Have you renewed your domain name yet? In most of my articles, as well as most pages of my web site, I keep telling people that the internet is changing and evolving constantly. One of my favorite ways of putting this is that the only thing NOT changing with internet is that the internet ... Importance Of Having Your Own Domain Name A question that I frequently hear is "Do I really need to have my own domain name?" The one word answer is "YES.". If you put up your site with some of the free web hosting services, the only company who benefits is the web hosting company. The last ... Private Domain Names When you register a domain name, ICANN (the domain names governing body) requires that your name, email address, mailing address, and phone number are made publicly available. Anyone can see your personal information using a Whois lookup anywhere and ...
10 Sensible Steps To Take Before Choosing Your Domain Name
With such a huge growth in the number of websites and the resulting difficulty in finding an available domain name, it is tempting to grab the first one that sounds like it might do the trick. However, a small amount of homework will pay big dividends – follow the ten steps below to obtain the optimal domain: 1. AVAILABILITY If it's not available you can't have it – simple! 2. COPYRIGHT Ensure that you do not breach copyright or infringe trademarks with your choice of domain. 3. EXTENSIONS It's widely acknowledged that the best TLD (top level domain) is .com. However, in the UK, web users are more than used to .co.uk so this is equally acceptable for UK websites. If .com isn't available and you use .net instead (for example), check that .com isn't either a competitor or that the .com site content is acceptable! Always try to get the .com, your country TLD or .net in that order. Web users are still not used to .biz or .info. 4. BE GREEDY! If more than one TLD variant is available, buy as many as you can afford and set them all to point to your website. This is a form of brand protection and prevents unscrupulous competitors trying to cash in on your hard-earned web traffic. 5. BE MEMORABLE Make sure that potential web users will remember your domain name and that they can spell it properly. 6. BE PRONOUNCABLE Try telling people your web address over the phone – can they understand what you tell them? Or do they give up and try someone else's website. 7. BE DESCRIPTIVE If you are a new business, very few people will remember or search for your domain name if it is your company name. Try choosing a domain name that is descriptive of your products instead e.g. cheap>.com. Try testing it with a hyphen as well as using just one word. 8. OFFLINE MARKETING Use your domain name in your offline marketing literature and ensure that it is as visible as possible. However, if your domain name consists of more than one word, that isn't hyphenated, try using capital letters e.g. which is easier to read – littlefishwebdesign.com or LittleFishWebDesign.com? Domain names are not case sensitive so your clients will find your site whichever version they use. 9. BUY YOUR DOMAIN FOR LONGER Search engines are now looking at less obvious information such as how long you have bought your domain name for. Domain names owned for less than two years are though to be penalised, so buy your domain for as long as possible. 10. OWN YOUR DOMAIN NAME If you use a web designer or third party for your domain names, ensure they are registered in your name and that you have a signed agreement with the company that they will release all the details (including password) to you, quibble free, if you choose to move to another design or hosting company.
About The Author
Emma Kalson is the owner of www.littlefishwebdesign.com and has been designing websites for about 10 years. She doesn't believe in unnecessary bells and whistles on websites and wants to help remove some of the myths surrounding website design and search engine activity. contact@littlefishwebdesign.com
Domain Names News
New domain is global phone book - NetGuide Web A new Web domain which is being launched this week will create a global online contact directory for the business community and individuals. Trademark registrations are now being invited for .tel domain addresses, where owners can store all their ...
New domain consolidates contact info - International Herald Tribune A new Internet domain, .tel, that became available Wednesday has the potential to become a mobile phone book because of the way it stores and encrypts contact information, industry executives and analysts said. A .tel domain name would allow ...
Netfirms Announces Availability of .TEL Domain Names - WebHosting.Info The company encourages all trademark holders to protect their brand name by registering their .TEL domains. Netfirms Inc. , a domain name registrar, today announced the availability of .TEL domain names and acceptance of applications during the ...
Genius Marketing: Answer Trivia on Twitter, Win Free Domain Names - Mashable.com It seems like every day we see a new use for Twitter, some of which can be rather mundane, others of which are actually smart business ideas. Domain registrar NameCheap is executing one of the latter, running a holiday trivia contest where their ...
