Choosing and Registering Your Domain Name
Episode #3 of the course Build a website and online brand quickly and cheaply by Rob Cubbon
In order to build your own website, you need two things:
1. A domain name (you need to register your www something dot com)
2. Web hosting (you need to get a physical server to host your website’s files)
The domain name is the only decision you should spend time thinking about. Changing the domain name after your website has gone live is a hassle and damaging to your brand, so it would be better to get it right the first time. So, in this lesson, we’ll be choosing and registering the domain.
Choosing the extension (.com, .net, etc.)
I would always prefer a dot com (.com). Google gives a slight preference to domains with a .com extension. It looks professional and international.
If you really can’t find anything you like as a .com, then my second choice would be a dot net (.net).
I advise against using country-specific domains, like “.co.uk” for the UK or “.co.nz” for New Zealand, unless you’re absolutely sure that your business will always be relevant to only one country.
Types of domain names
When choosing a domain name for a branded website, you have several choices:
• use your name
• use your company’s name
• use keywords
• use neutral words
• use a combination of the above
My main website is RobCubbon.com—it’s my first and last name. It has served me well, because it means that I can cover lots of different subjects.
Or you could use your company’s name for the domain. A company isn’t as constant as your name is, though.
Alternatively, you could go for keywords. Keywords are what people type into search engines to find content on the Internet. An example of a domain with keywords in the title is SmartPassiveIncome.com, a blog about earning passive income from a website.
Adding keywords to the domain of a website has certain advantages. It’s immediately obvious what the site is about. And a domain name with keywords may have a slight advantage with search engines, but this makes less of a difference these days. The disadvantage would be that the site owner couldn’t diverge from the area or niche of the site’s content.
If your name, your company name, or your keywords aren’t available, you may want to go for neutral words.
Finally, you could use a combination of your own name, your company name, keywords, or neutral words.
Choosing your domain name
There are two fantastic sites where you can enter a keyword and choose from the hundreds of available .com domains that their engine comes up with. They are leandomainsearch.com and bustaname.com. Both are free services.
A domain name should:
• Be short
• Contain only letters (without hyphens, numbers, or non-alphabetical symbols)
• Ideally have a .com extension
• Most importantly, be memorable
Pick a domain that, when you say it, most people can easily type it correctly into a browser’s address bar.
Register the domain name
Registering a domain typically costs about $10/year. It doesn’t matter who you choose to register your domain name with. I used to use GoDaddy, which is usually pretty cheap, although some of its marketing leaves a bad taste in the mouth. You could also use Namecheap or any other company to do this.
So just go for it—register that domain! We’re talking $10 a year. It’s not going to break the bank.
A note on the above links
The above links to GoDaddy and Namecheap are affiliate links.
This means if you click on them and subsequently make a purchase, I will receive a commission while you will still pay the same price.
You can get affiliate links for just about every product on the internet. They are used by companies, in this case domain name registrars, to encourage bloggers and websites to promote their products. It’s quite possible you’ve bought products through affiliate links before now without even knowing about it.
So now you know a great way to earn a bit of money with your website.
Remember what I said in the beginning of this email? There are two things you need to start a website—a domain and hosting. So, the next email will be about hosting.
Recommended book by Highbrow
Share with friends