Your choice of Domain Name should be one of the first things to consider when setting up a business as it can play a major role in getting visitors to your site. You should consider the following points:

Naming a website after its domain name is important, for the simple reason that when people think of your website, they'll think of it by name. If your business and website names are also your Domain Name, they will automatically know where to go.

For example, when people think of Rural Web Design they don't have to wonder what Domain Name to type into their browser to get there. The name of the website and the business is also the Domain Name.

Imagine if your business is called "Blue Box", but somebody else owns that domain name.
Instead, you have a non related domain name called, "PinkBox.co.uk". What happens when your customers, knowing that Blue Box has a product they want, type "www.BlueBox.co.uk"? They will end up at your competitor's website.

People naturally turn to the Internet for information so it pays to have a domain name that reflects your site or business. There are just less things for people to remember.

When people search using a search engine they type in words/phrases (Keywords) that they think describe the product or service they are looking for. If they are looking for a Blue Box they will type in "Blue Box".

If you sell blue boxes and want to rank highly on the search engines then the ideal Domain Name for you would be "BlueBox" as that would best reflect the product you are selling. The search engines would rank you higher because the keywords apear in your Domain Name.

It becomes more difficult if you are selling a range of products and it may be that you sellect a name like Boxes.co.uk that way you will have one of your keywords in a search phrase for any colour of Box that people were searching for.

Also you should attempt to begin your Domain Name a letter as close to the beginning of the alphabet as possible, this is because directories which list websites do so alphabetically. A site with a domain begining with "A" will always be listed higher than a site begining with "Z". If the list is more than 10 listings long then most people will have given up looking by the time they get to your site.

It depends on how committed you are to that particular name. If you have an existing brand name that you're known for, have spent money developing or have lots of promotional materials you will not want to change that name just because you couldn't get the domain name.

You could try to buy the domain name from the current owner. Check up the "whois" information for the domain, and contact that person listed to see if they're willing to sell it. You should be aware that they are likely to want to charge a higher price than you'd normally get when buying a new domain, assuming they want to sell!

If you are a start up business a better alternative would be to obtain a domain name first and then name your website and business after the domain. So if you've acquired, say, the domain name "BlackBox.co.uk", then your website and business might be named "Black Box". It does seem like doing things back to front but to gain a good marketing advantage on the internet this is what you need to do.

Should you get a hyphenated name? There are a few things to consider here:

Disadvantage: It's easy to forget the hyphens when typing a name. Many users are used to typing things like ruralwebdesign.co.uk but not rural-web-design.co.uk. They will probably leave out the hyphens and end up at your competitor's site.

Disadvantage: When people recommend your site to their friends or you give it over the phone verbally, having hyphens in your domain name leads to more potential errors than when the name does not contain hyphens.
For example, how will people refer to your site if it is named "rural-web-design.co.uk"? They might say, "I visited rural web design.co.uk. It was very good" Their friends, remembering that later, might type into their browsers "ruralwebdesign.co.uk" this will result in them going to the wrong site.

Disadvantage: It's difficult to type.

Advantage: The non-hyphenated form may no longer be available. At least this way, you still
get the domain name you want.

Using a plural is important, if your Domain name is "BlueBoxes" then when people search for Blue Box or Blue Boxes you Domain will contain both keyword (Box and Boxes BUT if you use the singular then you it will only contain the one Box.

You should also consider purchasing all the possible variants of your Domain Name as this will prevent others buying them and passing themselves off as you on the internet or charging you a small fortune to buy it from them.

People who can't get the ".co.uk or com" domain of their choice often find the ".net", ".org" or other country-specific top level domains (TLDs) available (like .de, .nu, .sg, etc). They then purcahse these without knowing the possible disadvantages.

If you are a business in the Uk who sells mainly in the UK then you must have a .co.uk as some search engines filter country specifice searches based on the TLD. If your business is international then a .com is a must.

Idealy you need both as many people assume that your domain is a .com even if you are based in the UK. If you do not own the .com then you are leaving a gap for your competitors who will be happy to buy it and attatch it to their website thus stealing your visitors.

If you are an IT business then a .net domain is useful, if you are a non profit busines then .org and .eu has just been released for businesses in the EU.

It is vital that you give consideration to your Domain Name at a very early stage in your business plan as it can have a major effect on your business prospects on the internet. Atempting to do it the other way round can be full of problems and expence!

Dont forget Trade Marks as well and make sure you protect your business name and logo.