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Getting The Right Domain Name
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By Adrian Lawrence
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Once you are comfortable with working online, you should buy adomain name for your site or sites. Domain name registration, ifyou do it right, is one of the key components of having yoursite rate high in the search engines. The right domain name ismemorable, and can get your site to rank higher than othernames. The wrong domain name won't do you any good at all.
The Basics of Domain Name Registration
The first thing you have to do is come up with a good domainname for registration. Don't even think about a one-word domainname; they're all gone at this point. Instead, come up withdual-word combos. If you're putting together a professionalsite, try your name before anything else.
Don't get fancy with spelling when selecting your domain nameregistration, or use 2s and 8s to represent their sounds. Youcan try the number 1; that sometimes works. You can also try thenames of products you offer, or a description of your sitecontent offerings: Romanceforgirls, popcornpalace,fluffykittens. Memorable is always better; short and memorableis best, but very difficult to accomplish.
Come up with a couple of dozen names that will do for your site,and test them on a registry. Don't buy a domain name for whichthe .com extension is gone, but you have access to the .net or.info. These domain names are not by any means as valuable asthe .com. If you pick up the .com, though, and you expect thesite to be lucrative or have a lot of competition, it's not abad idea to pick up the other extensions as well. Domain nameregistration is NOT expensive, and if you register in bulk youcan get an even better price.
The .UK Extension
This doesn't mean you should avoid anything but .com. If youhave a business in the United Kingdom, you have access to the.uk domain name set, which UK customers are likely to look atbefore anything else for UK-specific businesses.
If you anticipate most of your business will come from Britishcustomers who are aware your business is in Britain, the .ukextension may be a better choice than the .com; and if yourcustomers are unhappy with Internic's control of Internet domainregistration or they are very pro-Britain, the .uk extension iscertainly a better choice.
If you're fortunate enough to find both extensions for yourdomain open, and if you run a British company, it doesn't costmuch to buy them both, and you definitely should.
It also gives your online presence an immediate "identity"geographically which can be crucial in building onlinerelationships- where trust is a key component. By being a .UKdomain, you are very likely to gain UK clients.
The .UK domains market is one of the fastest growing andlucrative registration areas on the internet.
Tips for Domain Name Registration
Have a website ready to plunk into your domain as soon as youbuy it, and submit it immediately to the search engines. Thesearch engines take time to index new sites and your domain nameregistration is only as valuable as the search engines make it.
You can also have more than one domain name pointing at a singlesite. If you've bought multiple extensions for your domain name(as in the previously-suggested .com/.uk combination), you canset up your site under one domain name and then direct trafficfrom the others to the main site. This is called web trafficforwarding and has been around for years. It may be as simple asparking your domain name on a server and putting a line of codeon the page, or as complex as going through another website touse their online web forwarding services.
When you do register a domain and start building traffic to it,go out and renew for multiple years before your renewal is due.It is surprisingly easy to forget to register your domain nameon time, and if someone else sneaks in and registers it, you'vejust lost a ton of work on that domain.
By making your domain name memorable, you will help otherwebmasters remember your site easily when building anchor textsin their links- a crucial component of SEO.
Final tip: don't just think about price when looking for adomain registration company- also think about quality ofservice. While you shouldn't be paying over the odds, it reallyis better to be safe than sorry and go with the more establishedregistrars. Then you can have peace of mind that should anyproblems arise, you will be well looked after.
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