In this installment of our “How to Make A Website” blog series, we’ll take a look at the next step in the website creation process after planning and outlining are complete. Specifically, the next step is all about selecting and securing your name…domain registration.
Step 2: Domain Registration
Your name is important–just as much so online as it is in real life. Through your domain name, visitors will be able to identify and locate your website. And of course, domain names also serve as a form of branding for your organization. So it’s wise to take the time to get this right.
First things first, you’ll need to know what your domain name will be. Because most of the good, single-word or common phrase domain names were long ago taken, sometimes this is a creative process in and of itself when coming up with a good domain. Make a list and be sure that your domain name choices are not trademarked or copyrighted by another party.
A few rules of thumb when choosing your domain name:
Keep it short and memorable. Don’t use a whole sentence, something that has overly odd spellings within, or too many dashes between the words. You want to be able to share your domain verbally and have the person hearing it be able to remember it and correctly type it in to their browser later. Don’t risk confusion.
Choose .com .net or .org. With an array of other options available these days, like .us .tv and .info, it might seem tempting to try one of these domains instead of the standby big 3 options that have been around since the beginning. But the thing is, these newer domain suffixes have really never caught on and very often come across as unprofessional. Again, don’t risk it.
Register your domain name for as long as you can. It’s easy and cheap to register a domain name for just one year. But if you are serious about your new website, you’ll want to choose at least a 5 year term for your new domain, or preferably even a 10 year term if you can swing it. This serves two functions…first, it keeps you from forgetting to renew when your term is up every year; and secondly, it shows search engines and site visitors that you are serious enough about your website and your business to lock that domain name in for the long term (and they do look more often than you might think).
Chose a reputable domain registrar. Sure, there are lots of options out there when you’re ready to register your domain name. There’s no sense paying and arm and a leg for your domain name when you can buy it for $10 to $15 per year. This rules out a good number of domain registration services. And with others, while their advertising campaigns are massive and their price just fine too, the popular services are just downright spammy and difficult to use. Here at Sleepless Media, we recommend Namecheap. They’re professional, easy to use, not spammy, and very affordable. It’s a win-win scenario.
As you learn how to make a website, you’ll discover that domain selection and registration really is an important step. Many take it for granted, or assume that it’s automatically a part of web hosting services (it’s not), and ultimately, many make the rookie mistake of jumping the gun on this step just because they saw a great ad on t.v. last night. Your name is your foundation, so be sure to give it the respect and thought that it deserves.
Next up in our blog series on how to make a website, we’ll examine the next important step, Step 3: how to set up your website hosting.