A domain name is the beginning of your brand. A memorable, and searchable, name can send thousands of visitors to your website with little or no effort. Think about it, if someone is looking for information on dog training and your domain name is dogtraining101.com then your website is going to be found a lot faster. However, before you begin creating your website and banking on a marketable domain name, you need to register it.
Here are four quick and easy steps to register your domain name.
Step One: Choosing and claiming your domain name. You may have the perfect domain name chosen but is it available? Despite what some might say, there are definitely still some wonderful domain names available. If you haven’t chosen a domain name yet, consider the keywords people will search for your information with.
For example, if you have a site about running shoes you may want the words running shoes in your domain name. Make a list of 10-20 potential domain names and then hop online to see if they’re available. You can just type them right into your search engine rather than going to a domain registrar to see if they’re available, but that’s double the work.
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Step Two: Does it need to be a .com? The short answer…yes. It’s the easiest to remember and will give your website legitimacy. If, however, your website is for a non-profit then a .org is most certainly appropriate and recommended.
Step Three: Decide where you’re going to register your site. You have essentially two choices here, through your website host or through a basic domain registration site, a registrar. You’ll need two things for this process, your credit card and your list of available domain names. Make sure you choose a registrar who has a good reputation in the industry and who has been around for a bit.
Registrars pop up all the time so it’s easy to find one to get the job done but a little research will help to ensure you are registering your site with a reputable company who will be around when it’s time to renew your registration – a process which typically occurs annually.
Step Four: If you already have a website host, you’ll want to get the names of their primary and secondary nameservers. This information will allow you to redirect your domain name to your website host. If all this is confusing, not to worry. It’s generally a simple process of typing a bit of information where they ask for it. If you’re registering your domain name with your website host then you’re good to go.
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Registering your domain name is a simple process. However, before you sit down with your credit card in hand, make sure you have the right domain name for your site. Keep it as simple as possible, integrate keywords into your title and opt for a .com over the other types of extensions. If you want to ensure you’re the only one with that domain name, you may also want to register a .net, .us, .org and so on to make sure you are the only one with that URL.
