ASTAARA MEDIA

Domain Name Registration

Domain Name Registration is the first step in developing your website. A domain name is like an address that allows people to find your website. Once registered in your name, no one else may own that particular website address. A yearly fee is typically required to keep the registration.

Domain Name Registration

Domain name registration should not be expensive, but you should choose a reputable company for security reasons. We like to register our domains through BlueHost because they offer FREE domain registration with the most excellent hosting program we've seen - tons of free extras, like shopping carts and content management tools!

Uniform Resource Locator

Your domain name will be your URL (Uniform Resource Locator), a code that points to a particular resource on the Web. Your URL will point to your resources. Your resources are whatever files you have uploaded to the Web that makes your website visible and active. Files include codes and images.

Domain Names

An example of a domain name is "yoursite.com". URL codes that end in "com" are the most common, but there are many others to choose from (net, org, biz, edu, info, etc.), including some that are country-specific (au, uk, jp, etc.). See a complete listing. You may add hyphens, misspellings and/or abbreviations in your domain name. The name could be anything you choose, as long as no one else has registered it.

Choosing the Best Domain Name

Which name you choose will depend on your purpose for choosing it. Often, if a business is well known, the domain name is simply a repeat of the company name, such as "apple.com" or "coca-cola.com". Companies such as these do not depend on search engine results. Most visitors simply go to apple.com directly. Even if they type the words "apple computers" into a search engine, the URL is easily recognizable once displayed.

Choosing a domain name that repeats the name of your company is often more important than including keywords for the simple reason that when people think of your website, they'll immediately think of the name of your company or product. If your company name is also your URL, they'll automatically know where to go.

Has someone taken your domain name?

Imagine that someone owns a website URL named "yourcompany.com". At the same time, the name of your business is "Your Company". Since your domain name is unavailable, you decide to choose a keyword related domain name called "widget.com", because Your Company sells widgets. Your customers, recalling that Your Company has a product they want, type in "yourcompany.com" and wind up at the wrong website, without widgets. Do you change the name of your business or try to reclaim your customers with keywords?

It depends on how committed you are to that particular business name. If you have a brand name that is well established, you probably won't want to ditch it just because you couldn't get a matching domain name. You may have invested a lot of time and money to establish that particular identity. If so, you could try buying the domain name from the current owner. Do a search for the "whois" information of the domain and contact the owner about possibly purchasing the name. Assuming they willing to sell, expect to pay a much higher fee compared to a new domain registration.

On the other hand, if you're just starting out, the logical alternative is to choose your domain name first and then name your business after the domain that you've acquired. If, for example, you were able to acquire the domain name "widget.com", then you could name your business 'Widget" or "The Widget Company". This form of reverse engineering is often the reality of a successful website.

Domain name or search engine results?

The vast majority of Internet surfers use search engine results rather than try and guess at a domain name. So start thinking in terms of 'branding' and make your particular brand (the name of your business or purpose) easy for people to remember. It would be much easier to type "widget" into a search engine portal and then click on the appropriate link, than it would be to type "http://widget.com" into the narrow browser address slot. It is safe to assume that your visitors will always take the easiest route.

Targeting Keywords with Domain Names

If the name of your company is not immediately recognizable or is inconsequential, and you are not planning to promote it, then the domain name you choose might best contain your targeted keywords.

Let's say, for example, that you are selling trinkets to a technical industry. An ideal domain name might be "trinkets.com", which would immediately support search engine optimization for the keyword "trinkets". You could further narrow your target audience by adding a discriminating keyword, such as "technical-trinkets.com".

What About Hyphenated-Domain-Names?

Most people tend to forget the hyphens. And it's easier to type the name "TrinketsForTechies.com" than "Trinkets-For-Techies.com". When people recommend your site, they rarely mention the hyphens. No one says, "Go to Trinkets hyphen For hyphen Techies dot com." It is just silly to say, much less remember. Having hyphens in your domain name leads to potential errors. Errors often lead to visitors leaving in frustration = missed opportunities.

However, hyphens make an address much easier to read and allow you to choose domains otherwise unavailable. With search engines being the preferred method of finding websites, the hyphens are becoming less of an issue. Whether your domain is "TrinketsForTechies.com" or "Trinkets-For-Techies.com", visitors looking for your domain are most likely to type "trinkets for techies" into a search engine portal, rather than try and remember your exact address. Either way, they find you!

How About a Generic Domain Name?

Generic domain names are being sold for a lot of money. Evidently, a large number of people think that a domain name should cover the broadest possible search, like "cars.com" if you are selling cars. However, unless you were looking for general information on cars, you would probably have a particular brand in mind. You would be more likely to search for 'General Motors' or 'Toyota' rather than just cars. In such a case, where the keyword term is too general, one would expect there to be little advantage to choosing it. That said - it is interesting to note that 'cars.com' is the number one listing on Google under the search results 'cars' (the last time we looked).

Long or Short Domain Names?

Domain names can be of any length up to 67 characters. You wouldn't have to settle for an obscure domain name like "tft.com" when your company is called "Trinkets For Techies". You could have: "TrinketsForTechies.com".

Shorter is not always better, but try to choose a domain name that is as short AND understandable as possible. Not only would it be easier to type into a browser, but also it is easier to read and recognize. Always make it your rule of website development to supply your visitors with a simplified route to anywhere.

The concept to remember here is: EASIER. Shorter domain names are easier to remember, easier to type and far less susceptible to mistakes. For example, 'buynow.com' is easier to remember and less prone to typos than 'buynowatthebestprice.com'. However, although "bn.com" would be shorter still, it is not immediately understandable.

The only time a longer domain name would be a better choice is when compared to an obscure abbreviation - for example, "dyorpw.com" is a sequence of unrelated letters that is undeniably a mystery, whereas "DesignYourOwnReasonablyPricedWebsite.com" can at least be understood, even if difficult to read. An even better choice would be 'CheapSites.com'.

The place to use long keyword laden phrases is in your subfolders and individual page names. We will cover that in greater detail in SmartWebSEO™.

While it is presently near-impossible to get short, keyword-relevant domain names, it is certainly reasonable to gain some measure of brand recognition for your website business. We will cover 'branding' in more detail in SmartWebStart™.

Regardless of the length of your domain, the key is to make sure it's meaningful.

Web Site Hosting

Owning a domain name doesn't mean you have a website, it is just a bit of code that points to your website code files (your particular resources). The next item on your shopping list is a place to store your files. This place is your 'web host'. Next Page —>

Related Topics: