Many questions arise as to how to choose a domain name for your website or your landing page:

Does it really matter what the domain name of your site is?

• For the purposes of getting your website indexed by the search engines (most notably) Google, all domain names are created equal. A domain name is just a pointer, and the search engines don’t really care what you use.
• If you are setting up a domain name only so that you can pass Ezinearticles’s requirement that your outbound link be to a top-level domain, then it doesn’t really matter what domain name you use as long as you have something.
• If you are setting up a domain name for the sole purposes of redirecting to an affiliate link, and you don’t expect the reader to bother with what the domain name is, then you can use any domain name you want. It won’t matter.
• On the other hand, if your goal is to setting up a website, landing page, or blog that you want to build backlinks directly to, then you may have to consider your options as to how to choose a domain name.
• If you want your readers to bookmark your domain name and remember it for marketing and branding purposes, then it would make sense to be a little bit more particular about what domain name you choose.
• Furthermore, if your ultimate goal is to get your website / landing page / blog ranked highly in the search engines for a particular keyword, then the domain name you choose DOES matter. And we will explain why further below.

Can you use a trademark as part of your domain name?

• The issue of whether to use a trademark in the domain name is the subject of great controversy. As a general rule of thumb, you should always check with the affiliate marketing guidelines of the vendor to see what their rules are.
• If you are using a domain name that is favorable to the vendor, you could argue the case that if it is helping you increase your sales, it is helping them increase their sales.
• You probably don’t want to use a domain name that is critical of the vendor product.
• Essentially, many companies may have an issue if you are trying to pass yourself off as authoritative site on the subject matter for the affiliate product that you are tring to promote.
• So you may want to use your best judgment in this matter.

Does it matter what top-level extension should you use? (eg- .com, .org. .,net, .info)

• There is no reason why you could not use any domain you wish. From a technical standpoint, trying to get your site indexed in Google, all domains are created equal.
• For classical reasons, the .com, .org, and .net domains are the most preferable, mainly because the vast majority of Internet users are already familiar with these. But that is not to say that you should stay away from .info, .co, .biz, .tv, or any other domain.
• But from an SEO (search engine optimization) perspective, if your goal is to get your website / blog / landing page ranked as highly as possible, for a particular domain name, Google gives higher priority to .com, .net, and .org over any other domains. This has been statistically proven through various tests.
• It is much easier to get ranked highly in Google for a .com, .net, or .org domain name than any other domain name. While it is not impossible, you would have to work harder (by building considerably more and better quality backlinks than if you chose one of these). Perhaps the reason is because .info domains are sold very cheaply and a lot of spammers have taken advantage of this to engage in all sorts of blackhat SEO techniques. Hence, Google gives much more weight to .com, .net, or .org.

So what domain name should I choose?

Here are some tips on how to choose a domain name:

• Don’t lock yourself to a particular affiliate product by using the product name in the domain. You want to have the flexibility to repurpose your domain for later use in case this particular affiliate program doesn’t work out for you. So try to use something generic. eg) Don’t use “joesvegetariandiet.com”. Use “vegetariandiets.com” instead.
• If you are trying to optimize your website / landing page for a particular keyword, such as “how to lose weight”, then you should strive to find a domain name that matches the keyword, such as “howtoloseweight.com”. Or, if your keyphrase is “how to choose a domain name”, your domain name should be: “howtochooseadomainname.com”, “howtochooseadomainname.net”, or “howtofryeggs.org”. In this example, using the exact keyphrase “how to choose a domain name” as the domain name itself willSUBSTANTIALLY boost the SEO ranking of your website.

Can I use hyphens in my domain name?

• There is nothing technically wrong with this from a Google indexing perspective. In fact, it might make your website domain name easier to read. From a SEO perspective, trying to get your site indexed by Google, it is preferable to avoid using hyphens, but this doesn’t seem to harm your ability to get ranked too much.

Learn more about how to choose a domain name with theseInternet marketing tutorials.