So you've decided to put a web site up on the Internet. In this article, we will discuss the best way to choose a domain name for your business web site, but many of the same principles apply if you are choosing a name for a hobby or informational site. So, let's choose a name for your little piece of the Internet.

First, let's talk about some of the biggest mistakes that people make in choosing a domain name. When you're in business, you want to make sure that people are able to find you on the Internet. So here are a couple of things to avoid when choosing your Internet domain name.

Avoid numbers. Many people use numbers in their domain names on their Internet sites because they think it's cute, or simply to save letters. It isn't a good idea. It creates confusion. For instance, a website called 'www.fun4pets.com' is ambiguous. The customer cannot figure out whether the digit '4' in this domain is the number or the word, and if it is a word, does it stand for 'for' or 'four'. Thus, the first thing to avoid is ambiguity.

Avoid hyphens. It is not advisable to use hyphens in a domain name on your Internet site. They are not easy to remember. When people use hyphens in domain names they presume that the potential customers will remember them, which is quite unlikely. For instance, when customers see a domain name like 'www.fun-for-pets.com' they are most probably going to type 'www.funforpets.com' because it is more logical and definitely makes more sense. Thus, avoid superfluous things.

Now let's talk about what you should do when you are looking for a doamin name. The first thing is that you must add '.com' as an extension to the name you have selected for your domain. This is the standard followed by everyone typing a URL to their internet browser. If you have other extensions like .net, .org, .biz you will direct people to other sites. It is better to pick another name if the name you've chosen is not available with '.com'.

Next, you want to make sure that your name is easy to spell. There are a lot of bad spellers out there, and if you choose a name that can be misspelled, it will be. For example, if you choose something like "www.specialoccassions.com", you may get any variation of either word, so people may be typing in "www.spechulokashens.com" (and don't laugh - I've seen worse misspellings on the Internet!).

Finally, try to make your doain name as short as possible, perhaps two to three words at the most. Alos see that the characters in your domain name don't exceed 25. This is one way of reducing mistyped URLs to the minumum. For instance, if your URL is something like 'www.thebestwebsiteevernomatterwhat.com' you can be almost sure to lose customers who will miss a couple of letters while typing in and never find your web site.

Obviously, these are general guidelines, and there are always going to be exceptions to the rules, but if you keep these in mind when searching for your business' domain, you will have a better chance that people will find your new web site, and your business will thrive on the Internet.