The first step in making a presence on the internet is often the most important, and that is choosing the right domain name to suit your needs.

For the most part, you will want a “.com” TLD (Top-Level Domain) unless you are redirecting flow from a “.org”, “.net” or other TLD to an existing .com.

If you don’t already have a brand or company name, you should consider using a keyword or two in the name. If your site is about pets then having “pet” in the domain name probably a good move.

Some other things to remember is to keep the domain short. Keep it easy to remember and easy to type. This is really just common sense with the goal being that users can quickly and easily find your site without much trouble or confusion.

I like to keep my domains to under 17 characters with a maximum of three words.

That said, your domain should be easy to spell so avoid picking out words with multiple spelling (gray/grey, main/maine, too/two/2,etc). Keep it short, simple and to the point.

Also avoid names that have already been used by popular sites are that are trademarked. Don’t use the names of existing companies in your domain name. Many sites these days are jumping on the twitter bandwagon by including “twitter” in their domain, but if one day twitter wants to protect its name they will (and probably already do) have the ability to shut those sites down. So to avoid trouble down the road stay away from trademarked words and phrases.

You should also try to avoid including numbers and hyphens in your domain as it can lead to confusion when giving your domain to someone verbally.

And lastly, if you can make your domain convey what the site is the about the better. “Dogtips.com” is pretty self explanatory, but “Dogway.com” doesn’t really define the site. Of course the popular words and phrases on many niches have already been scooped but do some searching and maybe you will come across that perfect domain.

As for registering the site, my favorite place to do it is namecheap.com.