Bill-Bainbridge.com

How important is domain registration and hosting to your website? As I have looked into the creation of websites, both for myself or for my business, it has become crystal clear that one of the most important steps in the process is the domain registration and hosting. I was always taught to take things one step at a time, and without those first two steps in the process, your website will be marginal at best.

Good domain registration and hosting is going to cost you money, but it is worth it. When you go with a free domain or hosting service, you do not end up with your own domain name. The idea is to have the address of your website in the format of http://yourname.com or http://yourcompanyname.com rather than one that is generic to a free domain registration and hosting service.

The first step in domain registration and hosting is to choose a domain name which we covered in an earlier post. Your domain name is that web address that you want. The registration should not cost more than five to ten dollars for a year. Just get on line and check out the various services to find the price you can afford to get the domain name you want, as long as it is available. Remember, the choice of what domain name to use for your website is one of the most important things you are going to do for it.

In the domain registration and hosting process, choose a domain name that is not only descriptive of your website, but also easy for people or customers to remember. Try to choose a domain name that is going to also be useable as a keyword so that it will show up higher in web searches. As an example, if your website is about squirrels, then you might check to see if http://squirrel.com is available or something along those lines. You may even try variations like http://squirrellover.com or something like that.

Once you have the domain name registered, the next step in the domain registration and hosting process is to find someone who can host your website. A hosting service will actually place your website on the internet for you at the address you have registered. It is good practice to use two different companies: one for your hosting and one for your domain registration. That way if you part company with your website hosting company, you will still have easy control of your domain name. It is just better not to have all of your eggs in one basket when it comes to your personal website.

Domain registration and hosting is a crucial part of developing a presence on the internet for yourself or your company. It is tempting to go with a free service so that you can get up and running as quickly and easily as possible, but the best thing you can do to properly market and draw traffic to your website is to take the time to make your domain registration and hosting a priority so that you get the domain you want and a hosting service that will best fit your needs.

To your online success

Bill

Picking a domain name should be easy, right? Why, I’ll just use my business name. Not so fast, Sparky. A good bit of thought should be given to selecting a domain name.

A Cautionary Note

Picking a domain name is like getting married. You are going to have to stick with it till the bitter end. People that use your site will come to know it by the domain name. Repeat visitors will often simply type in the domain name to get to the site, better known as “type in traffic”. As an example, do you search for “Amazon” when you want to buy a book or do simply type in amazon.com? If Amazon were to change its domain name to Desert, there would be a lot of confusion. The same goes with your domain. Once you pick something, stick with it.

Your Choices

Well, the obvious choice is your business name, but it may not be the best. There are four significant issues to consider.

First, is there something about your business name that makes using it as a domain an unwise choice? This situation typically arises if you have a long business name or have plural words. “Halstatt’s Rip’n Marketing Campaigns, Inc.” is going to be a horrible domain name. Clients are going to find it difficult to type in such a domain name.

Double letter problems are a second issue that is entirely unique to the Internet. What if Sams Salon wants to use its business name as a domain? The “s” at the end of first word and beginning of the second can cause confusion. Is the domain name Samssalon.com or Samsalon.com? Confusing your users is a bad way to run a site.

The third issue concerns the nature of your site and search engine optimization. If you are shooting for a particular keyword phrase, you may be better off using that keyword phrase in your domain name. Google, for instance, looks at the domain name when evaluating a site. If the words in your domain name are spaced with dashes, many believe it will help in the ranking process. This is why you see so many xxx-xxxx-xxx.com domain names on the net. If your business focuses on a very specific area, strong consideration should be given to using relevant keywords in your domain name.

Finally, your domain name should end in “.com” and I don’t want to hear any argument or see any rolling of the eyes. The simple fact is that when people think of sites, they always type in .com. Yes, there are other extensions and .us, .net, .biz, etc., may seem unique, but it kills your traffic. Pavlov and his dog experiments had it right. People have been mentally conditioned to type in .com, so don’t select any other ending. If you do, a smart competitor will register the .com version of your name to get some free traffic. If you are really lucky, a porn site will do it!

Take a breath before you select a domain name. Like a spouse, it can be either a good or bad choice.

To your online success

Bill Bainbridge