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When you pick a domain name for your website make sure to avoid these traps.

Once you commit to a domain name, changing is a lot of hassle.

Learn what to avoid now before it is too late.

Trap 1) A “Short” Domain Name

The general rule of thumb is that the longer the name, the harder it is to remember. But you must measure length carefully. ThreeWordSite.com is a shorter site than vpci.net.

Why?

Because with ThreeWordSite.com you only need to remember three words whereas vpci.net forces you to remember four letters.

Trap 2) Alternative Domains

There are only two types of domains in this world, .com and everything else. Get a .com at all costs. The only time to get something other than a .com is if you simply cannot find what you are looking for. In that case only get a .org or .net. Anything other than those top three and you won’t be taken seriously (although this is changing somewhat). If you get a .org be prepared to loose traffic to the .com unless you buy them both.

Trap 3) Dashes

Avoid dashes at all costs. They-are-hard to remember and don’t add value to your domain. It is better to use CamelCase. CamelCase uses capital letters to distinguish the words instead of dashes. It is just as easy to read and much easier to remember. Dashes cause your website to fail the radio test.

Trap 4) Abbreviations

Abbreviations make your domain harder to remember. Especially if the domain is part abbreviation and part whole word.  I worked for a non-profit called Stoneworks International. Was their website StoneworksInternational.com? No. It was StoneworksInt.com; a much harder to remember name. Now they have StoneworksInternational.com and StoneworksInternational.org. Abbreviations also cause your website to fail the radio test.

Trap 5) Phonetic Landmines

Some domains contain more than one word. For example www.therapistfinder.com could be read as TherapistFinder.com or TheRapistFinder.com. The capitals help make it clear but your domain will usually be shown in alllowercase. Read your domains carefully before you buy them.

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