What is a domain name? 
A domain name is a series of alphanumeric strings separated by periods, such as www.google.com, that is an address of a computer network connection and that identifies the owner of the address.

When choosing a domain name, you want to be sure to do your research and register the best domain possible. You need to consider different factors in choosing a domain name. Use the following to help you choose a domain for yourself or your organization.

Keep it short: The main reason for having a short domain name is simply because people will remember it. Just Imagine google.com was google-the-best-search-engine.com, I’m sure they wouldn’t get where they are now if they had a name like that! By the way, finding a short domain that works is not that easy because there are millions of domains already registered; that’s why you need to search and search before finding a good one. Sometimes you find a perfect name that has been already registered by someone else, and they have no active website on it; there is a good chance they are waiting for someone to buy it, so you might need to pay a little extra and get it that way.

It should make sense: Don’t just register any name that is short and sounds cool. It should be related to your industry. Look up your competitors and see what keywords they are using in their domain name, don’t copy them but try to get a clue on what is the best practice.

Easy to pronounce: It’s very self-explanatory. You should choose words that are easy to understand and pronounce.

Use extensions (TLD’s) that work for your business: Don’t register a .tv domain for your gaming website! [.com] is the best way to go and works for any industry. [.net] is for networks and net related stuff. [.org] is for organizations. There are so many different TLD’s but if you can, use these three, the reason I say that is because people are just used to these extensions more than they are used to other ones like, .info, .name, .biz, etc. You can see the full list here.

Avoid using these: made up words, numbers (if possible), hyphens, trademarks.

And lastly, make sure you buy your domain from a trustworthy company, here are some good ones:

GoDaddy.com
NetFirms.com
1and1.com

Keep in mind that usually when you buy a web hosting plan, a free domain comes with the package, but I usually recommend that you register your domain names separately!

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