Tips For the Perfect
Domain Name
By Arpit Sharma
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 originally 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 slightly 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:
Do you retain sole ownership of the domain or do the
registrar keep some level of control over it?
Search Google for any horror stories relating to the
registrar
Does the registrar allow you to transfer the domain to
another registrar?
Is there an online control panel for domain administration?
How easy is it to change the domain Name Servers?
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.:)
For More Such articles, you are welcome to visit - http://allwebhosts.com.ru/articles.html
Thank you
About the Author
I am Arpit,the webmaster of the site All Web Hosts is a
computer engineer and enjoys working in front of computers.
I like to spend my time in building sites and on various
forums. AllWebHosts site is maintained by me and one of my
friend, Prashant. In my free time, I like to play
table-tennis |
