How and Where to Purchase a Domain
It might not seem like it, but choosing and purchasing a domain name is a critical part of creating a website. Since the domain name is the first thing people know about your website, it becomes the defacto name of your website as well as its brand. This is why choosing a domain is such an integral part of creating a website. So, how and where to purchase a domain?
Buying a domain name isn’t difficult at all. In fact, it’s as simple as entering a username. You can buy a domain from either your hosting provider or from a special domain name service provider. Using a domain name service provider is recommended for those who intend to host the domain on their own servers.
In the case that you’re using separate domain name service provider, make sure you choose one with a static IP address, which is the address that is used to identify your computer. If you use a dynamic IP address, you will face difficulty assigning a domain name to your personal server.
How and Where to Purchase a Domain
The actual process of purchasing and assigning a domain name is quite simple. All you would have to do is enter the name you want to register in a text box. The service provider will tell you if the domain name is available or not. It will also show you the extensions you can choose from. For example, .com or .net.
Ideally, you would want to choose .com as your domain’s extension mostly because it is the most popular form of extension and the easiest to remember. Also, Google’s search algorithm that helps find websites and gives preference to commonly used extensions such as .com, .net and .org. Aside from that, it doesn’t make much of a difference.
Now let’s talk about choosing a domain name. Choosing a domain name involves a bit of keyword optimization. Most people opt for a domain name that is unique and sounds creative. Such URLs might be easy to remember, but it won’t help you get your website ranked higher in the search results.
When we Google something, Google’s search algorithm goes through thousands of possible results and presents them based on relevance. How often do you open the second or third page of the search result? Almost never? That’s why you want your website to come at least on the first page of the search result.
This is why you don’t just want something catchy or unique for your domain name or URL. You want something that will help your website, at least, make it to the first page of the search result. Hence, the need to put some thought into your domain name and the reference to keyword optimization.
You can head on over to a domain name provider such as GoDaddy, a web hosting, and domain name registrar and try out a few keywords to check if you can register them as your domain name. The website will provide you with a list of potential domain names, all rich with potential for keyword optimization.
If a domain name is taken, the website will automatically recommend other options to choose from. This can be quite helpful and deserves your attention. It is possible that some of the options might rank even better than your original choice. Ideally, you want a domain name that is short, doesn’t contain any symbols and offer a summary of your website in two or three words.
You can also purchase expired or operational domains. If you buy an existing domain, you might get its existing content, traffic, links, PageRank and its history. Websites that are up for sale can be inspected. The seller should be willing you show you its traffic and revenue charts. You will want to inspect the data for a decent period of time to ensure that the figures are not inflated.
A month’s data is completely inadequate for any kind of conclusion. You want at least six months of data. Also, make sure you ask about the source of the traffic and confirm it from the server logs. Remember, server logs don’t lie.
All of the registrars will require the name of the registrant, the individual or the company who owns the domain. It will also ask for an administrative contact, which is the individual authorized to deal with daily matters. Then, there is the technical contact, who deals with all things technical.
Irrespective of the registrant, the person with the username and password to the registrar controls the domain so be careful about sharing the username and password.
Registering a Domain
Let’s look at service providers that can help you register a domain name.
GoDaddy
GoDaddy is by far the most popular web host and domain registrar. And there is a reason for that. GoDaddy offers the best user experience and user design. The interface is highly intuitive, even for a first time user. Even a complete beginner could open the website and sign up for a simple WordPress website using GoDaddy without any professional help.
The company also offers a huge number of pricing benefits such as free domain with a year-long web hosting subscription and so on. So, always be on the lookout for such packages, it might help cut down the initial cost of your website.
GoDaddy also offers a number of other important services and features that you would ideally like to get from the same service provider. For example, it also offers a personalized email service and so on.
Wealthy Affiliate
Wealthy Affiliate is an affiliate marketing company that also provides web hosting and domain registration services. The company provides a number of interesting services such as educational courses on how to run an online business and on digital marketing. It also helps its customers create a website.
Wealthy Affiliate offers an extremely simple and easy way to create a website. It provides tools not just for creating a website, but also for registering the domain and hosting the website. But that’s not all it also offers courses on how to help your website grow. All of this is available if you become a member of Wealthy Affiliate.
Summary
There you have it—how and where to purchase a domain. We’ve talked about all of the intricacies involved in the process and even talked about a couple of service providers. Of course, you can research a bit more on service providers, but at least you should know what to look for when getting a domain and web hosting.