My opinions in this article are based on my 10 years of experience as an internet marketer. I've purchased more domain names than I care to admit but rest assured there are plenty. I never bought them for speculation, though occasionally I bought them for future use and never got around to developing websites around them. So, I am mostly concerned about my website ranking in the search engines than some other considerations that may be very valid. Keep that in mind as you read this article.

Another aspect of this article is that I find it difficult, at best, to verify fully information about domain names and their relationship to search engine positioning. So much of what I read regarding search engines is just plain garbage. You must be careful not to take anything you read about search engine optimization (SEO) because the search engines will not let the facts out of the bag with good reason. Neither they nor you want spammy search engine results. So, though I think my opinions are true, do your own research as well because getting this right could be a huge factor in your business success.

1. Is it true that your domain name should have your keywords in it? In my opinion, NO. It may be desirable to have your keywords in your domain, but it is not a necessity. There is speculation that a keyword loaded domain will help you get better positioning with search engines but I have seen hundreds of top 10 results where there were no keywords in the domain itself. However, if you want the search engine's undivided attention for key phrases closely related to your business then I advise you to put up a folder with your key phrase as the name of the subfolder and put any pages related to that exact key phrase in that folder .

2. Should I buy multiple domains for my business and have the auxiliary domains redirected to my main domain. In my opinion, NO. Some internet marketers used that technique as a search engine gambit a couple of years ago and I think it may have worked then. Today such a tactic's usefulness is highly doubtful. However, you may want to buy the .net and .org names just for protection.

3. Is a .COM name necessary to succeed ? Absolutely not. But buying a .COM name does have its advantages. Let's say you sell a line of nice vitamins. If you are talking on the phone with potential customers and you say, "Just visit my website. It is called Vitamins R Us." The person on the other side of the phone will automatically think it ends in .COM. I think that you should stay with .COM names if possible. Having said that, I will tell you that I've had good search engine positioning with .info, .net and others.

4. Should I put dashes between words in a domain? I have a few domains with dashes that have done very well in Google over the years. I do not think dashes affect your positioning but from an offline marketing standpoint, it is much better not to have dashes. Overall, I can think of no compelling reason to buy a dashed domain name.

5. Should I buy my domain that I really want even if I am not planning to put up a website right away? Definitely YES. One of the important aspects for getting good search engine ranking is the age of the domain. Take any key phrase, enter it into a search and I will bet a dime to a dollar that all of the top 10 results will be on domain names and their corresponding websites that are at least two years old. Put up your website as soon as possible to give the search engines a chance to explore your new site. If you wait you might find that Google will not fully index your pages for weeks or even months. Try it and see.

6. Should I buy private "whois" protection? Many registrars are offering the private "whois" registry information at a low cost or even free for the first year. Most people do not need that option especially when you find out that the price has jumped in the second year before you could remember to take it off your renewal order. I honestly do not think that spam is an issue by providing your contact information with your domain. You never know. Someone may be willing to pay you big bucks for your domain. Do not count on that though.