Your Domain Name Is The Key To Your Crown Jewels
Ultimately, where technical means are concerned, everything hinges on whether you have control over your domain name.
A domain name is a name like “thesitewizard.com”. It is the means by which visitors reach your website. For example, ifyou type “thesitewizard.com” into your web browser right now, you will arrive at the front page of this website. When youor the person you hired started your site, one of the first things that would have been done is toregister a domain name.This typically involves the payment of a small annual fee to a company called a domain name registrar. In exchange forthis fee, you get the right to use the domain name for as long as youkeep up the annual payments.
The domain name is not the same thing as your website. It’s just a name. As explained in my tutorial onHow to Make / CreateYour Own Website: The Beginner’s A-Z Guide, it’s like registering a business name for your company in the physical world.Getting a domain name does not automatically get you a website any more than registering a business name get you shoppremises in the brick and mortar world.
What you or your web designers did when your website was created was toattach your domain nameto the set of documents they created. When your visitors enter your domain name in their web browser, they seethe set of documents.
What Is A Domain Name Domains Explained For Beginners
A domain name is a web address consisting of a website name and a domain name extension. The name is up to you as long as it consists of letters, numbers, hyphens and is still available, whereas the domain extension is usually a set combination of a few letters.
Just like a physical address helps people find a specific place, the purpose of a domain is to help visitors find a website. Without domain names, users can only access websites using Internet Protocol addresses.
However, IP addresses are hard to remember as they consist of seemingly random series of numbers, making them inconvenient to share. Domain names, on the contrary, can help drive traffic to your website.
In this article, we will cover all the necessary information about domain names. We will explain how domains work and their different types. Then, we will show how to register and transfer a domain name and answer some frequently asked questions.
Differences Between A Domain Name And A Url
While a domain name and a URL share some similarities, they refer to different things. A URL acts as a complete website address that can direct visitors to a specific page on a site. A domain name is just a part of it.
A URL consists of a protocol, a domain, and a path. The protocol shows whether a site has an SSL certificate. Keep note that URLs have a path only when they direct visitors to a specific page on a site.
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What To Do When The Domain Name You Want Is Not Available
Having a custom domain is very important for your business and your online brand. It helps to improve your websites credibility your search engine rank.
Choosing a domain name or URL for your website can be a very simple task. A lot of times your first choice may be already taken. Thats no reason to close shop or think of a new idea. It happens to everyone. There are, after all, over 700 million websites in the world and counting.
Still, there are ways you can still have the domain of your dreams, unless you expect to have something like nike.com, then well, good luck.
1. Try an alternative extensionAs of 2012, there are over 103 million .COM domains registered. It is by far the most popular domain extension. This means, that quite often the .COM domain youre after may not be available. There are other generic top-level domains on offer besides .COM. For instance, .NET, .INFO and .BIZ are all other extensions you could consider. Another great alternative is .ORG for organizations and .EDU is an option for educational institutions.
Or if youre not married to the M you can go with .CO, which started life as a country code domain for Columbia and is now . Some high profile names, such as Vine and Walmart , are opting for .CO domains.
In any case, you dont always need a .COM to have a visible online business.
3. Add a keywordIf your business name is not available as a custom domain, why not add a keyword that explains what your business does?
What Makes A Good Business Name
No business has ever become successful simply because it has a good name. Who, for example, would have predicted that one of the worlds leading retailers would be called named after a South American river? And, when you think about it, what exactly is an eBay anyway? These now seem like good names for a business not because of some inherent quality, but because the companies in question have become successful. So dont get too hung up on trying to copy or adapt the names of successful businesses go with something you like and ask for a second opinion from people you respect. Dont get caught up with following the herd.
However, there is such a thing as a bad business name. The following steps will help you avoid a naming disaster.
Check trademarks if you pick a phrase thats already trademarked by someone, you could end up having to change your businesss name after launch. That could be very expensive if youve produced a large amount of branded material.
Make it brandable Your business name will be part of everything you do whether thats opening a physical shop, launching a website, creating publicity material or handing out business cards. For this reason, it pays to keep your business name short where possible or, alternatively, you can make it easy to abbreviate.
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What To Consider When Changing Your Domain Name
A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet, but if you dont know its name how the hell are you going to Google it? Your companys name is the number one representation of your brand and the first thing customers associate with your business. Your websites URL domain name is no exception to this. With that being said, there are many reasons you may be considering a website domain name change. Whether you are changing your company name, looking to institute a new branding strategy, or adding target keywords in your URL name, it can be extremely beneficial to change your domain URL.
However, there are many factors to keep in mind before making the jump. If not implemented properly, a domain name change can cause unnecessary harm to your site. The change can negatively impact SEO, which can be a long, expensive road to repair the damage done. By being proactive and carrying out the below SEO, PPC, and social media suggestions early, your website can successfully grow and benefit from a domain name change.
They Replied Now What
Its your move again! First, see if they are willing to say goodbye to the name. Next, negotiate the price and you want to be clever about it because the price estimate depends on various factors:
- Is the name simple, clear, common, with standard spelling, keyword, or allows you to create a domain hack? These easily remembered domain names with other incorporated call-to-action indicates this may be a premium domain name, which implies a higher price.
- Do the word in the name represent a recognizable person, company, product? This may also suggest considerable expenses.
- Is the domain actively used ?
- Is the name associated with a future event or a new product?
- What is the domains legal status ?
- Can the registrant tell how much you want for the name?
- Do they want or need the money badly?
- How much do you seem to be willing to pay for it?
Once youve come to a deal, follow the standard transfer procedure. Note that there is some variance in transfer requirements between gTLDs and ccTLDs depending on the registrar and domain type the transfer can most often be anything from an immediate one to lasting up to 5 days to complete. Still, the most important thing here is to make sure all the payments and other arrangements have been made before the actual transfer takes place.
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What To Do When Your Domain Name Is Takenshare
Its a heartbreaker every timewith a flash of inspiration, or perhaps after weeks of deliberationa business owner decides on the perfect domain name, only to discover that its not available! But what can you do when your dream domain name is already taken?
In this article, well go over three options:
One of the first two options will probably be your best bet, but it all depends on the answer to one key question:
What happens when you navigate to the domain?
So lets start with that and then well get into the three options a site owner has when the domain they want is not available.
S To Take To Regain Control Of Your Website
To reiterate, in case you skipped the aboveexplanationon the importance of having control of your domain name, make sure you have the account user name and passwordof your domain name registrar before you do the following steps. There’s no point carrying out any of thesteps below if you cannot log into your domain registrar. If you don’t even know what a domain name registrar is, or you don’t knowwhich registrar you used to get a domain name,chances are strong that you won’t know your user name and password either. In such a case, you won’t be able to do use the stepsbelow to get your site back.
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Short Is Better Than Long
In general, when it comes to the length of your domain, shorter is better.
According to research from Domain Registration.com, the most common name length is approximately 12 characters.
All of this data shows that you should keep your domain name concise.
Aim for 6-14 characters and remember the shorter, the better. Most likely the shorter domain names are taken a LONG time ago and sold for thousands of dollars. If you cant find something short, make it brandable.
Our own site websitesetup.org is exactly 12 characters.
Best Practices For Picking The Perfect Professional Email Address
The best email addresses keep things simple. While using your name seems ideal, many simple first-last name combinations may have already been allocated to other digital users. Or, you may have a lengthy name or one that varies from traditional spelling formats, both of which can potentially create issues.
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Choose A Domain Thats Easy To Remember
Customers will find your website URL on flyers, newsletters, search queries, and other websites so making the address stick is key.
Memorable domain names are often short, clever, and avoid trendy humor, hyphens or numbers. The longer or more complicated the domain name, the less likely it is to stick. A good rule of thumb is if you saw the domain name on a delivery-truck sign, could you remember it later?
Think obvious, catchy, unique, and memorable.
Do a quick analysis of your favorite domain names and see what makes them stand out, and incorporate those elements you like into your own business domain name.
Do I Have To Have Com The Net Is Available
If someone owns your .com, its not the best idea to simply grab the .co.uk, .net or co.nz and just use that. Why not? Well, many people will not remember your domain name – simply the name of your business – and theyll type this into their browser with .com at the end and will think they got it wrong when a completely different company shows up. Your search results will be corrupted by this other company, who will likely rank higher as they own the .com. Its better to choose a new business name or an alternative domain name and get the .com, in my opinion.
Should you own the minor domain names for your business? I think so, if possible – there are two reasons for this:
It prevents other people from buying up these names and causing all manner of damage to your brand.
You dont have to create new websites – you can simply point those domains to your main websites – so when someone types in yourbusiness.co.nz, theyll be directed to yourbusiness.com. I use this technique all the time when I do local promotions for international companies.
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Do I Need A Domain For A Website
Technically, visitors can visit your website using its IP address. However, since it consists of a string of numbers, it is hard to remember. A domain helps make a website more accessible to internet users.
A domain is also essential for branding and search engine optimization . Even though users can still find your website without a domain name, it is a crucial part of a site.
What Should You Do When Your Com Isnt Available
Before digging into alternative ways of registering your domain name, its important to take a step back and think about your plan on bringing traffic to your website.
If your website will primarily be used in offline advertising like TV commercials, billboards, or business cards, it is critical that your domain be easy to spell.
Inventing a new word might seem like a fantastic idea and an easy way to get your perfect domain, but it can have unintended consequences. One older yet infamous example is that online photo service Flickr lost 3.6 million unique visits a year to Flicker.com.
On the other hand, if organic search is going to be the primary way visitors will find your website, having that perfect domain might not be as important.
On mobile search, domain names arent even visible in organic search results, so that great domain idea wont even have the opportunity to factor into the decision to click on your results.
Even on desktop search, the domain of a result isnt listed in the most prominent way.
For paid marketing channels social or search the domain name will be a very minor factor in the performance of a marketing campaign.
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