How to Make Your Own Website: Choosing a Domain Name
The quick and easy step by step guide as to how to make your own website. Knowing the basics of making your own website is an essential key to website success.
The First Step on How To Make Your Own Website: Registering a domain name.
Your domain name is the “address marker” for your website. Just as a conventional store has a sign, your website instead has a domain name. You’ll have to pay to register a domain name. You’ll never own your domain name, you’re only buying the “right” to use that domain name for a specified period of time.
Don’t use GoDaddy to register your domain name. Seriously, they are the cheapest but how many times have you found that the cheapest to mean the best? Some people have learned the hard way that GoDaddy Domain Names and Hosting May Put Your Business in Danger.
The domain name not only helps human visitors find your web site easily, it also helps the search engines index your site. If you have a domain name with the word “marketing” in it, you’ll get “points” for that with the search engines. Of course, there are a LOT of other factors that go into getting good search engine ranking results, but a domain name with a valuable keyword is a GREAT start towards great SERP (Search Engine Result Page).
You’d be surprised how important your choice of domain name is to your website. Registering a domain name with the right keywords can mean getting a top ranking with Google with very little effort.
Begin by finding out which keywords need to be included in your website domain name. You can use a variety of free keyword research tools, but quite honestly, the best keyword domain names are usually snapped up before the free tools sound the alert. A tool like Wordze is great because it can catch keywords earlier than the free services.
Try to avoid hyphens if at all possible when choosing your main domain name. If you’re having trouble finding a great name, try adding a simple letter “a” to the beginning such as “Agreatdomainname.com”. Another option is to add your location to your domain name choice. Here’s the link to a Word Wizard that does just that for you.
Still having trouble coming up with a great domain name? Try doing the twist. The Domain Twist takes two essential word elements of your ideal domain name and combines them into dozens of combinations.
When you register your domain name, be sure to choose to register it for 2 years or more. It’s rumored that will shorten your website’s time in the sandbox.
Choosing the right domain name for your website is the essential first step to creating your own website.
Next time… Finding a Web Host
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[...] you need a GREAT domain name for your simple website. I had a client who got great traffic to her blog-style website despite the fact that she rarely [...]