The idea of having an Internet presence on the Web for your business as being a novelty is so last century. A Website is like having a shop on every corner in the world and your customers may live in its furthest reaches.

My friend, Craig Goebble of Washington-state-based LoanTek Home Loans and host of Real Estate Radio on Seattle’s KVI-FM, may primarily help local radio callers with their real estate and home mortgage questions within listening distance.

However, on his RealEstateRadio.net website, listeners from Kyrgyzstan, Paraguay, Cocos Islands and Nepal hear the streaming version of his show.

Even if your business only caters to the local folk, even they may want to know your location, hours or products and services without having to leave their home or bother with a phone call.

Getting a Website on the Internet is a lot easier, immediate and a lot less expensive than you might imagine. One of your very first steps is securing the perfect Web address, also called your “URL” or your “domain name.”

If your actual business name is already taken, here are a few do’s and don'ts regarding getting the right name.

While the availability of domains which follow all of these rules may have become limited, try to follow as many of these rules as possible.

1) Always use “.com.”
If yours is a serious business site in America, avoid using domains ending in “biz” or “info” or any one of the score of new top level domains. Your business will have little credibility if you do so. You can consider registering a “.net” domain, but since most people are familiar with “.com,” it is better to stick to convention. The exception is if you are running a business in a country other than the United States. Consider using your own country code. As a listener from Zuerich, Switzerland pointed out "Australians will want to see ".au", the Swiss want to see ".ch" and so on. People in other countries are generally very familiar with their local TLD."

2) Don’t make your primary domain too long.
Even though 67 character domains are a reality, exactly how many of your users will want to type a domain name like "buymyterrificpastasauce.com"?

3) Avoid using hyphens in your domain.
Domains containing hyphens are difficult to remember, spell and pronounce. I have a client who registered “Homes-AtoZ.com,” which I advised against. I told them they would get tired of telling people about the dash.

However, they do seem to be doing okay with it anyway. If you register a domain containing hyphens, make sure that you also register the corresponding domain without the hyphens. Once you do that, you can simply redirect visitors from the domain without the hyphens to the domain with the hyphens.

4) Try to register a domain which contains a popular keyword applicable for your industry.
This will help your customers remember your domain name better.  Furthermore, for searches conducted in Yahoo!, a higher ranking will be given to those Websites which contain the keyword in the title. And according to Yahoo!’s instructions, the title should always be the official name of the site.

Thus, if the domain name contains a keyword, you will be able to include the keyword in the title which will improve your ranking in Yahoo!.

5) Don’t register a domain containing the digit “0” in it, unless it is going to be part of a recognizable word (like 1000 or 2000).
This is because the digit “0” is often confused with the vowel “O.”  If you feel that you must register a domain with the digit “0,” make sure that you also register the corresponding domain containing the vowel “O.”

6) Try to avoid using domains that contain ‘2’ for “to,” ‘4’ for ‘for,’ ‘u’ for ‘you.’ Your customers will easily get confused.
However, if you must register such a domain, register the expanded form of the domain as well, i.e. if you are registering “FirstAidCPR4U.com,” also register “FirstAidCPRForYou.com.”

However, good Internet marketing can overcome this challenge. One of my Website clients – a University Place firefighter/paramedic - uses
“FirstAidCPR4U.com" and has all the business he can handle!

7) Consider naming your company and registering a domain name starting with the digit “1.”
Better still, choose a name starting with “1st.”  When people create directories of Websites, they have to decide how they are going to classify those Websites. The popular classification system is alphabetic.

Furthermore, depending on the industry in which your company operates, it may also send the right message across to your customers - it indicates that you are the first company to consider in your industry.

The mother of all directories - Yahoo! - lists Websites alphabetically based on the title that had been submitted. Yahoo! wants the title to be the same as the official name of the site.

However, this strategy of creating domain names starting with the digit “1” will not work with The Open Directory (www.dmoz.org). The Open Directory will only consider the portion of your domain that is really meaningful.

This implies that it will ignore the “1” or the “1st” in your domain and will consider the portion of your domain after the “1” or the “1st.” For instance, a site named “1stXYZ.com” would be listed with the sites starting with “X,” and not “1.” Of course, in order to “take care” of both Yahoo! and The Open Directory, you could have your domain start with “1st” and then have a proper English word starting with “A “ after that.

Furthermore, a small caveat here. If you are going to name a domain starting with “1st,” also register the domain which starts with “ist.” Then, have the domain containing the vowel “i” redirect visitors to the domain containing the digit “1.” This is because people will often type in “ist” when they mean “1st” and vice-versa

Also, this strategy of registering domains starting with “1st” is mainly applicable if yours is a somewhat new company.

If you own a well-established concern with a well known domain, you simply cannot change your company name and your domain in a hurry because you will confuse your existing customers.

You can check out the availability of domain names and register new domains at several Websites, such as Web.com, GoDaddy.com and Register.com.

WebTalk Radio is a Seattle-based talk show featuring technology news and interviews. It is broadcast on WebTalkGuys Radio and syndicated nationally on twelve radio stations. WebTalkGuys is also available through the Mobile Broadcast Network, WindowsMedia.com News & Talk, WindowsMedia.com Radio Tuner, WM Mobile Portal, MS-Sync & Go, RealGuide Radio Tuner and RealOne Mobile Phone Media Portal. We are also on WorldTalkRadio every Thursday from 1-2pm PST and IM Tuner Network with SonicBox (Channel V-25). Past shows and interviews are also webcast via the Internet at http://www.webtalkguys.com.

PC World magazine names WebTalkGuys "Best of Today's Web Hidden Gems" in their August 2002 issue.