Registering a Domain Name is the first step of Building a Website and followed right after the Brainstorming step. After you choose your website type and topic and come up with some profitable keywords that reflect a hot niche market, then you might choose a domain name and register it.

What is a Domain Name?

In a nutshell, a Domain Name is the address of a website that people should type in their browser bar in order to go to that specific website. In fact, your domain name is the name of your site, business or brand name. This is the first element your visitors notice when they visit your website.

Domain Names are used in form of URLs (http://www.YourDomainName.com) and represents one or more IP Addresses (http://216.239.51.99/). So, instead of typing that IP Address in the browser bar, you can just type the domain Name even in form of www.YourDomainName.com or YourDomainName.com.

The Structure Of a Domain Name

Basically, a Domain Name is composed of two or more parts. The first part is the section after the final dot (.) and is called Top-Level Domain Name. It can be either a Generic Top-Level Domain Name Extension such as .com, .net, .org or a Country Code Top-Level Domain Name Extension such as .us, .ca, .de.

The second part is the section before the final dot(.) and is called Second-Level Domain Name. This is the main part of your domain name and reflects the name of your business, brand name, keywords or topic. This is the part that you are going to choose and register. Of course, you will also determine which top-level Domain Name you prefer.

Choosing the right domain name will always bring great results. Successful business owners have good domain names and admit the importance of this fact. If you too want to build a successful website, then you should think about choosing and registering a good domain name. That way, you audience will

• Find Your Website Better
• Remember Your Website Better

What is a Good Domain Name?

Although there are tons of points you have to notice before registering a domain name, I thought it would be enough to mention the most important ones. Take the following tips into account before registering a domain name:

1. Don´t ever try to take FREE domain names. Remember you are going to build a business and your website and its components are your properties. You have to own them and have full control over your stuffs. A FREE domain name does not give you the full rights. Besides, FREE domain names are parts of a main domain name. So, a FREE domain name is normally too long, ugly and unprofessional.

2. If you have a business or brand name, choose it as your domain name, as well. But, if you don´t, pick a good name. As you may remember from the previous step, you had to find some hot profitable keywords. Choose the best one and check if it is available. That way, you will be able to have a keyword-rich domain name which may help your audience find you better through search engines.

3. Always try to choose a domain name that is short and easy-to-remember. Bear in mind that your visitors should be able to memorize it very easily. I would personally prefer to choose a name less than 20 characters.

4. Your domain name should be easy to read, as well. If you are going to use some abbreviations, fine! But, don´t try to use some strange or unfamiliar names. Like I said before, if people can read it with ease, they would also remember it simply.

5. Avoid using misspellings. A misspelled domain name looks ugly and unprofessional. Only if you have the correct name and believe that many people may spell that name incorrect, you can register a misspelled name, as well and redirect it to the correct one. It would be smart. but if the correct name is someone else´s domain name, you will be wasting your time and money.

6. If possible, don´t use hyphen (dash) in your domain name. A hyphenated domain name may look easy to read for visitors and easy to distinguish for search engines, but it may not be easy to remember and does not look professional. If possible, register both hyphenated and non-hyphenated domain name. That way, you will ensure that you won´t lose any visitor.

7. While there are tons of Top-level Domain Name Extensions, I would prefer to choose only .com because they are more popular. If you can, go and register similar names in different extensions such as .net, .biz, .name, .info. But, .com are more powerful.

Where To Register a Domain Name?

Domain names can be registered by Registrars, companies accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and/or by a national authority. If your chosen name is available, you will be able to take that domain name and register it as your own.

The price of a domain name is usually too cheap and can be paid one time per full year. Sometimes you may get it for FREE if you order a web hosting service, as well. The normal price for a domain name is about $10 USD/ Year.

Always try to register your domain name from a reliable and popular registrar company. There are a number of websites where you can buy a domain name from. GoDaddy.com is the world´s largest registrar on the Internet and I highly recommend it. In the next posts, I will reveal more resources where you can get cheap domain names and even buy or sell your own. Stay tuned and subscribe to the RSS Feed right away!

Cheers,

Hooshmand Moslemi