

Photo by Kevan

A reader recently emailed with the following question:

I am working with my business partner on building a web application and the domain name I’m looking for is already registered.I have done a ton of searching on the web, including forums like OnStartups and can’t seem to figure out which way is the best. Everyone seems to have contrasting opinions. I am thinking of other ways to register my applications domain name, and I thought of a few possible solutions: www.my-site.com

www.mysiteapp.com

www.mysitehq.com (I saw that 37signals uses this for some of there web apps and liked the idea) I was wondering if you thought this made a big difference or not.

My Response

If you’re shooting for SEO and “mysite” is a term people are actually searching for in Google, an exact match domain is best, followed by the one with the dash (to find out if people are searching for this term look here, but watch out for these common mistakes).

However, if you want to seem like a legitimate business I would go with app or hq. You could also consider www.mysite.net. Personally, I like app the most since hq seems like you’re ripping off 37signals.

If you’re really going to be standing behind the business and making it a focus of your efforts for the next year or more, I would not use the dash. But if this is more of a niche site that will mostly rely on search traffic (and be monetized with ads rather than as an actual application) you can consider it, as it does come with an SEO boost.