We will have a beginner’s guide for Domain Registration in this blog, especially for Small, Medium and Local Business owners. Precautions to be taken before buying a Domain Name, What is Domain Name etc.
What is Domain Name
Let’s not dive into the technical aspect of Machine Language but understand the Domain Name from the point of view of Layman’s language.
If you are running a Local Business or if your Business has a storefront then, your Business will definitely have a Name. Whether your Business name is required to be registered or not, it depends on several factors. However, your Storefront will definitely have a Signage or Sign Board of your Business Name.
In the Digital world, your Sign Board (Name of your Business) get replaced by Domain Name.
If you want to establish an online presence of your Business, in a website form, you will need to buy a Domain Name for your website.
When you type Google.com, Google is a Domain name and .com is a TLD (Top Level Domain).
Likewise, you have a Local Shoe Business, and to represent your Business online your website name can be shoemart.com or can be related to your Locality for e.g. mumbaishoemart.com, etc.
Here, if you want to target Local customers you can buy a Domain Name relating to your Local area.
Which type of Domain Name is Suitable for Small and Medium or Local Businesses:
It is always better to have a Business-related keyword in your Domain Name.
For e.g. If you are a Freelance Photographer, you can have a Domain Name relating to your name yournamephoto.com or the area (Locality) in which you serve for e.g. mumbaiphoto.in, etc.
According to the area, type of Business or Industry, Online or Offline Business, etc. these factors should be kept in mind before purchasing a Domain Name for your website.
The smaller the Domain name for your Business, the sooner your website will become popular.
It is recommended that your Domain Name should not exceed 14 characters. The Simple reason behind it is customers cannot remember and recall long Website Name with extension.
Which Domain Name Extension is suitable for your Business:
TLD (TOP-LEVEL DOMAIN):
Some Generic Top-Level Domain examples are:
.com relates to Commercial
.net relates to Network
.biz relates to a business
.gov relates to Government
.org relates to Organization
These are open to anyone.
Country’s TLD:
A country’s TLD is Country specific, for e.g.
.in for India
.uk for the United Kingdom
.us for the USA
If your audience for a website is within a specific country then, you can choose these types of Domain Names.
These are the safest to use.
.in Domain Name is the Primary Domain extension for India.
For .in Domain, Extension Registration Price and Renewal Price is affordable for Small, Medium and Local Business Owners.
.in Domains are Best Suitable for Indian Business Owners operating in India Only.
Do’s and Don’t while Registering your Domain:
- Avoid Numbers while selecting or Deciding your Domain Name for Business:
Strictly Avoid Numbers while selecting Domain. For e.g. just4u.com
The reason behind it is unless you are a too big Brand, people will not easily remember that your website name contains a number. Generally, people at the time of typing, do not recall typing a number in it, especially if they are typing from Mobile Device, their mobile phone’s default Keyboard layout will not have a number-pad easily accessible. In this situation, they will end up searching the wrong Name of your website and it will result in giving up.
- Avoid Hyphens:
Strictly Avoid Hyphens in your Domain Name. The simple reason is as explained above. People may not remember that your Website name contains a hyphen (-).
For e.g. shoemart.com Or shoe-mart.com?
Which one is easy to remember? Naturally shoemart.com Correct? The answer lies within a question.
- Avoid using Long words:
Likewise said, shoeworldnewyork.com this a bit hard to remember and recall, particularly when your Business has to compete with Big E-commerce business sites like Amazon or Myntra, etc.
If people forget a Domain Name, they might end up going to your Competitor’s website. For E.g. they might type in nycshoeworld.com or might misspell like shoewordnewyork.com etc.
- Check if there exists another Domain Name with a different extension:
Check if your Selected Domain has already been bought by another person but with a different extension. For e.g. You have selected Example.net but there exists the same Domain with Example.com that is already established Business. If Example.com is an Old Established Business or big Brand then there might be an issue.
One issue might be, that you will have to compete with Big Brand, which is certainly not an easy task.
Another one is if that already established Business has taken a Trademark and your Business and other Business with an extension of Example.com are operating in the same industry then you might face Legal issues.
- Check if that is an Expired Domain:
It is very crucial to check that Domain you have purchased was already bought by someone. If that Domain was Purchased earlier and you have bought it for your Business because it was Expired, check How much information is available on the Search Engine for that Domain.
You can simply search by writing “site: example.net” (the Domain name which you selected to Register) on the search engine.
If you do not find any information about that Domain then, its pages were not Indexed.
If you find any fishy or suspicious information on a search engine about an expired domain then Strictly Avoid buying such an expired domain.
You can also check the old content of an expired Domain on web.archive.org to find out whether any old content exists for an expired domain.
What is Domain Privacy:
When you register your Domain Name with Registrar you have to provide up-to-date personal information to Registrar as required by ICANN.
Each WHOIS directory contains information about Details of Registrar, Name, Address, Contact Number of Registrant (i.e. Details of a Person who Buys Domain), Name servers, Expiry Date, etc.
This information is available to the Public. If you do not want your details to be published in Public, the option available is avail Privacy Protection Service.
Nowadays, many Registrants provide Privacy Protection by default while you Register with them but some Country’s TLDs have restrictions on Privacy Protection.
For e.g. .in or .ca or.co.in these domains do not have a Privacy Protection option.
Other Domains have privacy protection or you can purchase an additional add-on service as Privacy Protection.
How much Domain Name Costs:
Domain Name cost varies depending upon the Name you select, the Extension you select, etc.
A country’s TLD is generally at Lower Cost Compared to a .com or .net Domain.
Domain Generally costs between ₹99 – ₹5000 or Higher than that.
.com or .net Domain have higher Registration as well as Renewal Cost compared to .in Or .ca Or .us Domains
If cost is a factor while selecting a Domain, then it is preferable to select the Country’s TLD.
Keep in mind the fact that some Hosting Companies provide Free Domain for 1st Year, but you will have to pay for 2nd Year onwards because these are generally Free for only 1 year. Even if you get 1st Year Domain for Free or at Discounted Price, Check the Renewal Cost.
If you Purchase a .com Domain because you were getting it at Discounted Cost or Free, it is going to cost you a Higher Renewal Cost for Subsequent years.
How much time does it take to Register your Domain
After Registering a Domain, it generally requires 24 Hrs to 72 Hrs time to complete registration and update a record.
What is Nameserver:
Nameservers play a major role in Connecting the IP Address of the Server (Hosting) with Domain Records called DNS. DNS is an Internet Directory where Individual entries relating to your Domain are stored.
If you buy Hosting from another Service provider, other than your Domain Registrar (which many people do generally) then you have to point your Nameservers to your Hosting Provider.
Most of the Domain Registrars provide an option to change your Nameservers to point out to your Hosting Provider.
When you open a Browser to surf the internet and you type any website name e.g. prazone.in, that Nameserver connects to Hosting to access data.
Every website needs Hosting to store a website’s data on servers.
Hosting providers not only store and grant access to information as and when required, but they also perform many other tasks, like Securing your website from spam, and phishing, preventing downtime of the website, etc.
A good Hosting Provider even if it is a Shared Hosting has an inbuilt lot of features available.
Where to buy Domain:
You can buy Domain from any Registrar who is providing you more profitable deal. Some Domain Registrar is costly but has some good features included by default.
If you are a beginner buy from Registrar who provides you with Good support and a wise price.
If you are a beginner, and if you don’t know anything about add-on features, talk to a Digital Marketer who has complete knowledge regarding this because you might pay for add-on features unnecessarily as these add-on features can simply be provided by your developer.
If you are hiring a “Good” Web designer or Developer (Digital Marketer), they generally do all technical tasks for you. They will guide you, about necessary things such as which Domain to buy according to your Business Category and Need of Business.
If you still need any help regarding Domain or Web Designing, we will guide you. Feel free to Contact us.