Website Domain Names

I have a series of hubs available on setting up and designing your own website. In this hub, we will focus on domain names

What is a domain name?

A domain name is like your telephone number. It is what people type in when they want to find you online, your web address

For example: www.yourname.com

How do I get a domain name?

You get a domain name through a company that sells them. The domain name itself is not usually that much, you pay a monthly fee, and often need to take out a contract with the company for a period of time, like a year.

Some companies offer deals if you pay for longer upfront - like 2, 3 or 5 years

Look through companies that provide domain names and do a search for the domain name that you want, to see if it is available.

Once you have select the right company and found the domain name you want purchase the name through them

Free Domain names?

Some companies offer you a free site. However this does not usually include your own domain name. Free sites usually have adverts placed on them by the company that provides it to you. This is so that they can make money off the visitors to your site.

You will also most likely not get a good domain name using a free service. More likely it will be a longer name that includes the name of the company you are getting the free domain through

I do not recommend using these as your primary website address.

When you search for the domain name you want, it is very likely that you will find it is not available.

These days, many of the one and two word domains are already taken, unless you can think of something more unusual.

Your best option is to brainstorm and keep trying more options, possibly getting a little bit more creative in the name to find one that is available.

Should I try a similar variation of a name that is already taken?

if you initially try www.yoursite.com and it is taken, you may be tempted to go for something very similar like www.you_site.com

in other words adding a _ or . into the name to change it slightly.

This is actually not as good an idea as you may think.

Having a domain name that is very similar to another name allows for mistyping and people ending up going to the other website. It can create confusion and cause traffic that should have come to your website to end up going else where.

Rather try to find something that is unique and individual to you and your website

I have a domain name now, what next?

Having a domain name alone is not enough to get your website up and running. You also need a company to 'host' your website.

Having a domain name without hosting is like having a phone number without a telephone! You may have the number, but no one can contact you without the phone!

The same company that you get your domain name through may also offer a website hosting service.

If you are not experienced with websites and web design yet, it is probably better to use the same company for your domain name and hosting, as it is probably less complicated that way.

I have another hub published about web hosting