Tips for choosing your domain name:
Choosing the right domain name is an important building block for the economical success on the Internet.
As such, the domain (www address of your homepage) isn't just technically a fundamental element of the homepage, but also a matter of user-friendliness and thus the effectiveness of advertising.
Good domain names, which are easy to remember and spell, are the Internet equivalent to a shop on a busy high street.
Choosing the Top Level Domain (TLD):
If your enterprise is operating in the national market only, then the
country-specific ending should definitely be chosen (e.g. .co.uk for the
United Kingdom). The TLD .com is the most commonly used domain, and is strongly recommended when the focus of the website is international. If there's any doubt, it's normal to use two or more domains (see multidomain support). To check whether a domain is still available, it is possible to check directly with the country-specific registry or via the Innter.Net© domain check (see above).
Short domain names:
The chosen domain should be short and memorable. Long and complicated names increase the likelihood of typing errors and are also difficult to recall.
Just think, if you had to inform each customer over the telephone of your homepage address:
http://www.mydomainname.com/index.html
It's a lot simpler, if you can say:
mydomain.de or www.mydomain.de
Spelling:
Avoid long, complicated and error-prone words. If necessary, take two or more domains with different spellings, the correctly spelled and the commonly misspelled name (see multidomain support).
When the domain consists of two or more independent terms, it might also be
worth thinking about registering them as, for example, "mueller-rentals.com"
and "muellerrentals.com". Also, as an alternative
IDN spelling "müller-rentals.com"
(See IDN-Domains).For example: Company name: "mueller-rentals.com"
additional domain name: "muellerrentals.com"
IDN-domain name: "müller-rentals.com"
Keywords:
The domain name and its websites text
should repeatedly use common keywords, which closely relates to the subject
matter. This will enable search engines to find the websites which have most
relevance to the requested keywords. In this way the visitor is most likely
to recognize a relevant website according to his or her needs.
A website is ranked in this way and this system is utilized by professional
website managers to achieve a top rank.
Legality of domain names:
Domain names are very valuable in today’s economy and the
lack of a good domain name often determines whether an enterprise can be
found on the Internet or not. In spite of intelligent search engines, many
Internet users still search for companies simply by trying out the name of
the company or product as the domain name.
However, care should be taken when registering domain names not to violate possible naming rights of others. If in doubt, the owners of naming rights have privilege over the domain name, if that same domain name has been registered by someone else who has no, or questionable, affiliation to the name. Even when that person shares his surname with the name of the business, the right to the domain name is partly given to the business, because a business is said to be of more "importance".
While, thanks to the German jurisdiction, the adjudication of DE domains is more or less consistent, it becomes more chaotic and more expensive in the international arena. Appeals regarding naming rights violations can, on request by a claimant, be decided upon via an arbitrary tribunal at the acting WIPO (World Intellectual Properties Organization) with immense cost.
In general, it should always be ensured that registered domain names are actively used, and not only "stored". Active use of a domain could mean having a webserver with relevant content, but technically the use of the domain for email addresses is sufficient. However, your interest in the domain name must be justified.
Once legal action has been initiated, legal advice should be sought immediately.
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