How to Register a Domain Name
Congratulations! You've made it to the 1st step of creating a website. It is highly recommended that you read this ENTIRE page as it contains important information that most sites don't tell you about domain name registrations.NOTE: If you already know about domain names, go here to register your domain. If not, I highly recommend you read on to understand why the name selection is so important.
There are two basic steps to getting your site online and registering/reserving a domain name is the first.
A domain name makes up the address of your site and can end in .com, .net, .org, .info, .us, .biz, .tv and more. Throughout this site you will also see the domain name referred to as the "dot com name".
Once you have registered your name, you will select a web host (2nd step). The web host is the guts of any website because this is where you create and publish your pages, build order forms, add functionality and maintain your site.
First, let's focus on selecting the best domain name for your site...
Selecting The Best Domain Name
If being found in the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) is important to you, I highly recommend you register a name that contains your major keywords instead of your company name.
The average surfer searches by subject, not by proper name. So why it may seem cool to have a name like JohnDoe.com, you'll want to choose a name that includes keywords that your target audience would likely use when they search. So, a name like Tool-Tips-for-Beginners.com would be much better than JohnDoe.com.
Sure, you can still list your company name on your web pages, but I believe it's more important to make sure the domain name includes your important "search friendly" keywords if you want to receive traffic from all over. Of course, you can still list your company name on the web site some place, but your domain name will include all the important keywords you'll want to be found with.
If you are just creating a website for a local business, getting traffic from all over the web may not be as important to you. This is because your customers will be local and you may want to grow your brand name in a specific area. If this is the case, it may make more sense to register your company name and create brand awareness locally instead of trying to capitalize on search engine presence.
In this case, it's not as important to register a name filled with "search optimized" keywords. You may decide to just reserve the company name.
NOTE: Keep in mind that the domain name is not the only factor weighed by search engines when deciding your rank. The content on your web pages and your site's popularity (inbound links from other sites) is very important too. However, it certainly doesn't hurt to make sure your name is optimized for maximum results.
Choosing the best domain name:
Don't register domain names that are too long and have too many syllables if you can help it. Yes, you can register names up to 63 characters long, but that doesn't mean you have to use all 63 characters.
You want your name to be easy to remember. Not everyone will bookmark your page initially so try to think of something that can be easily remembered -- although I realize this may be tricky since a lot of names are taken these days.
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