Domain Registration

Getting your name on your website

If you're serious about running your own website, then registering your own domain is essential. Not only does it give you full control over where you host your site, as you can take the name with you when you move, it gives a much mor professional appearance than a subdomain of an ISP's name. And, of course, it's a lot more memorable than a subdomain.

Finding somewhere to register your domain isn't difficult - just look at these Google advert links for a few ideas:

What's harder is finding somewhere that will suit you. Headline costs aren't always the most important (although there's no reason to pay over the odds, either). Here are a few tips on choosing a domain registrar:

• Check for hidden costs. Avoid any registrar which will charge you to move your domain elsewhere.

• Make sure you have ownership. The domain should be registered in your name, not that of the hosting company. That way, you can easily move it elsewhere if you have problems.

• Look for a registrar which gives you full control of the domain through their online interface. Some registrars only allow the setting of simple DNS entries such as a www record, but that's no use if you want to do anything a bit more sophisticated. Make sure that you can control all the contents of the DNS file.

Choosing the right name can be just as important. Again, some useful tips:

• Think carefully about which top level domain (TLD) you want your domain to be under. The most common is .com, but that also means it's harder to find good names as many have already been taken!

• If your site is aimed primarily at users from a specific country, then it's often better to choose the appropriate country code TLD (ccTLD), such as .de, .fr or .uk rather than a generic TLD (gTLD). This will aid your search engine visibility in your target market, as well as having a better likelihood of the name being available.

• If you do want a gTLD domain, then think about alternatives to .com. I'd suggest avoiding .biz, as it has a reputation of being used primarily by spammers and scammers, but if you don't mind the negative connotations then it's a possible alternative to .com for commercial sites.

• Traditionally, .org has been the gTLD of choice for non-commercial sites, but that's getting a bit full now as well. I'd strongly suggest thinking about having a .info domain if your site is primarily non-commerical or informative in nature - it's less popular than .org, so you're more likely to get the domain you want, and it's easy to remember. Also, unlike "com" and "org", "info" is a word (or rather, an abbreviated word) in normal English usage, so it's possible to come up with a domain name where the whole name, including the TLD, makes a sentence - for example MotorwayServices.Info is, as the name suggests, a site about motorway services.

Domain registration isn't difficult, and it isn't expensive. If you haven't already got your domain name, then get one now - before someone else takes it!

One really, really important thing to remember is to register your domain before you start to design your website. You'll need to include the name in the design, and there's nothing worse than creating a website with a name in mind only to find that the domain has been registered by someone else by the time you get round to doing it.