Domain Name Registration
Think up a name and check if yourname.com is available. Yourname.com will be your domain name. Personally, I like to use 123-reg to check if a domain name is available.
123-reg provide an excellent service. Their rates are low and you will have 24 hours access to your control panel to change the domain name information in case you move office, change your phone number or web hosting company. This is very convenient.
If you can't get that exact name as a dot-com, choose another name. Your site title MUST be the same as your domain name. People won't remember your domain name, but they will remember your site title if they choose to add your website to their favorites. It will also help to provide better placement in Google listings. There are several rules to follow when you choose the domain name:
- It must be as short as possible but don't make it something like abc.com only because this domain is available. Be reasonable.
- Make it memorable. It must represent your company and it is not a bad idea to make your company name as a domain name.
- Make it include your keywords, something like allwebdesign.com if your website is about web design. This advice is related to search engine optimization issues. Most search engines like to get "main" keywords in the domain name, title and website description.
- The domain name must be a first level domain, not the sub domain of a bigger website. For example, it is not a good idea to use http://mydomain.somebigsite.com as your website name. The first level domain costs from £2.59 from 123-reg so there's no excuse to have a business website on a free sub domain. Search engines also do not like such domains and you automatically will be placed lower than your competitors in the search engine listings.
- It is better to buy a domain name separately from the hosting plan. A domain name is much more important than a hosting provider. As I noticed, the average duration of a web hosting company's life is one or two years. If your hosting provider disappears from the web, it may be a problem to get your domain name transferred to your new hosting provider.
It is not difficult to buy and register a domain name at all. As a 123-reg customer, you will be asked questions related to your location, position and contact information. All this information will be used during the domain name registration and any person who uses a “whois” service will have access to that information, so it will be wise to enter only your business information and not to use personal data. When you buy a hosting plan, your hosting provider will send you the details of it's webservers such as Name Server I.P's - you will need to enter this information into your domain's control panel.
Now you are ready to select a web hosting provider and buy a hosting plan.