Guidelines
in choosing your Domain Names
Designstop.com
Domain names are important. How you choose your
domain name is important too. Every website has a URL which is the
address from which it is served to a visitor's browser. Promoting your site requires you to promote your URL so
people can find all your great content. Having your own domain name is like having an address on the Main Street.
Domain names are the prime real estate in the URL world and by comparison, having your site located at a long difficult
URL like this one:
http://www.hopelesslylost.com/clients/~bob/home.htm
is the equivalent of being tucked away in a backstreet alley. Sites with long URL's have a harder time being taken
seriously - while this isn't fair, it is a reality. It has been suggested that
some search engines' ranking algorithms favor sites with their own domain names - I surmise they want their search results to look
"professional".
Among domain names, certainly some are much better than others: It is desirable to have a domain name that is
memorable, that visitors can spell, and that has some relationship to the
content your site. Ideally your domain
name will incorporate the keyword that visitors are most
likely to use when trying to find a site like yours using a search engine. It is important that your domain names not
lead to confusion with another well branded name Furthermore, it is very important that your choice of domain
names not violate anyone else's trademarks or you'll soon find yourself paying significant legal fees - or worse -
facing a costly judgement.
If you have an idea for a great domain name you should
register it sooner rather than later, given the astounding rates at which new names are being registered. Of course, if
someone else has already registered the name you like you won't be able to. Try your domain name ideas in the register
domain link above. It will advise you if the particular domain name is already taken, and if it is available you will
be able to continue and reserve or register it. Before you proceed and register any domain names ( you can always go
back and do it later) I'd strongly suggest at least reading the rest of this page and trying some of the suggestions.
I'm not trying to deter you from registering your name of
choice - I'm trying to help save you some serious grief! I believe your decision to register a particular domain name
should be an informed decision. It is not enough to just know that the name has not previously been registered. Read that
sentence a second time. ;^)
I know what I advocate here is a lot more than most people who
register a domain name ever bother to do. I'm not a lawyer and I don't pretend to be able to offer legal advice but I
think you should understand that trademark infringement is a serious charge that clearly you need to avoid. Having to
defend ourselves in court could easily bankrupt most of us. The way to handle this right is to hire a law firm
specializing in trademark law who'll oversee on your behalf that you aren't infringing on any trade or service marks.
There are also companies that will conduct the necessary searches for you, providing
you a report that outlines what exactly was searched and what they found. If you can't afford either a good lawyer or a
reputable search service, at the very least protect yourself somewhat by doing as much checking as you can.
Sharpen your pencil. Write down the available domain name you
are interested in registering. Then write down all the variations, similarities, truncations, etc. that you can
think of. You'll have to check them all out. Take my domain name for example :
DesignStop.Com. Some relevant trade names
I should be concerned about checking out include design stop, design-stop,designstoppe, the design stop, etc.
Your own list can be checked against the United States Patent
and Trademark Office's Web Trademark Database. The Canadian
Intellectual Property Office has its Canadian trademark
database that can be searched online. The UK Patent Office
doesn't offer a free online database search but they
certainly do have a beautifully designed site - worthy of a
quick visit. The above database searches might identify for you any registered marks that could be in conflict with your
proposed domain name. Note you should read those sites'
disclaimers with regards to the limitations of the searches.
Such searches only relate to "registered" marks.
You also have to be concerned with unregistered marks that have become established through use but have never been officially registered. You can try doing some searches using the popular search engines. My first choice would be HotBot because it allows you to easily search for "exact phrases" which is particularly important if your list includes paired words. Recently I came across a new search engine that is incredibly fast. You have to try it to experience what I mean - it really is hard to believe it can search its database so quickly. It can be found at alltheweb.com and it is on the fast track to having the largest database of websites of any search engine.
Another great tool if your playing the domain name game is the specialized search engine at netcraft.com that searches only through registered domain names. To see how it works, set it to search for your last name using its "site contains" parameter. When I do this for "macintosh" it returns every registered domain name that contains the word - 112 of them the last time I checked. How it is really useful in researching your choice of a domain name is the way it helps you find if there are already sites with similar names. When I check out my domain name - DesignStop - I learn that similar names like design-stop.com, adesignstop.com, thedesignstop.com, or sexydesignstop.com have not been registered. Note that it is a great tool for finding your competitors or blatant violators of trademarks you may have - click here to see what happens if you search for "starwars". George Lucas should spend a few of his dollars on lawyers.