This is good question. Let's say I am starting a new business venture. I have decided on my company name and it is registered with the relevant authorities.

My company is called Joe's Trading Ltd and I sell cheap widgets. I now need to get my domain name. So what do I choose?

Firstly let's start with the name itself.

My company is called Joe's Trading Ltd so I guess I should register ?joestradingltd.com? or ?joestrading.com? or ?joestrading.co.uk?, right?

Well no, not really...

When I register a domain name I need to consider a few important factors.

Firstly, what is the purpose of the domain? Is it's purpose corporate branding or is it to drive traffic to my website?

Well if my company is ?IMB? or ?MacDonalds?, then I guess that branding is all important but ?Joes Trading Ltd? wants to sell blue widgets online and lots of them. My main priority is to generate website traffic and the more the better.

I am selling widgets. This is my target market and my unique selling position is that they are cheap.

So what has this got to do with my domain name?

Everything!

The domain name is a major factor when it comes to ranking on search engines. And search engines provide 90% of web site traffic.

In recent studies, it has been discovered that the domain name itself is a ranking factor and counts for 30% of the total factors that the search deems important when it ranks websites in its index.

Really, it is THAT important!

So what makes a higher ranking domain name?

Well, firstly short is best. The shorter the domain the higher the ranking.

Secondly, the domain must include the keyword for which you wish to rank high.

In this case Joes Trading Ltd sells Widgets so the domain should contain widgets. The widgets are cheap so the domain could be ?cheapwidgets.com?. This domain is going get higher ranking in the search engines for the search term ?widgets or ?cheap widgets? than ?joestrading.com? could ever hope to achieve

Higher ranking means more traffic which in turn means more sales & profits.

So when it comes to purchasing your domain make search engine ranking your number one priority.