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A domain name is the name you type into your browser to reach a web site. There are millions of them in use, and thousands more being registered every day. Here’s an explanation of what domain names are, how they work, and how you can find the best domain name(s) for your web site.
Getting the right domain name(s) is the second step in our Six Steps to a Successful Web Site.
What’s a Domain Name?
Every computer that’s connected to the internet is identified by an IP Address. IP addresses look like this: 72.21.210.250. IP addresses work great – if you’re a computer. But for a human, it’s not so easy to remember, and seeing that address doesn’t tell you what site that will take you to.
To solve that problem, we have domain names. Computers don’t need domain names – people do. It makes it easy for us to find the web sites we wan. So instead of having to remember 72.21.210.250, you can just remember amazon.com.
But how does that magic happen? How does my computer know that I want 72.21.210.250 when I type in amazon.com? The answer is Domain Name Servers or DNS. There are domain name servers all over the world. They hold a simple database that matches domain names with IP addresses. So my computer doesn’t actually know – I type in amazon.com, and my computer asks the nearest domain name server which IP address it should go to. If the nearest domain name server doesn’t know, it will ask the next domain name server, and so on, until an answer is reached, and then I’m sent on my merry way. Luckily for us, most of the time computers can do all of this asking and answering in less than a second.
Two Part Name
Each domain name contains two parts: a domain name and a top-level domain name, or TLD. In amazon.com, for example, amazon is the domain name and .com is the TLD.
Even thought more and more TLDs are being introduced all the time, the best choice is still .com. Wikipedia has a comprehensive list of all the TLDs currently available and what the restrictions are for each. For example, .museum can only be used by registered museums and .eu can only be used by businesses, organizations and individuals located in the European Union.
Choosing a Domain Name
If you’re just starting your business and haven’t registered a name yet, you’re in a great position – you can check each of the potential names you’ve thought of for your business to see if a matching domain name is available.
If your business already has a name, the first domain name you should check is your business name. For example, if I owned a dog-walking business named Walk That Dog, I’d first check to see if walkthatdog.com was available. If it was already taken, I’d have to get creative and figure out a way I could incorporate the name of my business or my primary product or service into my domain name. There are some really great services online that will help you with this process. Here are a few of my favorites:
- http://domai.nr/
- http://www.123finder.com/
- http://www.pickydomains.com/
- http://www.nameboy.com/
- http://www.bustaname.com/
- http://www.domainsbot.com/
Take your time picking a domain name if your first choice is taken. Sometimes it just takes a little bit of brainstorming time to come up with a great alternative. Try to include some keywords about you or your business in the name. Keep it as short and and easy to spell as possible so that people will have an easy time typing it in. Make sure it’s as different as possible from your competitor’s domain names – you don’t want anyone confusing you with your competition!
Don’t Stop at One!
Also, keep in mind that are no rules about how many you can have. Multiple domain names can be pointed at the same web site. So if you think up two really great ideas, go ahead and register them both.
If you or your business has a hard-to-spell name, then consider registering all the possible misspellings of your name. For example, my name is Natalie MacLees. Natalie is commonly also spelled Nathalie and Nataly, and don’t even get me started on MacLees – I’ve seen McLees, McLese, McLeas, McLeese, MacLees, Macklease, Mackleez, MacLese, MacLeaz, Makleze, etc. If I wanted to make sure that anybody could find nataliemaclees.com, I’d go ahead and register as many of those misspellings as I could afford and point them all at the same web site. Just for the record, I’ve tried to avoid that whole mess by registering nataliemac.com – it’s shorter and easier to spell and remember.
Registering a Domain Name
When you’ve got the name you want, you’ll go to a domain name registrar to purchase the registration of the domain name. Most of the time that should cost you about $10/year. If you’re being charged significantly more than that, then do a little research and find out what’s included. Sometimes hosting, email services, etc. are included, but not always necessary. Make sure you know what you need so you don’t pay for services or features you won’t end up using.
Be aware that when you register a domain name, you’ll be asked to enter contact information for the owner, a billing contact, an administrator contact, and a technical contact. All of this information is published to a public database and is searchable and viewable by anyone. If you’re registering a domain name for a business, be sure to use the business address and phone number rather than your home address and personal phone number. If you’re registering a domain name for personal use, be as smart about it as you can. Is there a PO Box you can use instead of your physical home address?
Some domain name registrars will also offer you a privacy service for an additional fee. If you opt for this option, the contact information for the privacy company will be published to the public database instead of your own information. This can be a great option if you don’t want your personal contact information made public, but be sure to read the fine print carefully. Sometimes the privacy company is actually the owner of the domain name instead of you.
Be on the Lookout for Scammers
Because your name, email address and address are published to a public database when you register a domain name, it’s easy for companies to contact you with sales and offers for your web site. You’ll have to learn to ignore the piles of spam emails from fake SEO companies with false promises of promoting you to the front page of Google.
One of the hardest scams to spot is the mailed domain name registration renewal. It will come in an official-looking envelope, often printed in red, white and blue, and will have a fake bill for around $50 to renew your domain name. Careful inspection of the notice will reveal ‘This is not an invoice’ or some such in fine print somewhere. Remember which company you’ve registered your domain names with and pay renewal fees only to that company. Throw away any other notices you receive.
Why Are So Many Good Names Taken?
Sometimes, finding a domain name is an incredibly frustrating process – all the names you can think of that are short, easy to spell and relevant to you or your business are taken. Why is that? Buying up available domains has become big business – it’s called domaining and the people who practice it are called domainers. They buy up dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of available domain names. Then they’ve got two main ways to make money from them – either resell them at a considerable markup to the first person who’s interested, or park the domain and fill up the page with ads that generate revenue every time somebody clicks on them.
I’ve purchased domains from domainers for as much as $900. There’s no real guideline for the price – it’s worth whatever you’re willing to pay, so be a smart negotiator when buying from domainers. As of this writing, the most expensive domain name purchase was the sale of insure.com in late 2009 for $16 million. As you can see, sometimes domain names are big business – be prepared to walk away if you can’t afford the domain name you really want.
Now That You’ve Got It, Guard It Carefully!
Domain names typically have to be renewed each year. Make sure that you stay on top of your domain name. Your domain name registrar will likely email you multiple notices that the name is due for renewal. You can also often set up your domain name to renew automatically with the fee charged to your credit card each year. Just make sure that when your card expires you remember to log in and update the information.
One simple mistake can lead to you losing your domain name. It can often be expensive or impossible to get it back, so pay careful attention. After it expires it goes into a sort of limbo period, and can often be recovered for a few hundred dollars. But once that limbo period expires, it’s open season. Anyone can grab the domain. Domainers are infamous for grabbing domain names as they expire (for around $10), then turning around and offering to sell them back to the original owner for hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Manage your portfolio of domain names diligently. If you’ve got multiple domain names, add it to your calendar to log in once a month and check on them – make a note of any that are expiring soon, and update your billing information as needed. Also keep the owner, administrative, technical, and billing contact information for each updated. This is the only way your domain registrar can contact you if one of your domains is expiring – and you want to make sure you get that message!
