What is the first step in creating a website for your company; setting up web hosting, hiring a designer, writing a press release or developing content? It’s a tricky one but, in truth, it is none of these. There is one thing that must certainly come before all else. If you wish to start a website you must first select a domain.
Many people have a name in mind for their site and develop everything around this, without checking if the name is available. It should come as no surprise when they inevitably find their domain name has been taken and that they have wasted hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds on a design, content and press release based on a name that will never be theirs. To save yourself the hassle, stress and financial loss, read this article and learn from the mistakes of millions of other budding webmasters.
Simply use a search engine to find a domain name provider, its easier to choose one which offers cheap web hosting as well so that you can get your site up and running imeediately. An approximate yearly fee for a .com domain name is no more than $10. In most instances it is not worth purchasing any domains other than the .com. In general, the .com extensions takes 90% of the traffic for that domain name, so by buying and promoting a .net, .org or any other such extension, you are simply helping to promote the site belonging to the owner of the .com – who, worst of all, is probably your rival.
Another very important rule is to keep your domain as short as possible. Forget grammatical accuracy, above all else, your domain name needs to be catchy to ensure you achieve maximal return visits. This may seem to somewhat contradict what I have just noted, however, if possible, it is a good idea to include keywords in your domain name for the purpose of search engine optimisation. A domain name with keywords is more likely to rank highly in organic search listings than one without.
In summary, make sure you get your domain name first, make sure it is a .com, keep it catchy and if you cannot keep it catchy – pack it with keywords.
