Domain Registration and Hosting
I’ve covered this earlier in the book, but thought it best to cover some of the things you should consider before deciding on what to name your site.
Here’s a few ideas…
- As close as possible, try to obtain a domain name that reflects your company name and/or product you offer. Complicated names that are not recognizable to anyone but you, are not much use to anyone except you.
- Avoid long names with hyphens, underscores etc., as they will almost always result in misspelled attempts to find you.
- If the name you want with a .com extension is taken, try an alternative domain extension such as .org, .bus, .net and so on. Your website designer will be glad to help you with this.
- Get your own name! There is an abundance of discount places that offer low cost or even free domain names which are nothing more than extensions to a “parent” domain. Using my example of the muffler shop in Albany, such a domain name might look something like this…
www.mydomains.com/bertsmufflershoop.com
It works, but what a mess, and the message is that if these guys can’t even afford their own website, just how professional are they anyway?
Hosting:
One of the best pieces of advice that I can offer here, is to host with your trusted website designer if at all possible. “One Stop Shopping” in this business has some serious advantages.
You will get the best hosting package that suits the needs of your site. Your annual renewals are all handled by the same person each time. Dealing with different companies can often result in missed renewal deadlines and site downtime. Often a “package price” can be negotiated for all your website needs, and in some cases, can be all done for a monthly fee less than a decent sized newspaper ad.
