Picking the right domain can be one of the most critical stages of any kind of website promotion. Factors such as domain name age, domain extensions (i.e..com v..org), memorability of the name, keyword names, and more can affect the quality of your domain.

Although a single article cannot possibly cover all the key elements of a good domain name, a few will be treated briefly here. It should be noted that some of these factors are important in regards to getting ranked in the search engines and some are simply good business practice.

Domain name age: Google knows how long a domain has been consistently registered. Although there remains some debate regarding whether this matters or not, many believe that a longer-standing domain will have greater impact on your sites rankings in the search engines. My experience has shown that a longer standing domain will gain a search engine ranking more easily.

Domain extensions: This is really a fairly simple issue. It is taken as a mark of quality for a domain to have a.com extension. If your site is promoting a cause, a.org is more appropriate. While many other extensions exist, they become less trusted beginning with.info and.net and becoming less trusted from there. This can affect both your search engine rankings and your perceived value with customers.

The name as perceived by people: Many of the most popular websites in existence have bizarre names that would not be viewed by most search engines as meaning anything. Yahoo and Google themselves are examples of such domain names. However, there is something to be said for a simple name with branding possibility. As my two examples demonstrate, it is clear that having a domain name that is memorable can make a major difference. Websites such as Yelp, Digg, Facebook, etc. rely on the memorability of their name to bring visitors. If aiming for a memorable domain name, it is worth brainstorming and seeing if it is possible to buy a domain name that has already aged. It is also important to keep it short: yelpdigfacebook wouldn't be easy to remember.

The name as perceived by search engines: Another factor to consider when choosing your domain name is how the search engines will perceive the domain name. In today's internet market, competition to rank for keywords has become fierce. For that reason, it can be better to rank for a keyword with your domain name. That does not mean you have to have a boring domain name, but if you want people searching for "chinchillas" to find your domain, it would be worth putting the word "chinchilla" in your domain. Your website is simply more likely to get noticed by the search engines.

History: As mentioned above, Google knows how long a domain has existed. But it knows more than that. It also knows what was on the website previously. If that website had illegal or poor quality content on it before, it is possible that Google will know that and penalize you for it. There are numerous tools to uncover this history, such as iwebtool/Google_banned. Before registering a domain, always check its history.

Legality: This likely goes without saying, but it is best to avoid trademarked or copyrighted names. Even if you discover that a major company failed to register their name +.info or.net, registering that domain and putting up content is likely a copyright infringement. If you have a question regarding that, consult a lawyer. If you wish to avoid consulting a lawyer, you are probably in better shape to simply use your head and avoid registering a domain that could be a copyright infringement.