Registering/reserving a domain name is one of the basic steps to getting your site online

A domain name makes up the address of your site and can end in .com, .net, .org, .info, .us, .biz, .tv and more.

If being found in the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) is extremely important to you, consider registering a name that contains your major keywords instead of your company name. 

The average surfer searches by subject, not by proper name. 

You can still list your company name on your web pages, but it's more important to make sure the domain name includes your important "search friendly" keywords if you want to receive traffic from all over.

You can still list your company name on the web site some place, but your domain name will include all the important keywords you'll want to be found with.

If you are a small local business, getting traffic from all over the web may not be as important to you.  This is because your customers will be local and you may want to grow your brand name in a specific area.

If this is the case, it may make more sense to register your company name and create brand awareness locally instead of trying to capitalize on search engine presence.

In this case, it's not as important to register a name filled with "search optimized" keywords.  You may decide to just reserve the company name.

NOTE:  Keep in mind that the domain name is not the only factor weighed by search engines when deciding your rank. 

The content on your web pages and your site's popularity (inbound links from other sites) is very important too. However, it certainly doesn't hurt to make sure your name is optimized for maximum results.

Here are some more tips on choosing the best domain name:

1) Don't register domain names that are too long and have too many syllables if you can help it.  Yes, you can register names up to 63 characters long, but that doesn't mean you have to use all 63 characters.

You want your name to be easy to remember. Not everyone will bookmark your page initially so try to think of something that can be easily remembered -- this may be tricky since a lot of names are taken these days.

2) Use hyphens if your name is more than 3 words long (unless your name includes 3 short words). 

3) Protect your name by registering multiple extensions (.net, .org, etc.)  You don't have to build a site on all the domains, but you can reserve the others to keep people (copycats) from registering them.

Reserving a domain name is easy and very cost friendly. We can offer suggestions on picking a registrar to optimize cost savings, service and additional options.

We can create graphics and logo designs for use on your company website!