selecting a domain for a niche website. I purchase many domains, and each time a new one is added, this is how it is chosen.

1. ‘.com’s are my first and only choice. I do realize, however, that there are times when a .com is not available, or there is too much competition within the niche to locate a reasonable domain with this extension. In these cases, a .org is the second choice, or a .net if a .org is not available either.

2. Main keywords for any given niche should be located within the domain. For example, if we have a ‘truck rental’ niche, then the best option for a domain would be truckrental.com. If, however, this is taken already, then you can add some descriptive words to the key phrase. A great example of this is by using westerntruckrental.com instead. You can also add hyphens between the keywords, such as western-truck-rental.com.

3. Short domains are the best. Use just the keywords first, before adding other words to it. If you find yourself having to add more than one word extra to get a domain, attempt adding hyphens first to see if you can obtain the shorter one.

4. Think about the niche in order to get a domain that makes the most sense. For example, consider the keywords, such as truck rental. You need to be able to find a domain that someone looking for a truck rental would click and visit. Consider what visitors will believe, and choose a domain that consumers will visit in order to get what they want.

5. Older domains are the best. The search engine will always put more weight on a domain that has been around for a while than a domain that was just created. Always try to get a domain that has been online for a length of time. This can be checked easily on Whois registry. Older the domain is better. Google “trusts” older domain more than brand new domain which can be sandboxed for unknown period of time.

6. I buy my domains mostly from Dynadot. They have best prices, user friendly interface and great customer service.