Establishing your own domain name will solidify your websites’ presence on the internet significantly. Here’s how to do it in 3 easy steps
Once you’ve made the decision to start your own website, whether for business or for personal use, you then need to start thinking about the technicalities. One of the key things you’re going to need to look into is your domain name.
The domain name will be the name of your site, for example “mywebsite.com”. This is how people will find and identify you, and your website will be incomplete without it. Establishing a domain is a fairly simple process. Usually the cost is minimal and you may be able to acquire one free of charge.
There are 3 key steps that you need to follow if you wish to set up your own domain.
Acquiring a Domain Name in 3 Steps:
Coming up With Your Domain Name
If you are starting a new business (or are setting up a website for an existing business), then you should already have established your brand. It thus makes sense to have your domain name reflect this to maintain brand consistency. For example, if your company was called “Smith Cleaning Services”, your domain’s name should be smithcleaningservices.com. It’s recommended that you come up with a few ideas for your domain name, as there is the possibility that your domain has been taken.
You will also need to consider which TLD domain you’d like. Common TLD’s include: .com, .org, .edu and .gov. You can also have a country code TLD such as .co.uk or .us.
Purchasing Your Domain Name
Registrars charge different prices depending upon which domain you are establishing. For example, .com may be one fee while .org may be another fee. There is generally a one-time fee and then an annual renewal fee to continue possession of the site going forward. Depending on which platform you use to create your website, you may be able to purchase your domain through them. One example is using the website builder from Webeden.co.uk which allows you to search for and purchase your desired domain name, and then link it up to your Webeden site. This saves valuable time and even money in some instances.
Put It All Together
The final step involves linking your newly acquired domain to your website. As stated above, some development (or registration) companies will do this for you. You may want to have the company “park” the domain name until you have developed the site that it will be attached to. Whatever you chose to do, don’t forget about the domain name that you have acquired even if you don’t actively make use of it right away. If you miss the annual renewal fee date, you will have to start the process all over again.
The advantages of having your own domain name are worth the effort and funds you may have to spend. From a business standpoint, as a consumer you realize that visitors will not feel comfortable interacting with you if you do not have an established domain. Imagine if you visited a site to purchase brand x product and domain name reflected something completely different and unfamiliar to you. You would likely not feel comfortable inputting your credit card information and would feel leery of the interaction in general.
The establishment of your own domain will solidify your web sites’ presence on the Internet significantly.
