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Choose your domain name carefully. Many business people and entrepreneurs don't take this into consideration, although a domain name affects your business in many ways. It is always wise to consider that once you choose your domain name it will be the name that everyone associates with your business and it will be difficult to change. Your domain name has two principle purposes:

- Brand your business

- Help you with search engine positioning

Brand your business: Know that this name will represent your business and should have a professional ring to it. It will be what your customers will recognize as YOUR business. Thus your domain name must represent your company or enterprise. Below are points to remember when choosing your domain name:

- Make it memorable: People should be able to easily remember the name of your website so they will be more inclined to tell others about it.

- Make it short and easy to spell: Make your domain name simple enough that others can spell it easily and remember it without difficulty.

- It should describe your business and what you do. It should be easy to see what you are selling, what you are offering, how you can help them solve their problems.

- Your domain name is your business name: because of this fact it is extremely hard to change so it is critical for your business to get this right the 1st time.

Optimizing your website: Many aren't aware of the importance of this, but you should have your main keyword or phrase within the domain name so your website will rank higher in the search engines.

Registering your domain name:

- Make a list of domain names: Now that you have your keywords you can now create some domain names. Sometimes you will find that other people may have the same ideas as you and your first choices are taken so have at least 5-10 names on your list and just go down your list until you find one that is not taken.

- Go to a domain register to register your name. You can use a .com but if taken, you can also use a .net or an .org. Now to define some terms: o Nameserver: this is referring to the host's server. If you insert the host's DNS or server code when you register, you will ensure your website and domain name will be found for registration, and thus your website will be published effectively for the world to see on the World Wide Web. o Whois is your contact information about your website. You can make this either public or private information. When making it public, everyone can access it, so don't put too much personal information.

Some important things to remember:

o You will appear more credible to the search engines like Google if you register your domain name for 2 to 5 years. You have the option of one year or up to five.

o Lock in your domain name so no one else can transfer it or tamper with the name.