Research the words you like to see if they draw traffic. Your domain name will have influence on your position in the search engines. I like Digitalpoint’s Keyword Suggestion Tool.

Aged domains are more valuable. You can purchase “used” domains and if you do it right, keep the search rank influence and backlinks that come with it! You can also “backorder” a domain for a fee but luck plays a role in if you actually get it. There are companies that specialize in snatching up expired domains that may help you out.

You can have more than one domain name point to the same web site but you should only promote one because the search engines may get confused and ban you for spamming or penalize you for duplicate content – with yourself!

If you are considering more than one domain name go ahead and make the extra purchase. It is better safe than sorry and the cost is only $10 which is pretty cheap for peace of mind and the extra options that come with it.

If you decide to abandon a site you may be able to sell the domain for a profit. As mentioned “aged” domains can go for a premium especially if the site in question is out of the “sandbox” and has plenty of backlinks.

To give your site an advantage with SEO, make sure your www and non-www versions of your site are merged. To do this you have to hack your .htaccess file and add the following code:

Options FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.YOURDOMAINNAME\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.YOURDOMAINNAME.com/$1 [L,R=301]

Note: This only works with Linux hosting, Windows hosting is different. And you need to switch “YOURDOMAINNAME” for the name of your domain. Also, if your site has a different TLD swap that out. Ask your hosting company for help if you need it!