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Establish Your Online Identity with the Right Web Address
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The first step toward e-commerce is selecting the name of your site. Your Web address (also called a "URL" Uniform Resource Locator or "Domain Name"), tells customers who you are and how to find you on the Internet. It is the core of your Internet identity... your online brand. And because no two parties can have the same Web address, your online identity is totally unique.
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What's In a Name? Quite a lot, actually. Remember that not only does your domain name tell customers exactly how to find your business on the Web, but also it communicates and reinforces the name of your business to every Website visitor. It can also be used as part of your e-mail address to establish your online identity.
Keep these tips in mind before you choose:
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- Describe your business. A simple and logical approach is to describe your business. "Flowers.com" works perfectly for a florist. And if you are setting up an online presence for an established business, keep the name of your site the same as the name of your business.
- Keep it short. The best domain names are those that customers can remember and type into their browsers after seeing or hearing them only once, so complicated strings of words like "PurchaseCheapFlowersOnline.com" don't work as well as a simple phrase: "CheapFlowers.com."
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How to Get and Manage Domain Names. Once you've decided on your Web identity, the next step is to determine if it is available and then register it with a domain name "registrar." Registering is easy and inexpensive, so do it as soon as you've decided on your domain name to make sure you get the name you want. Many businesses register a number of variations, just in case they want to use them later or to avoid the risk of competitors obtaining similar names.
A Scandinavian financial service company, for example, recently spent more than $1 million to register 3,080 domain names. You also may want to register common misspellings so that all customers who incorrectly type your address still find their way to your site instead of receiving an error message.
E-commerce businesses most often register a name with ".com" as the domain name suffix (the letters after the dot; also called a top-level domain, or TLD), but often also register their names with ".net" and ".org" (for "organization"). Other suffixes include ".tv" and ".edu" for schools and universities. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) recently announced seven new TLDs - .biz, .info, .name, .pro, .museum, .aero, and .coop.
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Registering a domain name costs as little as $35 a year. Once you've established your Web identity by selecting and registering your domain name(s), it's time to build your site.
EZ Website Builders can register and connect your domain name to your website.
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Check to see if your domain name is available?
- In the field provided below, type in the name you would like your site to have. Be sure to include a domain extension, such as .com, .net, .org, etc. Click the ‘Search' button to see if the domain name is available.
- If the domain name has already been taken, the domain record will be displayed and you will find the words "This domain name is unavailable". Continue searching until you are informed that the domain name is available.
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