How to buy a domain name

You don't need to purchase your own domain name www.yourdomainname.com if you are happy to have a url for your website such as
www.name-of-your-isp.com/members/yourname/index.htm
...however If you are serious about having a presence on the web, it is essential to have your own domain name for a number of reasons.

1. Image perception - visitors will take you more seriously if you have a URL such as www.yourdomain.com rather than www.somefreehost.com/members/yourname/index.htm.
   
   
2. Changing hosting providers - maybe you will become dissatisfied with one hosting service and want to change. If you don't have your own domain name you will have to start all your promotion efforts all over again.
   
   
3. Investment - You will not be happy about pouring investment into a website (time is a big investment) until you know you have your own domain name that you are in control of.
   
   
4. Promotion - Many search engines do not list sites from free hosting providers because they have traditionally been used to spam the engines with irrelevant keywords.
   

Tips for choosing a domain name

• Try and find a catchy name that people will remember.
  Try not to make the domain name too long.
  
  
• Get a domain name with a keyword in it can improve your ranking on some search engines - for example www.discountshoes.com if you are selling shoes.
  
  
• Try and get a .com domain name (instead of .net or .info or other) because this is what first comes to mind when people type in a domain name from memory. If you are setting up a non-profit site, then a .org name is more suitable.
  
  
• If your website is country specific, for example if you are marketing your services only in the UK, then a country domain extension would be more suitable, for example www.yourdomain.co.uk
  
  
• Try not to use a hyphen (-) in the name because if you do, when you speak to people to go to your domain name, you will need to ensure they remember the hyphen.
  
  
• If your preferred domain name does not have keywords that relate to your site in it (for example this site) you can improve your search engine rankings by registering other domains which will point to your primary website.
  
  
• Register your domain now before someone else gets it!

You can get a free domain name included in your hosting package at InternationalWebsitehosting.com. This is the website host we use for this site, and apart from being excellent value, they make everything from registering your domain to setting up your site very simple.

Next steps

  Find a web host

OR

Do a domain name search now to see if your domain is available.