What's In a Domain Name and How Important Are They To You?

A domain name is a web site address and can be used only once. They are usually made up of words or letters so they are easier to remember and can be more relevant to a person or business. Extensions are the codes at the end of a domain name. The extensions signify which country the domain name belongs to, i.e., .ws belongs to Samoa and .us is an extension of the United States domain names.

Getting just the right domain name may be important to you if you need recognition for a product, service, event or your own name. In this case, you may want a web site name with a .ws extension, because you may more likely find just the name you're looking for. Dot com and dot net domain names have become scarce since the dot com boom of the lat 1990's.

Domain names can also be more important to you if you want a domain name that relates to something you know is being searched for on the Internet and if you want to be found when people are searching for that name or keyword. Some of the larger search engines like MSN and Google still give a higher ranking faster to a web site that has the keyword being searched for - in the web site or domain name address. If search engine rankings are important for your web site, find out what words are being searched for on the Internet that relate to your domain name before you choose a domain name.

A free handy Internet tool that can help you do this can be found at http://inventory.overture.com . Just put a word or phrase related to the domain name you have in mind into the search box window. The keyword selector tool will search all the terms related to your keyword and tell you how many times they were searched for. This tool can also identify related keywords you can use for your web site title and on your web site pages that will help you achieve higher rankings in the Internet search engines for those keywords, but this is a whole other topic reserved for a later discussion.

Think About How You Want To Use Your Web Site...

What would you do with a web site? Teach? Show and tell? Make money? Build an email list? Have fun? There are so many options on the Internet today, that it could be mind boggling to a newbie. Researching web sites and web hosting before setting up a web site can be a smart thing to do. It will help you become familiar with all the different web site options and features available so you can make a better choice before you get started.

A few important things to consider before setting up a web site are:

Q: What is the objective of your web site?

A: Teach? Show and tell? Make money? Build an email list? Have fun?

Q: Do you know how many pages you will need, i.e., 3, 5, 10 or more?

A: Some web pages are limited in the number of pages or bandwidth available to them.

Q: How much should you pay per month?

A: This can vary from usually $3.95 to $100 or more for a monthly fee.

Q: What is disk space?

A: How much space is available for your web site words, pictures, reviews, etc.

Q: What is bandwidth?

A: How many times and how many people can access your site during a period.

Q: What is down time?

A: Down time means how reliable the server is that hosts your web site?

Q: What is security and do you need it?

A: Yes. Protection from hackers. Secure service available for your customers.

Does Size Really Matter?

As you can see, there are many things to consider before setting up a web site, but making the right choices up front can save you much time, effort and headache in the long run. If you set up a web site on a server that only allows 5 pages of space, and you find you need more down the road, you would need to move your web site and domain name to a new server, which could be quite involved. It may be easier for you to make a better choice up front if you have all the options available to you ahead of time. A suggestion would be to type into your search box window top 10 hosting or best hosting to get more information to help you make the right choice before setting up a web site.

All in all, it's best to be prepared and investigate your options. Size really does matter.