Every website on the Internet have 2 things in common, Hosting and Domain name. In this article I will go through how to correctly buy and protect your domain name for your website. I will also include the most reliable, and cheapest, domain registers and how you should start building your brand.
What Is A Domain and How To Select The Correct One?
Your domain name is what you type into your browsers address bar to view your website, eg, www.sixtywebsites.com. The domain for your business is one of the most important factors for your website. You should always try and build a brand, never choose a domain to promote keywords. Google cannot be tricked by exact match domains (EMD) and you will not get higher search engine rankings if you decide to use an EMD, it will be the opposite. An example of an exact match domain would be WebDesignDerby.com, many spammers would buy an EMD like this to achieve high Google rankings for the keyword Web Design Derby. Over 5 years ago this would achieve the desired rankings but today Google have caught on to what these spammers are doing and put a stop to it altogether.
Brand Is Key
Your domain should always be your company name. Google wants to see brands being built up and seeing your brand mentioned all over the Internet. This is why you should always choose your brand name, SixtyWebsites.com, over an EMD, WebDesignDerby.com.
Protect Your Brand
With the above all fresh in your mind its time to buy your domain names, yes plural! As mentioned your brand is important with Google and you need to protect it. Image you only purchased the .com version of your brand, put months of work into promotion of your website, spent £1000’s in web design and Internet Marketing, receive 1000’s of daily visitors then someone comes along and pays a few quid, buys the .co.uk version of your brand and steals some important search engine traffic from you! Its not illegal for someone to buy a domain, even if it is your brand. What will rub salt into the wound is that they will try and sell it to you for £100’s or even £1000’s as they could be taking a lot of money out your pocket on a daily basis. As a minimum, always purchase the .com and .co.uk version of your brand. You can buy all versions of your brand to be on the safe side, but the .com and .co.uk are the most important.
Where To Buy Your Domains
There are many website that sell domains and some are only resellers. You should always ensure you are purchasing your domain from the registrar, not a reseller. There are 2 main reason for this, cost and support. If there are any problems with your domain name you need instant support to get the problem fixed quickly and efficiently. If you are using a reseller, you need to submit your problem to them, they need to contact the provider, what for a response then they will reply. Always cut out the middleman and go straight to the supplier.
I would suggest using 123 Reg to purchase your domains as they are very cheap and the customer support is excellent (from my 8 years experience form using them).
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This blog post is by Kev Massey from web design company in Derby, SixtyWebsites. Kev has been writing useful web design and Internet marketing blogs for over 10 years, helping new businesses get on the web at low cost.