So you probably have some idea of what your website is going to be about. Now it’s time to get your domain search on to find the perfect domain to match your idea. It may be as simple as your name, or as complex as multiple different domains that all point to the same website. I’ve built both kinds, and so I know that different setups work better depending on what your goals are for the site. Nonetheless, let’s look at your potential options, from the simplest to the most difficult.

Skip the Domain Name Search – Just Use Your Own Name

There’s nothing easier than going with http://jonsmith.com as your website. This is perfect if you’re building your first ever site and don’t really have any plans for the site other than blogging about your own interests. After all, your name is the perfect brand for a collection of your personal interests and hobbies! Even many professional bloggers and writers will set up a blog under their own name, usually to collect their thoughts and to post ideas that may not fit in other settings. Take a look at the blog of Matt Cutts, who heads up the spam department at Google. Yes, there is some technical stuff in there, but a lot of it is also his personal hobbies and goals. This is a great way for you to go, and over several months of writing, keep an eye out for ideas and themes that seem to crop up relatively often. These can turn into ideas for other sites.

Do a Domain Name Check for Your Niche

That may sound confusing, so an example is in order. If you are looking to get into the wheatgrass niche, where you recommend products and give advice on how to use wheatgrass to get as healthy as possible, then check to see if wheatgrass.com or wheatgrass.net are available (hint: for this example, they are). If you have a small enough niche, then you may just be able to get that domain, which in this case would be called an exact match domain, which will give you an immediate boost in the rankings. After all, there’s no bigger sign that your site is about wheatgrass than having your domain be wheatgrass. You will rank easier than ever with a site like this, though it has been massively abused by internet marketers over the years, and so Google is looking for ways to reduce the benefit it gives. Still, it’s a great domain to have.

I mentioned the .com and .net endings to sites, but there are tons of them out there: .org, .co, .biz, .us… Is anything wrong with those? Well, not really, but be careful. A lot of spammers have grabbed up sites that end in those letters, and so you may meet with skepticism from searchers and Google if you use one of them. Now Google’s official stance is that they do not penalize or reward specific domain endings, but common sense is that the .com and .net endings are so familiar with internet users that you should go with them if you can.

Name Your Brand and Register Domain Name of that Brand

Google has spoken very highly over the past year or so of websites that create and define their own brand. Think of Twitter. Before the site started, no one knew what a Twitter was. It’s a brand, and while it caused a bit of confusion up front, it has now found widespread use and we casually talk to our friends about sending Tweets out and getting our favorite author to retweet that tweet and even to use the same hashtag that we originally used (don’t worry if that doesn’t make sense – Twitter is a world of its own). If you have a site about pancakes, call it Pancake Pete and grab the domain pancakepete.com – chances are it’s open. The site may initially take an extra few weeks for Google to really figure out, but once it does, you’ll be sitting pretty. Who knows, maybe in 20 years we’ll all be sitting in Pancake Pete restaurants around the world, marveling at how much better they are than IHOP. A fun and memorable brand will serve you very well in the long run, so don’t be afraid to grab it.

If you have an idea and want to search to see which domains are available in the world wide web, I get all my domains from Namecheap.com. Namecheap has an easy interface to use, their prices are comparable to every other domain company out there, and they don’t partake in any of the bothersome upselling that other domain companies will put you through. They also have online chat features with tech support and a toll free number. I currently have all of my domains through them, and I never plan on moving to anyone else. Use their domain search engine to see if you can find the name you’re looking for.