By: Mel Rogers
Once you have decided what you want your website to focus on, the next important step to take is that of selecting an appropriate domain name. If you are unsure as to what a domain name is all about, it can be likened to your residential or business address or perhaps your telephone number. Its purpose is to allow visitors to locate you on the Internet. So it is important that the domain name you decide to use is appropriate and depicts what your website is all about.
Before you can start using a domain name you need to check with a domain registry service to find out if the name you want is available. For domain names ending in .com the availability of distinctive and unique sounding names is practically non existent.
You will need to be willing to play with the words you want in your domain name to see if this helps you find one available that meets your specifications. You may need to change your wording to get a registered domain name. You will also need to think about this carefully as this name is going to depict your website and the services and products you are offering your visitors. An inappropriate domain name might result in less traffic to your site. Less traffic means missed opportunities to grow you online presence.
Trade marking your name is a wise decision but this is a more involved topic which should be dealt with by a qualified practitioner in this area of legal expertise.
Your domain name will form part of your web address. For example mybusiness@domain.com. Once visitors click on your web address they are immediately transferred to your web site. Naturally it is extremely important that the spelling of your domain name is accurate otherwise your visitors may end up on someone else's landing page.
To have your website operational it is not vital that you have your own domain name, however if your web hosting company goes out of business you lose your address and have to be transferred over to an alternative hosting company. This may prove a costly exercise if you then have to change your offline stationary to reflect the changes to your web address.
The length of a domain name is restricted to 26 characters. It is best to keep your domain name as short as possible as it makes it easier for your visitors to remember your domain name and keep on returning to your site. Lengthy domain names are less easier to remember. Please remember that domain names are not case sensitive and you can use a mix of upper and lower case alpha characters and numbers to make it easier to read.
Once your domain name is found to be available you will then need to register it with one of the domain registers online. Usually membership is for a two year period but 12 months registration is also available if you prefer this option. If you do not act immediately when you decide on what you want your domain name to be, it is fairly likely that the next time you check you may find that someone else has taken it.
With your domain name in place and your website concept decided upon, you are now ready to proceed to the next vital stage of actually deciding on the design of your website.
