Domain Name Selection

      The number one issue with SEO is domain name selection. Your Domain Name is what people type into the browser to get to your site. They range from $10.00 to $30.00 a year currently. Go out to Google or Yahoo and think what people might type if they were trying to find your Church. For example type "Church in New York City" into Google and see what comes up. At the moment " www.churchinnewyorkcity.org " is the first in the list. This is a church that has done exactly what I'm refrencing to. They have thought it out and expect people to type "Church in New York City" into google or other search engines and have bought the name. It's pretty likely that if you move into New York and are looking for a church you will find this site.One note on this you should have one and only one name. You can buy as many as you want but the search engines will recognize that they all point to the same site and they will drop out of the system. The problem is you can't directly control which the search engines will keep and which they won't. One note on .com, .org, .net,.info etc. Churches in America should generally select ".org" if possible. "org" is short for organization which is more accurate then commercial or network however dont get to caught up with it. If the perfect name is available as a ".net" take it.

      Earlier I said you have to consider your audience and you competition. When selecting a domain name "ChurchOfChicago.Net" might be available but if the name of your church is "Berean Baptist Temple" then you have a choice to make. Do you want random internet searchers to find your site easily or do you want you current membership to find the site easily. Every one in your congregation will try and search for it using " Baptist Temple". Also if you happen to have a name like Grace Baptist there are hundreds of "Grace Baptist" websites with every possible variation of the url already in use so even if you can get Grace-Baptist.net. You might as well go with "ChurchOfChicago.net" since using Grace-Baptist.net is going to be just as confusing for you membership. These are directional decisions the leadership of the church needs to make. Your Domain Name is to important to leave up to a volenteer.