Domain Name Registration is one of the most important issues for you to consider in developing your website.
How to Choose a Good Domain Name
The first thing you need to start setting up your website is a domain name – your address on the web. This domain name is what people will type in their browsers and see listed in Search Engines. It will look something like this: www.gympiewebsites.com.au. Since your domain name is listed all over the Internet, you need a memorable name that directly relates to the products or services you are offering the public.
Some people don’t realize that the .com at the end of a domain name is not the only choice. You could have a .org (organizations), .net (originally intended for Internet service providers), .gov (government departments), .edu (educational institutions or .biz (for companies). There are also some other lesser-known suffix endings we don’t need to mention. In addition, each country has its own code. Australia gets .au and The United Kingdom gets .uk etc.
The number of .com names that have not been registered is rapidly diminishing. Because of the scarcity of good .com names, it may be tempting to choose a domain name other than .com. We recommend not registering a domain other than .com or .com.au. The .com names have the most prestige, are significantly better recognised and therefore preferable for for your business image.
We recommend that you firstly consider registering an Australian Domain name as this indicates that your business operation is based in Australia (there are strict rules about COM.AU domains only being available for Australian businesses). You are more likely to find your preferred name as an Australian domain (the international .com is more likely to be taken).
If you are doing business internationally the .com is still the best choice. We suggest that you follow a plan of action. It will be a challenge to come up with a good .com name. There are people who monitor domain names constantly. They instantly buy up any single word domain name if one becomes available, so forget about single word names. Your best course of action is to come up with a two or three word description of your business or product for your website. You’ll probably have more success with a three word name than a two so concentrate on that. If you want to get ranked high in search engines, consider what your potential customers would type into a search engine. This will require some thought. The obvious search terms may be taken. You might have to add a prefix like the word “the” or “an” in front on your domain name or perhaps more strategically important use a geographic location as part of the business name.
After you’ve come up with several three word descriptive phrases, go to a domain registration service. A search on the Internet will give you multiple choices. Type in your phrase to see if it’s still available. If you’re lucky, you may be able to find an unclaimed domain your first several tries. Pay your registration fee and secure the domain name and you’re now the proud owner of a piece of virtual real estate.
We are seeing higher ranking in Google for domain names that include your preferred keywords and your geographic location especially for local business websites. Therefore, we recommend that keyword and search term usage be considered as part of your domain name e.g.
- www.gympiesawmill.com – a domain registration and website for a Gympie timber planing mill producing flooring and decking products.
We recommend that you discuss the registration of your domain name with us as we are experienced in registering domains and are happy to help in advising you on how to select a suitable name for your website address.
We have been registering domain names since 2000 and have many happy clients who have some great names that they can use to leverage and promote their business on the web. As an example, we have recently registered the following domain:
- www.gympieairconditioning.com.au – for Jeff Stolzenberg who is expanding his Gympie based air conditioning and refrigeration business. This domain capitalises on the location of the business and the type of business by using the keywords “Gympie” and Air Conditioning” – using these keywords in the domain name is very beneficial as Google gives some prominence to the use of keywords and people looking for air conditioning in gympie will use those terms in their searches bring more customers to Jeff.
Our domain registration service includes full management of your domain name, delegation to our hosting servers and managing renewals to ensure that you don’t lose your domain through expiry.
If you would like more information on our domain registration services, please contact:
Allan Caulfield
Email: admin@gympiewebsites.com.au
Phone: (07) 5482 3478
Mobile: 0409 823 478
