Domain Registration - 5 Top tips
Posted on 26/09/08, filed under Did You Know?, General News | No CommentsSo you’re about to start a new business or venture and you need to secure a domain name for your website.
There are a few points you should take into consideration before registering your domain name, and today we are going to outline what we think, are some of the most valuable.
1. Think about different domain extensions
Before you purchase ‘mydomain.co.uk’ you may want to check to see if .com and other variations are available. Lets say your opening a online shoe shop, ‘LindasShoes.co.uk’, your best securing ’LindasShoes.com’ too, you wouldn’t want a competitor to grab the domain and start selling shoes! Likewise if ‘LindasShoes.com’ is already taken, you may have to have a re-think and look for a differend domain altogether….
2. Check the domain names age
It’s worth checking the age of a domain too as an older domain name can fare better on the search engines.
Here’s a handy free too that will check a domains age.
Try it out and enter google.co.uk in the box provided. You will see the domain is (approximately) 9 Years and 7 Months old.
Now try again with google.com. 11 Years and 7 days old; this domain will carry more weight than the other as it’s an older domain.
In an ideal world both would be available for you to register and you could have the older of the two as you main domain. But of course with well over 94,000,000 registered domain names in the world, finding the one you want can be harder than you think!
3. Protect your privacy
When you register a domain name your private information can be made public to anyone performing a simple WHOIS Search. There are obvious downsides to this including abuse from spammers. Thankfully Pixel Internet provide you with the option to protect your private information with our Domain Privacy package.
4. Keep it short and simple
alongandcomplicateddomainname.com - can be hard to remember, likewise domainz.com with odd spelling can mean people can’t find your website. Of course if your business is ‘EZWorkshops’, then it would make sense to register a domain with the same spelling. But if you’re going for a domain name that incorporates your main keyword/phrase, try to keep it short, to the point and with the correct spelling.
5. Check whether your chosen domain name is available!
You can use our ‘domain search‘ facility on our website homepage to check if your chosen domain name is available. If it is…. register is quickly! .UK Domains alone are being registered at a rate of one every 20 seconds!
That’s it, our quick guide to choosing and registering your first domain, hope it helps!
