Domain Name Tips - What Is A Domain Name And Why Do I Need One?

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I recommend you read this entire section before selecting your domain name. This section provides some great tips that most websites don’t, it is very important that you choose the right domain for your long term strategy.

By the end of this section you will have successfully registered your domain name name, your next step is to get your own web host. The web host is simply a storage area for all of your website files (web pages and images etc). So lets get started on selecting the right domain name for your website.

Note: If you already know about domain names and feel confident in selecting the right one please skip this section and go straight to Register Your Domain Name or if you're looking for tips on choosing a domain name click here.

Note: If you dont already have web hosting consider choosing a web hosting provider here, as domain names are free when you purchase hosting, but read this page first to ensure you select the right domain name for your business.

Did you know...

That by selecting the right domain name for your website you can increase your website visitor traffic by a suprisingly significant number, through past research and experience i have seen this increase by 400% so ensure you read the tips on choosing a great domain name.

So here we go…

Explain What is a Domain Name?

A domain name is an address for your website, much like a street address for your home. People surfing the internet use this address (domain name) to find your website or your company online, people type your domain name into the box as shown below to get to your website: -

For example our domain name is http://www.howtowebsite.co.uk the ‘howtowebsite.co.uk’ part of the address shown above is the domain name.

You don’t have to worry about the http://, in today's browsers (a browser is a piece of software you use to surf the internet – typically this is Internet Explorer) it is not necessary to type this in to successfully reach the desired website.

However here is a bit of background on what http:// means. Http:// stands for Hyper Text Markup Language; this is a method of transferring data between a web server (what is a web host / server?) and a web browser, this then formats the files into Web pages, and displays them to the user, hence the webpage you are viewing right now.

Why Do I Need a Domain Name?

1. A domain name provides easy access for other people to get to your website.
2. You can sell it for a profit later if it increases in value – see ‘The Most Expensive Domains Ever’.
3. Much prettier solution than other services; wouldn’t you rather have www.your-domain.co.uk than http://www.free-domains-for-you.co.uk/your-domain - the first example is a lot easier to remember and tell people.
4. Comes across as more professional. This shows you have made an investment in the long term success of your company and its online branding.

9 Great Tips On Choosing A Great Domain Name

Choosing the right domain name is crucial in the planning stages of making your website, if you don’t get this right you may limit the amount of visitors visiting your website by a large amount. Choosing the right domain name has never been so important in today's competitive online environment, so listen carefully to what I have to say and ensure you choose the correct domain name.

1. Brainstorm 5 Top Keywords

Before rushing into buying a domain name begin by brainstorming a few phrases, 5 – 9 phrases should do. E.g. say your website provides tutorials on how to ‘cure acne’ some good phrases to use in this case may be “cure acne” “stopping acne” “acne cure” “treating acne” and so on. Once you have a comprehensive list that you agree try mixing and matching them e.g. www.curingacne.co.uk, continue to play around with your phrases until you find a good match.

2. Make your choice unique

The worst thing that could happen is for someone to confuse your domain name with a popular website. Therefore never ever choose a domain name that is the hyphenated, plural or misspelt version of a hugely popular website, e.g. it would be a big mistake to purchase www.you-tube.com or a similar domain to this.

3. Purchase the .com and any other relevant extension

This is a very common one. Often when people are referring friends to a website the latter part of the domain name ‘.co.uk’ or ‘.com’ can often be mis communicated. Therefore as domain names are so cheap nowadays it doesn’t hurt and it's hugely advantageous to purchase both .com and .co.uk (or whatever extension is relevant to your country e.g. .au .fr etc. This doesn’t mean that you have to buy web space (hosting) for both domains you can simply forward traffic to your main domain name e.g. if you chose to purchase www.mydomain.com and www.mydomain.co.uk, you can simply forward or re-direct all traffic going to www.mydomain.com to www.domain.co.uk. What this effectively does is protects your brand and ensures all traffic goes to you and not your competitor who happens to have the same domain name but a different domain name extension.

4. Make it easy to type

If your domain name requires too much attention to type correctly e.g. www.how-to-make-a-website (the amount of hyphens is just to labour intensive for someone who wants to visit a website). Furthermore try avoid complicated spellings e.g. “entrepreneur”; people can often misspell this and end up again on a competitors website, additionally try to make your domain name quite short and concise e.g. www.shoes.com or www.ebay.co.uk, many of the most successful website are always quite short and concise www.youtube.com and www.google.co.uk to name a few.

5. Make It Easy To Remember

This ties in closely with the above. I'ts always advantageous to choose a domain that is topical and relevant to the content of your website e.g. as I explained in the example, it wouldn’t take Einstein to realize that www.shoes.com would probably be an online store that sells shoes. Furthermore choosing a contextual (topical related) domain name is good for search engines. Search Engines look for topical domain name and order them appropriately in the results. Having a domain name that is closely related to your website content can significantly increase your presence in search engines and will be easier for visitors to remember and pass onto friends via word of mouth but probably more well known these days through email, social networking or chat rooms etc.

6. Avoid copyright infringement

Simply visit copyright.gov to ensure you are not infringing on anyone's copyright with your sites name, visit the website above and search before you purchase your domain name

7. Avoid using the following

Probably worth re-iterating on this one. Hyphens make it hard to give your domain name over the phone e.g. www.how-to-make-a-website.co.uk translates verbally to www . how hyphen to hyphen to hyphen.... You see how that could get quite annoying, or you may alternatively say “the address is howtomakeawebsite.co.uk with hyphens in between each word”, by the time they user goes to look on the site they may have forgotten anyway and proceed to do a Google search for ‘how to make a website’ and end up landing on ... Yes again a competitor's website, that’s one potential lead / customer you have lost. Similar point to be made for using numbers, this can also get mis communicated.

8. Be a little creative

Paying too much attention to what search engine like e.g. www.homemortgageadvice.com (this is keyword rich and is a phrase often typed in by a lot of people in search engines) and your websites topic (home mortgage advice) is all good and well. However try be a little creative and choose a domain name that stays true to your brand but also tells users and search engines what to expect when they land on your website. Using a unique moniker (name) is an extremely effective way to build your brand and enhance your image, the example used above is not as gripping as www.banktree.com.

9. Get It Right Away

Talking from experience it's a good idea to register your domain name as soon as possible to avoid it being taken by somebody else. Register Your Domain Name Now

BONUS Tip

After this tip you will discover how you can increase traffic from the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) significantly. If being found by visitors through search engines is important to you, it is highly recommended you choose a domain that contains your keyword / keyphrases instead of your company name.

Many website visitors will not go directly to your website as they are proabably unaware of the domain name unless they have seen some form of advertisement. Most visitors search by subject / theme. Therefore using a domain name like CarValetingLondon.com would be much more adventageous compared to using TommysCleanCars.com, this doesnt mean that you cannot use your company name on your website, this can still be included in web page titles and headings.

But there are exceptions to this rule: -

If your company serves the local area then you may not require receiving traffic on a global scale. In cases such as this it may be better to register your company name to create local brand awareness.

For example you own a Car Trading company and only cater for the local community within a 5 - 10 mile radius, in this case its important to optimise for 'local search' or to ehance your brand and raise local awareness. Read more on Website Optimisation for Local Search - this will give you some ideas on selecting the correct domain name for your local business.

Note: Please be aware that choosing a keyword rich domain name is not the only factor considered when search engines determine the position and relevance of your website in the search engine results pages.

If you do choose to go down the route of using a keyword rich (a keyword or phrase that you know people will type in) you may find the below instructions useful

1. Go to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
2. Enter your selected phrases that you brainstormed in step 1 into the box labeled Enter one keyword or phrase per line:
3. Enter the character display in the image box labeled: Type the characters you see in the picture below.
4. Scroll down to view the table of results, as you can see this will display the keywords / key phrases that you entered into the suggestion box, you may see that there is "not enough data" for your keywords, this is a clear indication that the keyword is not suitable for you to use as this will phrase or keyword will fail to deliver enough traffic. This doesn't mean that your website will not receive traffic as search engine take allot more into consideration than just your domain name, however having a keyword / branded domain name will certainly help your chances of appearing higher in the search engine for your target keyword

Protecting Your Privacy

As you’re registering your domain name you will have the option to protect your domain name and keeping it private, I would strongly suggest you do this – this is one of the add on features that you may want to take advantage of.

Protecting you domain name will hide your information (email address, name, address etc) out of reach, this is a great way to avoid SPAM (spam is usually unwanted advertisement emails).

Excellent Support Available from 1-2-3 Reg

If you have any questions about registering your domain name with 1-2-3 Reg they have an excellent support team available to contact, not to mention their incredible Support Centre. Support is available around the clock 24 hours/day, 7 days/week.

You may be new to the online environment / web site creation scene and you may feel a bit uncomfortable in paying for something you do not know much about. 1-2-3 Reg demonstrate their commitment to excellence in everything they do and this is reflected in their host of awards.

Glowing Testimonials

“Above all, 123-reg is quick and easy to use. If I need to register extra domains, I know that with 123-reg, they will be up and running within 24 hours. Having my 123-reg account is also an excellent service for my clients. If they are unsure about which website name to go for, I can register a number of domains for them, quickly and cheaply, so there is no time pressure to decide."

"123-reg is not only easy to use, but also very reasonably priced. We’ve registered a variety of domains for NAMTEC and our associated projects over the years with 123-reg and will continue to use their services in the future."

View More Testimonials >>

Register Your Domain Name

I hope you found that useful and if you have read this page you are now ready to register your domain name.

The next step is how to get your own web host; you will not be able to begin building your website until you have done this. A web host is a server where you store your website files (pages and images etc), the domain name has to link to your web host. The next section shows you how to get your own web host and how to link your domain name to it.

I would suggest you secure your domain name by registering it now and return to this page (Bookmark here).