So now that you’ve understood (I am hoping, at least ) the basics of domain names and who manages them, lets proceed further to understand what domain name(s) you should register for your business / personal use and some tips on domain registration.

If the target audience for your service / product is global and you feel that maximum visitors to your potential website would come from Google, Yahoo, Bing (by the way these are called Search Engines) then you should think about WHAT your target customer would search for when he is looking for businesses /services of YOUR TYPE. In such a case I would highly recommend that you register a domain name that contains your most important keyword (keyword = what your target customer would search for) instead of your company name.

One such example that comes immediately to my mind is that of a customer of ours offering Treks in the Himalayas. The name of his company is Wayfarer Adventures while the domain name for his website is www.trekkinginhimalayas.com. This is because NOBODY would ever search for “Wayfarer Adventures” when looking for Trekking information in the Himalayas.

And it is for this reason that his website has been No.1 on www.google.com for the last 5 years when somebody searches for “trekking in himalayas”.

Of course, you can still list your company name on your web site, but your domain name should include the most important keyword that you think a potential customer would use while looking for companies like you.

Now, as always, there are exceptions…

If your business operations are specific to an area or they are localised then in my opinion it would make more sense to build brand awareness and register a domain name with your company name. Like, in the above example it would be www.wayfareradventures.com.

Now that you have decided on your preferred domain name(s), you should start looking for their availability. To check the availability of your domain name(s), you would use a service called “WHOIS” lookup. There are 1000s of WHOIS websites, but I normally use www.drwhois.com. Plain, simple and to the point. Just go to the website and type your first choice in the box.

IMPORTANT: You would recollect from Part 1 of our series, www. is NOT part of your domain name. So while searching for availability JUST PUT IN example.com or whatever your first choice is.

After you click the Whois button on the page:

• If the domain is available, the results would show as “NOT FOUND” or “No Record Found”.
• If somebody has already registered your chosen domain name, the results would show the registration details of the person who registered this domain.

After you’ve found your perfect domain name, you can proceed to actually register the same at our website http://domains.tradebooster.com.

USEFUL TIPS FOR REGISTERING YOUR DOMAIN NAME(s)

1) Don’t register domain names that are too long and have too many syllables if possible. Domain Names can be upto 63 characters long, but that doesn’t mean you have to use all 63 characters .

2) Use hyphens / dashes ONLY if your name is more than 3 words long (unless your name includes 3 short words). A name like buyingdomains.com doesn’t really need a hyphen because it’s already readable the way it is.

However a name like buying-domains-for-sale.com looks better than buyingsdomainsforsales.com since there are so many words in the name.

3) If you are serious about your Internet Presence, protect your domain name by registering multiple extensions for the same domain name (.net, .org, , biz, .info, .in, etc.), of course subject to their availability. For example, we have registered ALL useful domain extensions for tradebooster (except .biz. Somebody registered it before we woke up )

MOST IMPORTANT TIP

Your domain is your online business. So please do not jeopardise your own business in the hands of either your staff or your vendor. Give complete and correct registration details for your company / yourself while registering your domain name(s).

OOOhhhhh! This was a long article… right? But it had to be, because this is the first and important step in establishing your presence in the World of Internet.

In the next article I would talk about the registration details and the domain record.

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So the question that now arises in your mind is:

Where should I register my domain name?

To be honest, a domain name is a domain name. Nothing more. So whether you register it with X company or with Y company, the end result is still the same. So why does X company charge $20/year while Y company charges $8/year when the end product is the same in both cases.

Well the reasons are simple. SERVICE. Compare the service levels of both the companies.

1. Do they offer online, real time registration of the domain name?

2. What are the pre-sales and post-sales support services offered? Do they offer Live Chat, Telephone Support, Ticket Support for answering your questions / queries?

3. Do they provide you for a management console to manage your domain record?

4. How long have they been in existence?

5. What do their other customers have to say about their service levels?

This is where, we are Tradebooster score over all other domain resellers.

- We have been in this business for 8 years.

- Read what other customers have to say about us and our services.

- We are always at your service, no matter what mode of communication your prefer. Email, Live Chat, IM, Tickets, Telephone. You name it and we are always available.

So, when we and others are all offering the same products, the only thing that can set us apart from our competitors is Our Service.

Do not save a few dollars if you are serious about web business. $1-2 will not make a BIG difference, but a lost / expired domain name can cost you a lot. Click here, if your need to register a domain now.