Anyone who wants to be or is in business today, needs to have a website. And if you’ve got a website, you would do well to learn a bit about SEO.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and at its most basic level it means creating a website that makes it easy for the search engines to index (list) your site correctly, so your target audience can find you. SEO is pretty encompassing and the rules do change, so you’ve got to stay on top of what is current. While there are plenty of services out there that can handle SEO for you, they are not necessarily cheap. And it can be difficult to know who is reputable. If someone promises to get you a page one ranking with Google, wants to charge you $1,000 per month, and oh, by the way your site won’t appear on page one for four months, run the other way.

There is a tremendous amount of free and quality information about SEO in books and on the internet. Spend a little time and educate yourself. Then if you do decide to hire a professional SEO firm, you will at least be a bit more savvy about what you are getting for your money.

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s look at one of the first and one of the most important aspect of creating your website – choosing an SEO friendly domain.

The process of choosing the right domain name needs careful consideration and deliberation, when you are the process of creating a new website. And this is especially important if search engine optimization is going to be the main tool for directing traffic to your website. An SEO friendly domain name is one of the key factors that contribute to the success of the website.

The following are some pointers to keep in mind when choosing an SEO friendly domain name:

Shorter Is Better

It is best to have a domain name that is short and catchy. It is easier for visitors to recall and remember these. And you definitely don’t want a website that loses out on traffic because the domain name is too long, tricky or complicated to remember. Make sure that your domain name is easy to remember and easy to type.

Keywords in the Domain Name

Pick the one keyword that best describes what your site is about and then use it in your domain. DottysDeals.com is personal and nice, however AntiqueDealsByDottie.com incorporates two searchable keywords into the domain. You could even shorten this to AntiqueDeals.com to make it even more SEO friendly.

Stick with the Dot Com

It can be disappointing when you go searching for your perfect domain name, only to find that it has been taken. “Oh, I’ll just take a .net” you may think. Wrong, think again. Dot Com is the most accepted extension and worth trying to get. It gives your site credibility and it will be easier for people to remember when they hear it.

No Hyphens or Numbers

Why should you avoid using hyphens or numbers? They are simply not as easy to remember. I can actually vouch for this as friend told me about a great site and I thought it was easy to remember, so I didn’t write it down. It had a hyphen in it, but do you think I could remember where that darn hyphen went. A hyphen also says, “Alright I couldn’t get the domain of my choice, so I’m cheating a bit.” Numbers, well, do try and avoid them (you can see that I didn’t follow my own advice here).

Type-In Traffic

Have you ever been typing in a URL and suddenly you arrive at a different site that is similar to the one you were shooting for? Well that is what is known as type-in traffic and another reason to have a strong keyword as part of your domain. Enough said.

So get that domain right. Don’t rush it! An SEO friendly domain can make a world of difference in helping to further your quest for good search results, decent traffic and ultimately getting more of that green stuff in you pocket.

Good luck and think green