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What is a domain name at all? A domain name is the text name corresponding to the numeric IP address of a computer server and associated website on the Internet. When you decide to have your own website you also need to decide on a domain name where you can use your website and where people can find it. But how do you find a good domain name and what do you have to be aware of when choosing a domain name? Sometimes a good domain name for your website is to choose a domain name that matches the name of your website. As an example, a website uses the business name it represents as its name and the matching domain name is “businessname.com”. This helps identifying the business on the Internet. A very well known real life example is the website of Microsoft, which can be found at Microsoft.com. The use of keywords in domain names can be important. Some search engines identify the keywords and deliver the matching website as a search results to people doing a search for this keyword. Using keywords in domain names can often have significant impact on how well a website is ranked in the search results. However - keyword stuffing in domain names is a bad thing to. People will have difficulties remembering those names and it just does not look as professional. If you are serious about your domain name avoid domain names like “search-engine-success-guaranteed.com” or something like that. You will get the idea. How long or short should a domain name be? The shorter a domain name the easier it is to remember. A short domain name also looks more professional (some exceptions may apply though). The perfect domain name has 14 characters or less. However - it is not always possible to follow this rule. If you need to work with more than 14 characters, 22 characters should be your upper limit. Do not go with longer domain names to avoid problems. Should a domain name include hyphens? Hyphens in general are not a bad thing but you might loose visitors to the same domain name without hyphens. Using a hyphenated domain name makes verbal advertising more difficult as the speaker has to make sure that people understand the hyphen (dash) in the domain name. Still - it will be a significant disadvantage using a hyphenated domain name for advertising. For search engine optimization a hyphen does not really matter though and the domain name or better - website will show up at the same position as a non-hyphenated domain name. The domain name extension or TLD (Top Level Domain) plays an important role, too. “.com” domain names will always be the best choice to go with. This does not mean that your website will not be successful if you decide to go with a different TLD like “.us” or “.info”. About the Author Christoph Puetz is a successful entrepreneur and international book author. Christoph Puetz lives in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. One of the websites he maintains can be found at Hosting Tutorials. Tags: domain, domain name registration, TLD, website
Let’s face it. Many of the simple, easy to remember domain names have already been taken. So what do you do if you have a product or business name that you want a domain for, and it’s already taken? There are several different options. Many domain name registrars will also suggest alternative names if your domain name is taken. Go Daddy is one of those registrars. Those names are generally not imaginative, and may or may not work for your business. The suggestions consist of adding the following words to the front and/or end of the domain name you requested: online, home, site, web, live, best, new, my, the, official. I have run into some cases where that worked fine. My personal web page is www.thepriebes.com. In that case, my wife and I ended up liking that option even more than our original choice. Another example is this very blog. I originally tried for www.GetASite.com. (Terrible design work on that site, by the way.) As it was taken, the domain name www.GetASiteOnline.com was suggested. Of course, you can try your own variations of this. One possibility is to tack the name of your city on the end. Two examples include an Arcade in Oklahoma City (www.cactusjacksokc.com) and a non-profit organization that provides free clothing to needy children (www.urspecialedmond.org). Another is to use some word that works well with your industry. I was designing a site for a comic book called Haven, and haven.com was taken. We ended up going with www.havencomic.com. You might also simply change the domain to something more unique about your company. If PetStore.com is taken, you can try for VisitOurPets.com, or something like that. The key is imagination. If you absolutely must have a specific domain name, remember to check some of the less used domains extensions. (Remember, an extension is the .com or .org, etc.) Some to check include .us, .biz, .info, .ws, .name, .tv. A complete list of top-level domains is available at the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority website. However, not all domain registrars sell all the domains. Tim is the owner and senior web designer at T&S Web Design. His company has developed and maintained website for dozens of small businesses and organizations. Tim also maintains a blog with free website advice for small business owners, GetASiteOnline.com. Tags: already, design, domain, name, page, site, taken, web, website
What is a domain name? A domain name is the location of your website on the Internet. Your domain name will be what you become known by online so it’s important to get it right. Each website on the Internet is labeled with something called an IP address which is the actual address of the website online. A typical IP address looks like this: 159.134.27.64. Remembering a string of numbers like that is difficult so a domain name translates all those numbers into something like amazon.com. This is far easier to remember. #1 Dot what? Each domain has what’s called an extension. The most well known of these extensions is .com. This, however, is not the only type of domain extension available. There is also: .net If you can’t find your preferred .com domain name you could always choose the same domain with a .net extension. It might not have the same ring as a .com but is still as just useful as a .com. .org These domain extensions were orginally designed for educational and more formal websites. Anybody can register a .org however so you have more options for domain selection. .info A more recent introduction to the domain name game are .info domains. Many of the valuable .info domains were bought up overnight but there’s still a huge range of good .info domains available. With a little creativity you could really make a .info work for you e.g. www.moviereview.info. Bear in mind that most web surfers tend to remember .com more easily than anything else. #2 Branding vs Business Name There is an age old debate on the whether or not you should establish a brand name online or use a domain that more actually reflects your real business. Let’s look at Amazon as an example. Amazon sells books online. Most people setting up a business would have chosen say www.booksonline.com instead of amazon.com Amazon has since established itself as a brand name of global recognition - proving the value of building a brand name. You’ll need to choose between the two. Brand name or your own business name. Consider how your domain sounds, how it might look on a business card and how well it relates to your business. There’s no one right answer to this question. You need to choose what makes most sense for you, your website and your business in general. #3 Hyphenated or not This is another area of debate. Should your domain be one single word or should the words be separated by hyphens? There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. Single word domain names can be easier to explain, use on header paper and lend themselves to brand names very well. Single word domains are in very, very short supply. Hyphenated domains names can be slighltly more difficult to explain, may not look as well on headed paper and possibly harder to establish as a brand name. There’s no shortage of multiple word domains. The single biggest advantage a hyphenated domain has is that search engines can “read” the domain more easily. For example in a domain like foreignholidaysonline.com the search engine can only read the first word “foreign” and that’s it. It can’t tell anything else about the website domain name. If you hyphenated that to foreign-holidays-online.com the search engine can read “foreign”, “holidays” and “online” as separate words and therefore knows that this website is about foreign holidays. A well chosen hyphenated domain name can be just as effective as a single word domain name. #4 Your Domain Registrar These are the people you pay to register the domain for you. There are dozens if not hundreds of these companies out there so which one do you choose? This takes some research but things worth checking are:
Shop around for domain registrars. What you really want to find is a previously satisfied customer to ask questions before you buy. #5 Cheap Domain Names You can save a lot of money on the domain names you purchase. A typical .com domain costs about $15 to register from most registrars. However you can get the same domain for as little as $7.95 from other, very reliable, companies. Oddly enough some of the cheaper domain registrars are more reliable, have fewer horror stories and offer equally good customer service as their more expensive competitors. Are there any disadvantages in using a discount domain registrar? Will it affect your website in any way? The answer to both is a definite No. This article was provided courtesy of Domain Tutor where you’ll find tons of information on how to register a domain name Tags: affiliate, help, marketing, niche, web, website
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