Domain and Hosting
About Domain Name
Choose a domain name such as www.yoursite.com or www.yoursite.com.au
An Australian domain name requires an Australian business or company registration. A .com domain name can be registered under your name.
The following example illustrates the difference between a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and a domain name:
URL: http://www.example.net/index.html
Domain name: www.example.net
Registered domain name: example.net
Domain names are used in URLs to identify particular Web pages. For example, in the URL http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html, the domain name is pcwebopedia.com.
Importance of a Domain Name
There are a number of good reasons for having a domain name:
- If you ever change your web host, your domain name goes with you. Your regular visitors or customers who knew your site name as www.thesitewizard.com (for example) would not have to be informed about a change of URL. They would simply type your domain name and they'd be brought to your new site.
- If you are a business, a domain name gives you credibility. Few people would be willing to do business with a company with a dubious URL like http://www.geocities.com/whatever/12345.
- If you get a domain name that describes your company's business or name, people can remember the name easily and can return to your site without having to consult their documents. In fact, if you get a good name that describes your product or service, you might even get people who were trying their luck by typing "www.yourproductname.com" in their browser.
- If you want good sponsors (advertisers) for your website, a domain name is usually helpful. It tends to give your website an aura of respectability.
For more information on domain go to thesitewizard.com.
Hosting
You need to choose a company to host your website for it to be made available to the world wide web.
If your web developer is hosting sites on their own server, make sure you are allowed to have your website hosted by a different company.
Also make sure there is enough space allocated for your website.
A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data centre.
For more information on web hosting go to thesitewizard.com.
Choosing domain name |
It can be difficult to decide which domain name to choose. I thought I give you something to think about when going through the process of choosing the domain name for your business.
You need to ask yourself; is it important that my business will be found by the major search engines? If your answer to this is yes you really need a domain name that contains one or more of your major keywords rather than your business name. You can always display your business name on your website.
When people search the web for information they are searching keywords. If your domain name contains one or more of your important keywords you would have already strengthen your position in the search engine. The bigger your competition is the more important this will be for your business to be noticed by the search engines.
The exception to this is when you have a business that is only targeting the local area and whether or not the search engine fines you, it does not matter to your business. You create brand awareness for your business locally and your website works as a service to your local customers.
Of course we also use Search Engine Optimisation to assist in getting your website noticed by the search engines, so do not worry if you have already chosen your domain name, we can still get it working for you.
Last changed: Aug 19 2010 at 9:22 PM
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