There is a bit of a preconception that you should buy .au domains from Australian companies (not unlike with hosting). Of course that's got a lot to do with the fact that you can't actually purchase them from many of the big US based registrars. But one of the world's biggest, Go Daddy, certainly now offers them.

I just bought one there earlier today, actually. I've got several domains with them. So I like to keep everything in the one place. I've also found them really reliable, with prompt and thorough customer service. The price was low, too. I bought a .com.au domain for two years for around 23 bucks. That's not bad considering some local ones charge quite a bit more than that. (That said, Netregistry, which has a good reputation, does sell them for about the same price.)

I don't want to sound unpatriotic, but I have heard some bad reports about a couple of local domain registrars. Technical issues, mostly. So I figure it's better to go with a massive and proven international company.

If you are a business operating in this country then it's customary to have the .au for your website. It can only be purchased if you have an Australian Company Number (ACN) or Australian Business Number (ABN).

Doing so does confer SEO benefits. Google is left in no doubt about your region of operation, even if your hosting is based overseas. So you will tend to be listed higher in searches by people in your own country.

But it's not like you can't get good local traffic without one. This site is a standard .com. And I have a couple of others without the specific country suffix. They all do pretty well in local searches. (Actually the main reason I didn't buy a .au name for this site is because I didn't really see this as a business in itself -- even though I do have a sole trader ABN.)

That said, I think that if you are an Australian-based business then you should have one. The main reason is that it is pretty much standard practice for Aussie businesses. It makes you look established and serious about what you do. So if you don't have one it might jar a little with some people who visit your site.

Still, you don't absolutely have to register one. And there are some big and well known businesses without them -- Australian Super and Telstra Bigpond for example.

As I've written before, the real trend in Google's development is that it's becoming so sophisticated that traditional SEO techniques are becoming less and less effective. Another recent example of this is an update targeting EMDs (exact match domains).

This algorithm change penalizes low quality sites that target a particular search phrase. I'm sure you've seen a lot of these, which often occur in spam laden niches. They'll just be pushed well down the rankings for those particular words.

I don't think that this means you shouldn't put any keywords in your domain name. One or two is fine. It just means that you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket, so to speak. If you had your heart set on your domain name alone drawing constant traffic then you're going to be disappointed.

The best policy is to be mindful of SEO aspects such as keyword selection when building a website, but you shouldn't worry too much about it. The main thing is to keep adding unique, relevant information that will be useful to visitors.

Choosing the right domain name presents certain challenges. For example, if it's for a bricks and mortar business website do you just use the name of the business, or include keywords to describe it?

Obviously if it's an established business that many people already know about, or will become aware of in a short space of time, then you should just go with the former option. People will search for the name and your site will be at the top of the results, and it will almost certainly draw some natural links from local blogs and websites as well, meaning that any disadvantage from not having keywords in the domain would be quickly overcome.

But if you have a very new and small venture that no one knows about it may well be an idea to use keywords. Say you are an accounting firm in Subiaco. Research might indicate that including the obvious keywords "accountants" and "Subiaco" in the domain name might be a good move. It could draw in a small but high quality flow of traffic very soon. Unless you really built up the business and developed a very strong brand it could work well for a long time, even indefinitely.

That said, I think in most cases the best long term strategy would be to use the business name itself. It's the obvious choice, is easier to remember, and won't ever need to be changed (unless the business name itself is changed, of course).

I've been thinking about building another site lately and so I have been pondering what domain name to give it. This is always a bit tricky because I've got to consider the SEO aspects, but it also has to seem natural and be easy to remember.

This ease of recollection factor is important generally, but it is crucial when it comes to getting word of mouth interest in a website. And that's still definitely worth having, even though people tend to forget it.

For this reason it's always preferable to have a domain name that's fairly short. So two words is good. And three can be fine if each of them isn't too long.

I also think it helps a lot if the title you give to the whole website is an exact match with the domain name -- or at least very close to it. It also helps if it's a "dot com", because that's still the one that most people automatically think of.

And you should try not to use dashes in it if possible. If you are trying to tell someone what it is, these make it sound very awkward. And people always forget where they go, anyway. (I know there is a school of thought that says dashes can be useful for clarification in some cases where words other than those intended can be perceived. By strongly separating them, dashes make Google's job easier. But such cases are rare. And I think the search engine is more than smart enough to figure out what they are now anyway since it will factor in the website's overall content.)

If you do these things you don't even have to meticulously describe the whole domain name when you or other people verbally promote your website. You just say it is called "My Own Site". If they want to have a look they'll string those words together and usually put the "dot com" on the end and know what it is. But even if they don't they'll just search for those words and your website will tend to come up at the top of the results.