I have to be honest. So far, I have not really had any difficulty getting clients of ours to get their own domain. In fact, in many cases, they already had a domain. But I have heard of others having to describe the benefits of having your own domain.
First off, lets start out with a question. What is a domain When were talking about a domain, were actually talking about what is technically a top-level domain (TLD). In Googles website, the TLD is google . com. In hometown.aol.com/catspawpress/Dzine.html, the TLD is aol.com.
So when I say that as a business or organization, you should have your own domain, Im really saying you should have your own top-level domain.
Lets go through some of the reasons now that you should have your own domain:
1. It demonstrates permanency. Regardless of the nature of your business, having a site hosted by AngelFire or AOL or any of the free hosts makes web surfers cringe. If youre not willing to spring for the domain name, are you really going to be around that long
Its the same thing as having a permanent office. Whether its actually true or not, it causes people to attribute more permanency to your business.
2. Its affordable. Really affordable. If you bought a website address in the late 90s or so, you had to pay $75 or more per year for a domain. While this was still reasonable for many organizations, for smaller businesses, it simply wasnt worth the money.
Now, however, domains can be purchased for much less. As little as $7 a year, in fact. Some places charge a little bit more for the convenience of having your domain name and hosting with the same company, but its still a fraction of what it used to be. (And Ive found having the domain name and hosting with the same company is well worth the few extra dollars.)
3. You can use the domain for your email address. Lets face it, webdesigner165768 @ yahoo.com (not a real address) does not look nearly as professional as tim @ tandswebdesign . com. And while free web based email is certainly useful for many things, it should not be used for businesses. To a certain degree, this goes back to the issue of perceived permanency.
In fact, there is more permanency in that your email address will never have to change. Even if you switch hosts, your domain name stays the same.
4. Its easier to remember. www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/7116 is a lot harder to remember than something like www.google.com
5. It will rank a lot higher in search engines. A lot higher.
6. No one else can claim it. Ive talked to a realtor who had this problem. Another realtor in her area actually had the same name as her, and purchased a domain with that name. The realtor I spoke with lost several clients who mistakenly went to the other realtor, then ended up just using her.
Even if youre not quite ready to get a website, you should go ahead and buy a domain for your business. Its really easy to do, and you can park your domain. This means a temporary page will be displayed that says something like website coming soon. Then, at least no one else can stake their claim on it.
Tim is the owner and senior web designer at T&S Web Design. His company has developed and maintained website for dozens of small businesses and organizations. Tim also maintains a blog with free website advice for small business owners, .
Lets face it. Many of the simple, easy to remember domain names have already been taken. So what do you do if you have a product or business name that you want a domain for, and its already taken There are several different options.
Many domain name registrars will also suggest alternative names if your domain name is taken. Go Daddy is one of those registrars. Those names are generally not imaginative, and may or may not work for your business. The suggestions consist of adding the following words to the front and/or end of the domain name you requested: online, home, site, web, live, best, new, my, the, official.
I have run into some cases where that worked fine. My personal web page is www.thepriebes.com. In that case, my wife and I ended up liking that option even more than our original choice. Another example is this very blog. I originally tried for www.GetASite.com. (Terrible design work on that site, by the way.) As it was taken, the domain name www.GetASiteOnline.com was suggested.
Of course, you can try your own variations of this. One possibility is to tack the name of your city on the end. Two examples include an Arcade in Oklahoma City (www.cactusjacksokc.com) and a non-profit organization that provides free clothing to needy children (www.urspecialedmond.org). Another is to use some word that works well with your industry. I was designing a site for a comic book called Haven, and haven.com was taken. We ended up going with www.havencomic.com.
You might also simply change the domain to something more unique about your company. If PetStore.com is taken, you can try for VisitOurPets.com, or something like that. The key is imagination.
If you absolutely must have a specific domain name, remember to check some of the less used domains extensions. (Remember, an extension is the .com or .org, etc.) Some to check include .us, .biz, .info, .ws, .name, .tv. A complete list of top-level domains is available at the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority website. However, not all domain registrars sell all the domains.
Tim is the owner and senior web designer at T&S Web Design. His company has developed and maintained website for dozens of small businesses and organizations. Tim also maintains a blog with free website advice for small business owners, .