Guest Blogger: Colleen Friess

When purchasing real estate there are numerous factors to consider when choosing where to set up a business. You would not want to set up a business in a poor traffic site or away from your target market. Deciding to purchase a domain should be undertaken with the same level of care as purchasing real estate.

You know the old real estate adage – location, location, location? On the Internet, it’s keywords, keywords, keywords. One of the first factors of purchasing a domain is that you include keywords that showcase what your business is about. Find keywords that describe your products and services, relate to your competitors, and can help brand your business as an industry leader. By finding the best keywords, you increase the likelihood that targeted traffic will get to your site. It helps that 70% of Internet users utilize keywords to get to a destination.

If you’re still not sure that domain strategies are helpful, then consider this:: Just like an individual’s FICO score is based on longevity of credit history, search engines consider history as well. Google considers long-term domain registrations as a way to help rank domains. If you intend to use the domain right away, make sure you get it live so that you can start getting credit for domain longevity?
Now for the not so intuitive information from my Magic 8 ball.

Avoid using dashes in your domain. They may look pretty now but in the grand scheme they do not help.
Do not fear purchasing a domain other than a .com. There are many great other domains out there: .info, .org, .net, etc.
For all the spelling fanatics, look away now. Go purchase domains that have common misspelling of your name. For example, Microsoft owns microsft.com.

Once you have your shiny new piece of domain-estate, you want to make sure to keep it looking good. If you already have a site in place on another domain, then make sure it’s appropriately redirected to the main root domain. In other words, have visitors to your new site sent to the old domain. Another key point: don’t ever have two versions of the same site live – there should only be one domain that’s the main version of your site.
Many well-known brands have taken on these strategies to help increase direct traffic:

• Books.com = Barnes & Noble
• Baby.com = Johnson & Johnson
• Toddlertoys.com = Fisher Price

As you prepare to shop for your perfect piece of domain-estate, keep in mind the above criteria that will make your location more valuable and stand out from the rest of the online neighborhood.