Before you register your domain name there are some very important things to consider. You should always try to get a domain name that is the actual name of your business. It may seem obvious, but many times we see domain names that have nothing to do with the name of that business or the products they are selling. Obviously there will be times when the name you want has already been registered.

Should this happen, try having another ending. Initally if you are country specific such as those based in the UK, you should aim for a co.uk ending, failing that there is .org.uk and .me.uk.

Similarly if your business offers products worldwide you should initially be looking for a .com domain which is the most desirable, followed by .net, .biz and .org in that order. There are other endings such as .info which can be bought for as little as £2.95 for the first year, however the search engines don’t like them as much as the big 4.

Now, before you go running off and buying your domain name, there are some other factors to consider.  A .com name is the most desirable, if the name you want is no longer available, try it in the plural form (if it makes sense) and finally in the dashed form. IE cg-website-designs.co.uk.

There are some arguments for and against using hyphens in the domain name and no doubt you will come across them all over the web. Our view is that they don’t matter, they can make it easier to read, on the other hand, it is harder for people to remember, if someone is recommending your site and says “oh yes, I got my website from”web-designs-r-us” they may well forget to say that the name is hyphenated, in which case if someone else also has that name without the hyphens, they will get the sale.

You can register a domain name by going to a domain name  registrar site such as Namecheap.com, which we use.  Domain names start from as little as $9.95 (£6.30 at time of writing)  for a .com, .net, .org and .biz. for 1 year.

For a .co.uk site there is a minimum registry of 2 years.

Remember – If you do not renew your domain registration each year you will lose your name and everything that you have built up.

You can check to see if the name you want is available – go to Namecheap.com.

If you are not sure what the best name is going to be for your website or you are worried about doing it yourself, we will be happy to talk you through the process and suggest some domain names.

Special Offer with Namecheap.com

• Free Whois Guard with every registered  domain (not available for co.uk due to registry restriction).
  If you have your email address publicly showing in a whois, there are spam harvesters who will find and use your email to send spam and junk mail to you. By having a Whois guard your email address is encrypted so that the spam harvesters are unable to use it.  Any real mail will still reach you but the vast majority of junk emails will be stopped.
• Free 1 year Comodo PositiveSSL certificate for secure selling online.
  Domain validated certificate
  1024 bit Industry Standard SSL Certificate
  Trusted by all popular Browsers
  99.3% Browser Compatibility
  128/256 bit encryption
  Email and web support
  Unlimited Re-Issuance Policy
  Free Registration in IdAuthority
  Online Validation – No Paperwork

We do not recommend registering and hosting your domain through the web hosting company even though they often offer a free domain registration upon sign up.  Why not? Simply because if a problem does arise and you end up in a dispute you can find that you have lost your website and are unable to move any of the information contained within it should the hosting company choose to close your account.  For that reason it makes good business sense to register your domain separately.

Now you have registered your domain name you need a website design