The first step you need to take in creating a WordPress blog or website is to choose a domain name. GoDaddy is my choice for checking to see if a name is available and for registering one.
Tips for choosing your domain name:
Tips for choosing your domain name:
- Unless you wish to name your site after your company or yourself, try and find a good domain name that reflects what your site is about. Research keywords. and try to include the top ranking keywords in your domain name. Use Google’s free Keyword Tool to do your research.
- If you’re creating a site for a brick and mortar business (has a physical location, not just online) and you find that a domain name to match your business name is taken, try adding your city/town to the name.
- Unless you are registering a domain name for an organization, network or government site, use the extension .com
- Stay away from names that can have more than one spelling, or are spelled incorrectly such as coolwebz.com. Some people won’t remember it or they may spell it wrong.
- Make it easy to spell
- Keep it short and simple
- Make it memorable
- Avoid using dashes. It will take too long to say and type.
- Avoid trademark infringement (visit Nameprotect and The Trademark Association)
Registering your domain name:
Some hosting providers will offer to register your domain name for you. Personally, I always register my own domain names using GoDaddy. and I recommend that you do, too. By registering it yourself, you have complete control over it. If you ever wish to add private registration, or simply move your domain name from one host to another, you can quickly do it yourself as apposed to waiting for your hosting provider to do it for you. You can renew them whenever you wish, and if you ever leave your domain unused for a period of time, you can park it on GoDaddy for free.
