Choosing a domain name can be tough to do. You want a memorable name that the search engines can find, yet domains are being purchased at lightening speed, so it can be really difficult to find one you like.While at my WordPress Meetup last month, I believe I heard that domains are being bought to be resold at a much higher price and that has become a big business.
Word of warning here, if you think of a name that is perfect, purchase it the first time you check to see if it is available, do not click away from the site to compare prices somewhere else. Domains are pretty comparably priced and even if one site offers a couple of dollar discount, it is not worth shopping around to get a great deal on the domain name. I know I got sidetracked here, but at my age, I have to tell you while I am thinking of something or I may have a “senior moment” and it will be lost. I can’t believe I just admited that, oh well, it is what it is.
Back to choosing your domain name.
There are some must do’s, so here they are
The golden rule is to purchase .com. I know that if you have found a name you love and then discover that someone else owns the .com of that name, but the .net, .org, or .biz is available, you might consider purchasing one of those. Do yourself a favor, find another domain name. By far, people use .com and if you are using one of the others, you will be sending traffic to your competitor. Conversely, if you purchase the .com domain, you may want purchase the.net as well if it is available. That way you own both and don’t have to worry about a competitor sharing your traffic.
Choose a name with one of the keywords you intend to optimize your site for. It helps bring traffic to your site when the search engins crawl your site, and it makes it easier for people to remember your url.
Be sure to make it easy to spell. A lot of us aren’t too good at spelling, and you don’t want to miss that potential traffic
Limit the lenth to four words max, and don’t make them long words, the shorter your url the better.
Make sure that you don’t use the brand of another company in your domain name. For instance, although I want to help others figure out how to use WordPress, I could not use WordPress in my domain name.
Purchasing a domain follows keyword research
Remember that you don’t want to go to all the hard work to build a website for your online business if there is not much potential to make money. Doing the research first to detemine if there is an interested market is key to your success. I have information talking about keyword research that you might want to check out.
One thing that is good to know is that there are companies that sell domains solely, there are companies whose business is hosting and they sell domains. If you purchase your domain from a company that does both you can purchase the domain and start working on your website immediately. Otherwise, you have to go through a process to transfer the domain to your webhost and it takes a few days for that to happen depending on the companies you are dealing with.
I did not realize how much difference there can be between hosting companies. I recently was working with a lady who signed up for a hosting company I had never heard of. We had a terrible time installing WordPress which is a pretty straight forward process. When we contacted them for help, they were extremely unresponsive. Finally, she transfered her domain to another hosting company with a good track record, and even then, the transfer process took a long time.
Choose a company that uses a Cpanel.
When choosing a hosting company, you want to pick one that uses what is called Cpanel. That is techie I know, but it will make your life easier. My favorite hosting company is Bluehost I have promised you that I will tell you what I am doing as I do it, so that is an affiliate link. They will pay me a commission if you decide to use them for hosting. This is an example you want to follow if your plan is to take your site from idea to profit. To be sure, there are other good companies out there, but I want to be sure I know from experience that the products I promote are good.
Just today I had to call their help desk with a question, and the service rep was really patient and helpful. Compared to the experience I had with the other company I was talking about, I have to say I am a satisfied customer. I learned about a benefit they offer that I had not been aware of. If you get your domain from them, the first one is free with hosting, and you never have to pay for it, that is pretty cool.
Word of warning here, if you think of a name that is perfect, purchase it the first time you check to see if it is available, do not click away from the site to compare prices somewhere else. Domains are pretty comparably priced and even if one site offers a couple of dollar discount, it is not worth shopping around to get a great deal on the domain name. I know I got sidetracked here, but at my age, I have to tell you while I am thinking of something or I may have a “senior moment” and it will be lost. I can’t believe I just admited that, oh well, it is what it is.
Back to choosing your domain name.
There are some must do’s, so here they are
The golden rule is to purchase .com. I know that if you have found a name you love and then discover that someone else owns the .com of that name, but the .net, .org, or .biz is available, you might consider purchasing one of those. Do yourself a favor, find another domain name. By far, people use .com and if you are using one of the others, you will be sending traffic to your competitor. Conversely, if you purchase the .com domain, you may want purchase the.net as well if it is available. That way you own both and don’t have to worry about a competitor sharing your traffic.
Choose a name with one of the keywords you intend to optimize your site for. It helps bring traffic to your site when the search engins crawl your site, and it makes it easier for people to remember your url.
Be sure to make it easy to spell. A lot of us aren’t too good at spelling, and you don’t want to miss that potential traffic
Limit the lenth to four words max, and don’t make them long words, the shorter your url the better.
Make sure that you don’t use the brand of another company in your domain name. For instance, although I want to help others figure out how to use WordPress, I could not use WordPress in my domain name.
Purchasing a domain follows keyword research
Remember that you don’t want to go to all the hard work to build a website for your online business if there is not much potential to make money. Doing the research first to detemine if there is an interested market is key to your success. I have information talking about keyword research that you might want to check out.
One thing that is good to know is that there are companies that sell domains solely, there are companies whose business is hosting and they sell domains. If you purchase your domain from a company that does both you can purchase the domain and start working on your website immediately. Otherwise, you have to go through a process to transfer the domain to your webhost and it takes a few days for that to happen depending on the companies you are dealing with.
I did not realize how much difference there can be between hosting companies. I recently was working with a lady who signed up for a hosting company I had never heard of. We had a terrible time installing WordPress which is a pretty straight forward process. When we contacted them for help, they were extremely unresponsive. Finally, she transfered her domain to another hosting company with a good track record, and even then, the transfer process took a long time.
Choose a company that uses a Cpanel.
When choosing a hosting company, you want to pick one that uses what is called Cpanel. That is techie I know, but it will make your life easier. My favorite hosting company is Bluehost I have promised you that I will tell you what I am doing as I do it, so that is an affiliate link. They will pay me a commission if you decide to use them for hosting. This is an example you want to follow if your plan is to take your site from idea to profit. To be sure, there are other good companies out there, but I want to be sure I know from experience that the products I promote are good.
Just today I had to call their help desk with a question, and the service rep was really patient and helpful. Compared to the experience I had with the other company I was talking about, I have to say I am a satisfied customer. I learned about a benefit they offer that I had not been aware of. If you get your domain from them, the first one is free with hosting, and you never have to pay for it, that is pretty cool.
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