Deciding on your website name is one of the most important decisions to make with your website. Whatever the website looks like in future, it will always hinge on this main domain name.
You may hear names like ‘domain name’, the ‘www dot’, or ‘URL’ being mentioned, which are all basically the main name you type in your internet browser. So for this website, the general name is The Website Waiter, and this domain name is www.thewebsitewaiter.com.
The good news is that they’re pretty-cheap to buy nowadays and it’s easy to search for one that’s available. For under £10 you can purchase, and if you head to popular websites like 123 Reg. Go Daddy, and 1and1 – there will be search boxes to have fun finding a new name.
The bad news is that mistakes can be made at this essential stage which you’ll pay the price for in the future. It’s therefore imperative to get these right from the start in order to save money, time, and frustrations later on.
Therefore here are the top 3 aspects of domain names you need to watch out for:
1. Keep Your Website Independent
You can come across some websites that offer you very cheap and even free websites there and then through their own website, but you simply end up adding a unique name to their own main website name.
Two popular ones are through Wordpress and Blogger, so as an example if this website was created through them there could be a unique name of, say, http://thewebsitewaiter.wordpress.com, all for free and immediately available.
Now this is actually a great deal for something very straightforward and temporary, so if you’re setting up a blog for your holidays for example. The problems come though with anything long-term, and needing additional internet benefits, for example SEO performance on Google or appearing unique for any marketing. You’re basically using their own hosting and name which can cause restrictions longer term and it’s worth the extra cost and involvement now to get your own direct name and hosting straight away.
2. Keep the Name Simple
This is the exciting bit, where you get to choose the actual name of the website.
You will of course be restricted by any existing website names already taken, however in the frenzy of this and the endless choice of different names you can get too carried away.
Keep things as simple as possible, it will pay off. Keep the name as short as you can do, with as few additional words as possible, although try and use extra straightforward words instead of hyphens.
So with The Website Waiter, ‘the’ was needed at the beginning as it is part of the name, but otherwise it would have been worth looking at just ‘website waiter’ if needed rather than something like the-website-waiter.com
Also, on the end part of the domain, stick with the mainstream ones of .co.uk and .com if you can do. These are long-standing ones that people and Google are familiar with and favour, with trendy ones like .info at the end only worthwhile if the main purpose of the website is a real catchy name for advertising literature.
3. Keep it Closely Hosted
Finally, try to keep the hosting of the website with the same company where you purchase the domain from. This ‘hosting’ is your piece of virtual real estate on the internet where your websites is placed, and the name just the sign to get there.
A popular problem is someone purchasing a domain from, say, Go Daddy to get a few pounds saved and quickly secured, but then a lot of delays, costs, and hassle getting technical information and moving to another hosting platform. Just keep it all together.
Getting it Right First Time
So when you’re choosing a new website domain name, try and keep it independent in a simple straightforward way and being able to then easily host it afterwards.
Contact us for any more help and advice on this, or if you would like to run a new domain name idea past us.
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