How do you select your domain name?  If you have registered your business, of course you want to use it.  Before you pay for your domain, check out these tips for choosing the best one for you.  While I’m not a fan of GoDaddy, this article does provide some great guidelines.

10 Tips for Choosing the prefect domain name  Click here to read the article for more information.

1. Make it easy to type
2. Keep it short
3. Use Keywords
4. Target your area
5. Avoid numbers and hypens
6. Be memorable
7. Research it
8. Use an appropriate domain extension
9. Protect and build your brand
10. Act Fast

There are several websites to register your domain, some are cheaper than others so shop around.  You’ll have to renew the domain annually or you lose it.  Some hosting companies even offer a free domain with hosting.  I’ve used InMotion hosting for the last 5 years, the annual cost to renew a domain is $14.99.  

Before you purchase your domain, do some research on where you plan on hosting your website.  You can buy a cheap domain with GoDaddy but if aren’t planning on hosting with them, you may have to wait up to 2 months before you can transfer the domain to another hosting company and build a website.

Whatever hosting company you go with, do the research, you want a provider that can meet your needs.  Some providers have a lot of down time and slow loading of your website.  Click here to see more.

1. Know your hosting needs.
2. Investigate on host reliability and uptime guarantees.
3. Study web host upgrading options.
4. Check all hosting features (such as number of addon domains allowed) based on your needs.
5. Check prices on both sign up and renewal.
6. Check hosting control panel.
7. Read hosting company’s ToS to find out more about account suspension and server usage policy.
8. Other supporting features (ie. site backup, environmental friendliness, etc)