Small Business Website Domain Names

Small Business Website Domain Names

All businesses require their own domain name.

Domain names are, in effect, like business names, and often they are they same; as in Microsoft corporation ( business name) and microsoft.com ( domain name).

Domain names like business names are decided on by the person/company registering the name. The only criteria is that the domain name cannot already have  been registered.

However unlike business names, domain names have a structure as you can see with the example microsoft.com. Here you can see that full stops (dots) are used to separate the different name segments microsoft and com.

It isn't really necessary to go into the technical detail on the exact structure in order for you grasp the basics of what a domain name is. If you want to you can find more detail in domain names uncovered.

Domain Name Selection

 Most people automatically think that they should have a domain name ending in .com  and usually use businessname.com as the domain name. For Example if your business name is J smith and sons then your domain name would be:

Jsmithandsons.com

There is nothing wrong with this, and it is indeed a good choice. However it is not the only possibility. It is the number 1 choice for anyone with a North American based business or an International business.

However; if your business is local in nature and is located outside the USA/Canada then a geographic name like businessname.co.uk (UK ) is more appropriate.

Avoiding Domain Name Scams

Domain names are cheap costing less than $20. I have heard of small businesses paying $100 for a domain name by "so called" domain name registration companies.

Beware of any company that tries to sell you a domain name over the telephone or through the mail and charges more than $20.

Register Your Own Domain Name

There are many domain registration companies available and you should always register your own name. If it is registered on your behalf by your website designer then you should always insist that it is registered to you/ your company. The process is simple and is explained in more detail here.

Here are the registration details showing myself as the owner for one of my domain names.

 Further down the form you will see 1and1 Internet ltd listed as technical support. This is the company I used to register the domain name. This is perfectly normal and what you require.

Domain Names Need Renewing

When you buy a domain name you are actually leasing it as you will need to renew the name periodically usually yearly. If you forget you lose it!!!. Therefore I recommend you choose a domain registrar that does automatic renewals on your behalf.

Domain Names and Email Addresses

You can use your domain name as an email address and most domain name registration companies provide the ability to create and manage email addresses as part of the domain name registration package.

Unfortunately many small business owners seem to miss the fact and many still advertise a yahoo, Gmail or hotmail account as their business contact when they could be using their own company domain name.

 See email and websites for more details.

Domain Names and Websites

A domain name is not a website. To have website you need to have a website host . You can consider the website host to be equivalent to the company premises and just as you can change company premises and keep the same company name you can change website hosts and keep the same domain name.

However I always recommend that you use the same company for both the domain name and web site hosting. So don't buy the domain name until you have decided on a suitable hosting provider.

See Website Hosting Guide. for more details.