MH1 Web Design Blog

by Mike Hallaron

I frequently advise new clients who are starting a new company and need to buy a domain before building their Web site. There are some basic rules you should be aware of before you buy a domain name.

The best counsel that I can offer is that you make sure that you own your Web site domain name. Purchase it yourself with your credit card so that you are listed as the “registrant”. If you let your Web designer buy it for you and charge you renewals, they might actually own it, instead of you. This is unethical in my opinion as you should have sole control over your domain, site and brand. There are many unscrupulous Web designers out there who will hold you over a barrel later should you decide to take your business elsewhere.

Researching available domain names? Talk to a designer first who understands domains and how they relate to search engine keywords. If they don’t understand why keywords are important in your company domain name, find another Web designer.

Example: A home builder buying a domain will boost his search engine rankings when his site is indexed by Google, Yahoo and others later if he uses relevant keywords in his domain name. Your domain name does NOT have to be your company name. In our example, the customer is better off with a domain such as “billdavishomebuilders.com” rather than a more vague domain name like “billdavisenterprises.com”. See the difference? The words “home” and “builders” will get Google’s attention and help increase your organic search ranking.

Another great example is my own company. When I began in 2003, my domain was mh1marketing.com (which I still own).. but I soon realized that as a “web design” specialist, our current name was more accurate and a better fit for search engine ranking purposes, thus: mh1webdesign.com.

Try Yahoo’s Domain Tool: http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains/ You can sign up for a free account and then buy the name you want within minutes on your own credit card. It renews annually.

The name of the company where you purchase your domain name and register it is called the “registrar”. The name of the person who owns the rights to the domain name is called the “registrant”. Upon purchase, be sure to document all of your pertinent domain account information including user name and password.

Once you own your new domain, you or your designer will have to “point” the domain name servers (dns) to your hosting company of choice. This will allow the domain to be used in conjunction with your hosting account for the new Web site and your email accounts. The registrar site’s Help section can probably walk you through this procedure, but you will need the primary and secondary dns settings from your new host. If your designer changes these DNS settings, log back into your domain account after they are finished and change your password to bar any uninvited intrusions into your domain account down the road.

WARNING: Beware of snail mail you receive at home or office not long after buying a new domain. These are domain companies with ambiguous names that are trying to fool you into transferring your domain to their company. Yahoo and any reputable domain registrar will email you when renewals are due.

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