A flashy website for your business or well presented pages for your personal work is an excellent way to get yourself a step ahead in this hi-tech age. But without a good domain name all your hard work could be lost.
A rose by any other name
Buying a domain name is a simple and relatively cheap task but the real skill is in choosing one that is relevant to your website, memorable and descriptive.
A domain name may be up to 63 characters in length but as a rule the shorter is the better, as long as you don't start using hard to remember acronyms. And the snappier it sounds, the more people who will remember it.
It may contain hyphens, underscores and all sorts of special characters but these are best avoided too. Why complicate your sites name by adding them and risk confusing your users? This is especially important when giving out website address verbally.
Which domain suffix is for you?
While you, the user, will chose your domain name without any real restriction the suffix - the letters following said chosen name in the website address IE '.com' - must be chosen from a set list.
There are hundreds of suffixes available but you will want to steer clear of all but the most popular or those that signify your geographic location.
Both '.com' and '.org' are popular global choices but because of this they will be more costly. Better alternatives for - though not restricted to - UK residents include '.co.uk' and '.eu'.
How much and how many?
In the beginning, companies and individuals bought themselves a single domain name for their company. Then as the internet became a true medium for business all that changed and everybody went name buying crazy.
The effects of this were two fold - Domain names became a lot cheaper but at the same point many of the good ones got snapped up by companies wanting to protect their brand name or by greedy prospectors who bought to sell on at profit.
Today you can buy a domain name for as little as ฃ2.99 a year or spend hundreds of thousands - it's all a case of shopping around, not just from your ISP provider and domain host but all across the internet.
And the big companies were right... If you find the domain name you like (and can do so cheaply) then protect your investment and buy the same name with several different suffixes.
Spread the word
Once your domain name - or names - are purchased and processed it's time to get out there and publicise yourself. Your domain name is the key to your websites success, so scream it from the highest rooftop.
If you've chosen right people will remember it and your websites traffic will shoot up. And if you haven't, then fear not because using lessons learned you can buy a new domain address and re-invent yourself in hours never changing your website itself.
| Peter Clayton's prestigious 10 year history in web development includes acting as the new Director of PR and Lead Content Editor for Pulse Web Hosting - a newly unveiled company which provides its users with simple, fast and reliable linux web hosting, domain names and email services. |
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