Domain Names

You will need a domain for your website. It’s where your website will live on the internet. There are many vendors selling domains and it pays to shop around.

Getting your domain name right is a critical step in setting up you website. Every visitor to your website will interact with your domain name.

Registering Your Domain Name

If a domain name is available with your business name, grab it! We’ve seen situations where a business has had a competitor purchased the domain name of their business. Imagine the problems that could cause. Your competitor with the domain name of YOUR business. Even if you are set on a domain name for your business that is not the name of your business, always register your business name if it’s available. You can always set up domain forwarding to redirect visitors as you like.

Who We Use

We like to use Namecheck.com to search for domain names. Namecheck will also show you the status of social media names. Put some thought into choosing a domain name. Once you are online it’s difficult to change your domain name so choose wisely. Try to find a domain name that reflects your business name or industry. Shorter domain names are becoming harder to find, especially in the .com TLD (Top Level Domain) arena. It’s unlikely you will find your perfect domain name available. Now’s the time to get creative and try some new naming combinations.

Get Concise

Shorter is better but… there’s nothing wrong with longer domain names as long as they’re easy to remember. Don’t forget, you will need to be able to tell someone the URL of your site. The longer it is, the more likely you’ll have to spell it out. Telling someone your website is www.mysite.com is a lot easier than www.myown-great-website.com. Once you find the perfect domain name you’ll need to register (buy) it. We recommend initially registering your new domain for 5 years. The length will help a bit in your SEO efforts. Every little bit helps, especially with a brand new website.

Expired Domain Names

There are some advantages for using an Expired Domain Name for your website. Along with those advantages come several potential pitfalls.

An Expired Domain Name is simply one that was not renewed for whatever reason. After a domain reaches its expiration date and is not renewed within 30 days, it will go up for auction. The one who bids the highest will get the domain. You can learn more about expired domains at expireddomains.net

Why would you want to use an expired domain name for your website? Simple… Link Juice. A domain that has been around for a while will have accumulated quite a few backlinks and all of the domain’s SEO value will still be active.

Be careful though. Make sure you research the expired domain name so you don’t end up with a domain that has been penalized by Google or one that has a lot of spammy backlinks.