March 2011 – .WS IDN Blog

If you are going to invest in a domain name, you want to ensure people can find it not just from direct traffic, but through search. Beyond finding your site, search is also a powerful tool in that it can show you how popular a search term is in a certain language.

Google AdWords or any pay per click advertising service can give you a sense of monthly search activity for your potential IDN. Also, do a little research on the countries you may be interested in purchasing an IDN for to see their needs, trends and most popular sites. What does the word mean in their language? What does it mean in ours? What did the .com sell for? You can also give a call to one of representatives for some advice and guidance on how to choose the best IDN or group of IDNs.

Choosing the Right Domain Names

Do your research into the meaning of the names you are purchasing and decide what you are trying to accomplish with your site or sites. Choosing your IDN or group of IDNs is not unlike selecting a standard domain name. There are a few key questions to ask yourself before deciding on the IDN or IDNs that will work best for you.

What are you trying to accomplish with your site(s)? Is the site being used to generate traffic for an active business, or are you going to park it with a portfolio of other sites?

Is the domain name easy to remember? Is the name short and sweet and to the point? The most value comes from sites that have not only memorable names but names that hint at or state exactly what the site is about. It may be a household name now, but Pandora.com may have been hard to remember at first because it did not imply a radio music offering in the name.

How about the variations? Another hard rule for any domain purchasing; you may want to lock down a specific and popular name or word. But, have you thought about variations or accounted for typos? If you are going to put the money into a powerful short name, it’s worth it to buy the variations too. For example, many big name sites take this into account and make their “typo pages” redirects for their actual site. For example Wal–mart.com redirects to the stores actual site, Walmart.com. Try to be intuitive for your prospective visitors or buyers needs and typos!