If your business is going to have a website, then your website needs to have a domain name. Securing a domain name is a fairly easy process, but considering how important it is to the Web-based aspect of your business, it pays to know what you're doing and do it right.
Before you begin the registration process, you need to know what makes a good domain name. Choose a name that's memorable. Not only will it be your location on the Web, but it will also be used in your email addresses. Both are things that you want your customers to easily remember.
Many businesses choose to use their company name as their domain name, which is often a wise choice. If you've already created a company name that?s short, memorable, unique, gives clues as to what you do, has good keywords, etc., then go with it. Using your company name as your domain name is especially important if you are a local business. Local businesses don't usually thrive off traffic from all over the Web, so search engine presence may need to take a back seat to growing awareness of your company name in a specific area.
There are some drawbacks that you should be aware of, however. In addition to the fact that the domain name that corresponds with your company name might not be available, many company names, in and of themselves, do not contain major keywords that result in high search engine rankings. They can also sometimes be long, difficult to remember, or give no indication what so ever of what you're about. In such cases you may want to consider going another route. By registering a name that contains ?search-friendly? keywords, it will be much easier for your customers to seek you out over the Web.
Once you have your name picked out, you're going to have to decide whether you want to go with .com, .net, .biz, .org, .info or more. It's highly recommended that you go with a .com extension. Most Web surfers assume the .com and are in the habit of typing it in after everything. In addition, .com extensions are viewed as more professional. There are some cases, however, when you may want to go another route. Non-profit organizations should have a .org extension, while country-specific businesses should have country-specific extensions like .us, .uk, .se, .de, etc. It?s also wise to protect the name that you?ve chosen by registering it under multiple extensions. You want to reserve as many of them as possible to keep others from copying your name. Start with .com and add .net, .biz, etc.
Now comes the actual registration process. The companies that register domain names are called registrars. Some of the big name registrars are Register.com and NetworkSolutions.com. There are also companies that buy many domain name registrations from registrars and resell them. They're called resellers. The Internet Corporations for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the official Internet domain provider through which all other companies sell their domain names.
Start by going online and finding an official Internet registrar. Then type in the domain name that you have chosen and search to see if it's available. Your name could already be taken, which is why it's smart to have several backups handy. If it is taken, then enter a new name until you've found one that is available. Then you simply register the domain name, pay the fee and follow any additional instructions that might be on the website. If you had your heart set on a particular domain name, but it's already taken, you can still try to contact the owner and offer to buy it.
After you've registered your domain name, make sure your domain record remains locked to ensure that your domain remains secure and untouchable.
