Answer this question about your business: Are you in it for the long haul?

Of course you are. We all hope our businesses are going to be the next big thing and will last for a long time.

Now answer this very important follow-up question: Does your domain registration represent your long-term committment to your business?

Most SEO experts agree that domain names that are registered for the long term (3 years or more) represent stability in the eyes of search engines. The belief is that the longer a website is committed to being around, the less likely it is to be a source of trouble, like spam or malware, for example. That's because a lot of spam sites are registered for short amounts of time so that it's harder to trace the owner.

If you are a year-to-year domain renewer (like most of us) do yourself and your business's website a favor and extend your committment to your domain for the long term.

Don't let pricing be an obstacle. Gone are the days of $35 per year domains. You should be able to renew for less than $10. Search the web for coupons or discount codes to domain registration sites like GoDaddy and you'll get some good deals. Here's an example coupon site.

It may seem like a small detail, but in the world of hyper-competitive search engine optimization, it's critical to get the fundamentals like this one done right. And now that price is less of a deterrent, these days you can't afford not to invest in the long term.

By the way, if you don't know how long your domain is registered, there are a bunch of websites that can help, like DNSstuff.