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Articles By:Mario Sanchez is a Miami based freelance writer who focuses on Internet marketing and web design topics. He publishes The Internet Digest "http://www.theinternetdigest.net", a growing collection of web design and Internet marketing articles, tips and resources. You can freely reprint his weekly articles in your website, ezine, or ebook. Domain Names Explained:
* What is a Domain Name?
A domain name is what you type in the browser's address bar to go to a specific website. For example, our domain name is: "www.theinternetdigest.net"(in today's browsers, it is not necessary to type the symbols http:// any more). A domain name provides an online identity and a contact point for your business, organization, or project. Almost every transaction on the Internet relies on a domain name to conduct commerce, display Web pages, deliver e-mail, and more.
* Why Were Domain Names Created?
Websites are located (or hosted) in computer servers. The location of a website in a server is really specified by a series of numbers, called the IP address (for example: 63.241.136.31). However, this would be too hard to remember; in fact, it reminds us a little bit of phone numbers. The creators of the Internet took this into account, and domain names were created. Domain names act like an address forwarding service that directs the Internet user to the server, and then looks for the IP address that corresponds to the domain name (when this happens, it is said that "the domain name resolves to its IP address"). Domain Names Extensions (or Top Level Domains-TLDs) A domain level extension (also known as a Top Level Domain) is the letter combination to the right of the domain name, after the "dot". Therefore, a domain name like yahoo.com has what we call a "dot com extension". You will also find (.net, and .org)extensions, along with a host of newly popularized extensions like .biz, .name, .tv, etc.), as well as country level domains (.us for the US, .br for Brazil, .it for Italy, and so on.) Originally, .com extensions were intended for commercial ventures, while (.net's) were intended for use by Internet Service Providers and .org's by non-profit organizations or groups. Truth is, this orignal classification is no longer accurate, and anybody can register a domain name with those extensions. If you don't have anything better to do, and you want to see a complete list of domain extensions, go here www.norid.no/domenenavnbaser/domreg.html. How can I know if a domain name is available? To see if a domain name is available, you can find a domain name availability tool //secure.registerapi.com and type the name you want in the search box. The program will immediately tell you if the domain name you want is available. If the domain extension that you would like is not available (the .com's are almost always taken) you can try others, and chances are that your domain selection will be available (for example, when we chose our domain name, theinternetdigest.com was taken but theinternetdigest.net was available). Another trick is to add dashes to separate the words (for example: the-internet-digest.com). * How do I register a domain name?
Domain names are registered on-line through accredited domain registrars. There are thousands of companies that offer domain registration services. However, some of them are more reputable than others, offer good customer service and provide you with a user-friendly interface. As a rule of thumb, follow these simple rules:
1) Avoid registrars that charge too much (anything above $30/year is too high).
2) Look for registrars that offer you a comprehensive and easy to use user interface. Also, since you will most likely have a question or two to ask, look for those who have an extensive FAQ section and a responsive customer service team. 3) Find a registrar that offer Free Domain Forwarding <040803.html> services (this acts as an insurance policy if your hosting service is down. You can always host a duplicate version of your website somewhere else and forward your domain traffic to that location). We've found three companies that offer all these advantages:
Dotster.com www.qksrv.net/click-1297227-1099455
Godaddy.com www.godaddy.com
Yahoo Domains domains.yahoo.com
* Domain Names Tutorial
© 2003 Blaine Krietzberg Got a Small Business? Choose the Right Domain Name. Choosing a domain name can be daunting. Research the subject (after all, you're the type of marketer who researches, right?) and you'll be hit with a landslide of opinions, most contradictory. There are, however, two points that everyone agrees on: Pick your domain before you launch your business. This is especially true if your market niche has lots of competition. Research your domain before you commit to a business plan. Don't wait too long if you like a domain. While you're researching, you'll likely come across a couple of domains that attract you. You might be tempted to wait, since you haven't finalized or refined your business plan. Don't. A handful of domains isn't going to cost you much at an affordable registrar like GoDaddy, and once they're gone, they're gone. Chances are you can even resell the rejects at cost, if not for a profit. Or "develop" them with unique content and point them to your main site for extra traffic. Now that we have the easy part of the way, let's wade into murkier waters. * Which TLD (top-level domain) is best?
If you're a juggernaut in the business world with a giant ad budget, the answer is dot-com (.com). If you're a smalltime business struggling for search engine positioning, the answer is still dot-com. People do disagree on the value of a dot-com TLD. Some assert that dot-coms have no particular value in the search engines, which may be true. However, the fact is, if you haven't yet seared your brand on the collective brow of the planet, dot-com makes you easier to remember. If you give up on dot-coms (they're harder to get), then in some deep dark place inside, people will remember you as "that hard-to-remember URL with the ending that isn't dot-com." What's worse, if you pick an otherwise memorable domain ending in dot-net, -us, or (God forbid) -tv, some of your traffic will end up at that competitor who snagged the dot-com version of your domain.
Okay, that's settled. Now for the controversial stuff. Which is best: the "keyword" domain, or the "creative-genius, snappy and brandable" domain?
* Keyword Name vs. Creative-Genious Brandable Name.
A Keyword Name is the boring, workhorse kind of domain. You see them everywhere. They bristle with hyphens:
"best-anchovy-pizza-in-siberia.com." Or "super-labrador-accessories-and-golfballs.biz." On the face of it, they're hard to brand. They're hard to fit on business cards. They're really hard to explain over the phone to Aunt Martha. On the other hand, a Creative-Genius Brandable Name is the sexy kind. The successes are sparkling: Yahoo!, Google, Amazon.com. You can shout these URLs across the room and the other guy will probably get it right. But note: the dot-com road is littered with hip, snappy business who failed to brand their product successfully, or get listed high in the search engines. Now their URLs all point to the same page: server not found. The debate rages on, but the first question you must ask yourself is:
* How will people find you?
It was recently reported that "direct navigation" web traffic has started to outnumber search engine traffic. In other words, more people visit sites by typing in the URL directly than they do by combing search engines for results. So more gurus are recommending brandable domains. But think about this. As a small business owner, how will people find you? Word of mouth? Billboards on I-95? "Corporate sponsorships" on hockey arenas? Probably not: they'll find you through search engines. They'll type in "cheap purple widgets," and as a smart marketer, you will offer them a website optimized for the keywords "cheap purple widgets." Still, this doesn't imply you should automatically pick a keyword domain. There are pros and cons to both types.
* Brandable: Advantages
The brandable domain is great for business cards. In fact, it's nearly compulsory if you're planning on offline marketing. In other words, if you're printing up stationary at Kinkos, you want a brandable domain name. If you're also a marketing genius, this is a fit challenge for your talents. Finding a memorable, apt domain to brand your business is something no software-driven suggestion tool can do. Most "hybrid" domains -- ones that are really crosses between keywords and brandable names -- are long gone. But if you create a unique idea for your brand, you can probably snag the dot-com name for yourself. Now all you have to do is burn that brand onto the world's collective forehead. If you do, you'll benefit from type-in traffic. That means that if someone hears about you, they can probably find you just buy typing in your domain.
* Brandable: Disadvantages
The brandable name requires solid marketing skill, research and luck. Your name should be so catchy, it's almost viral. It should also convey your actual business - or you'll have to work hard (often meaning, spend money) to associate the two. Your name should be "tested" on coworkers, cousins and dishwasher repairmen to ensure it has no undesirable connotations. Finally, your name should be available as a domain, and not suffer from competitors with similar domains. Sometimes, pulling all this off is difficult.
* Keyword: Advantages
By keyword names, we're not talking about the glorious generic keywords - the one- keyword kings such as drugs.com or business.com. No, we're talking keyword names you can afford. This is where you buy the domain name www.cheap-purple-widgets.com in hopes of getting a top search ranking for cheap purple widgets. Advantages are many. First, more keyword names are available. (They're ugly, and many people feel an aversion to hyphens.) Also, they do help you place higher in the search engines. It's true that search engines only give you a little credit for having a keyword in your domain, but "a little credit" counts.
Second, keyword domains leave no doubt in the searcher's mind about what you're selling. If you decided to call your widget business "Ableeza," a searcher might not get at a glance what it is you're selling, even if your rank is high. Finally, if you can get people to link to you, those links will be valuable domain-names-and-anchor-text.html. No matter how Webmaster Joe describes you, the link part will always say, cheap-purple-widgets. This is a powerful search engine strategy for moving higher.
* Keywords: Disadvantages
You won't get type-in traffic for a keyword name. You can't really explain it across a phone. It won't look pretty on a business card, and it's almost impossible to pair up with a cute logo. But if search engine traffic is going to drive your business, the keyword name is worth a long, hard look.
* Wrap Up Time
Regardless of which type you choose, don't play guessing games. If you go with a keyword name, use a search tool like 7search; conversion.7search.com/scripts/advertisertools/keywordsuggestion.aspx to determine what keyword phrases people are searching on. If you choose a brandable name instead, test it out on a variety of real people first. Pay attention to their reactions. Reserve your domain early, since brandable domains go fast unless they're very unique. In the long run, both types of domains can work for you, especially if offline marketing is an option and you have a knack for branding. Overall, though, the keyword domain is probably the easiest path to success for the small-business owner.
(How to) Buy a Cheap Domain Name
Domain name registrars all do pretty much the same things: register domains. Yet they vary in price by quite a bit. Why? Generally, the reason has to do with reputation and name recognition. Older, more established registrars get to charge more. Newcomers drive traffic by undercutting their competitors and trying to over-deliver on services. In fact, the vast majority of the eighteen bazillion registrars you see today are really domain name resellers. Resellers buy in bulk from a handful of official ICANN registrars, which include such stalwarts as eNom.com, Register.com and Dotster.com. You can find a current list of actual registrars (not resellers) by checking out this list www.internic.net/alpha.html at the Internic. Not a long list, is it? TIP: When investigating an unfamiliar reseller, see if they report how many TLDs (top-level domains) they handle. They should have well over 1,000.ICANN originals, relying on cachet and name recognition, usually charge more than resellers. Cheeky Register.com doesn't even display its fees until you click on the tiny "Pricing" link at the bottom ($35 per domain, it turns out). eNom is only slightly less rich-blooded at $29.95 - though they throw in a flexible "domain package." (To its credit, eNom has many adherents - many of whom are professional domain name buyers, who get a different pricing structure). Resellers, on the other hand, can often be found selling at the blood-letting rate of $7.95 to $12-ish. This may seem disingenious when you realize that they can't buy domains for much, if anything, less than $7.00. For many resellers, cheap domain names are so-called loss leaders. If they make any money, it's by upselling you on extra services such as web hosting or email packages. Fierce competition between resellers puts you, the buyer, in the pink - but it can put resellers in the red. So, which to choose: reseller or ICANN registrar? Normally, I'd say reseller. The price is right, and many have terrific customer service - better, perhaps, than ICANN registrars on average. However, resellers can pose the risk of going out of business, however unlikely that may be for any particular reseller. And a few have an unsavory reputation when it comes to saying goodbye - that is, they make it hard for you to transfer domains out, should you decide you prefer some other registrar.
* TIP: Whichever registrar or reseller you choose, check for a powerful control panel that allows you to manage your own domains (e.g., lets you change nameservers by yourself). For these reasons - customer service, pricing, stability and word-of-mouth reputation - my #1 personal recommendation for a cheap domain name is GoDaddy.com. Despite the eclectic name and reseller-style pricing ($8.95 for a dot-com, with occasional discounts and promotions), GoDaddy is actually an ICANN registrar. It also has a reputation for service and professionalism (no surly "goodbye" games) and a good control panel. I love GoDaddy's features and have had no trouble at all. In fact, they've sailed through some tricky situations, like when I tried to transfer in domains that my old registrar had locked. However, I have heard that it may be harder to transfer domains out. I also get a little tired of the clutter you face (screens of upselling accompany each registration) when registering new domains. Be sure to have your coffee first, lest you accidentally order a small country such as Lichtenstein when you were merely wanting to grab hold of MyVanitySite.com. Still, once registered, the features and interface are simply wonderful, as is the price. Therefore I recommend GoDaddy for the "small-time" domain name buyer. (Based on reputation, I would probably recommend eNom for the professional domain name buyer).
Domain Names Tips at a Glance:
by Mario Sanchez If you are opening a small business, choose your domain name before you choose your company's. Many times, people have registered their company and then found out that their company name is not available as a domain name. It is easy to check if a domain is available secure.registerapi.com/
If possible, choose a dot com extension for your domain, rather than dot net, dot org, dot us, etc. Make your domain short and memorable. One-name domains may be difficult to find, but plenty of good two-word domains are still available. There is no need to pay $35 to register a domain. Plenty of good registrars charge less than $10. Make sure that your registrar offers you good customer service, a powerful control panel, and options like URL forwarding ../archive/040803.html, email forwarding ../archive/branded-email.html, and domain servers management. In general, don't buy your domain name from your domain host. If you ever need to change hosts, they will make it very difficult for you to transfer your domain to your new host. Instead, register your domain with an accredited registrar, and forward your domain to your host's name servers. That way, if you change hosts you just have to change name servers in your control panel and you're done. Renew your domain name for several years at a time. It costs less, saves you time, and reduces the risk of you forgetting to renew it.
As you develop your online reputation, get listed with the search engines and start generating significant traffic, your domain will become very valuable. Don't let somebody else take it away from you and benefit from all your hard work just because you forgot to renew it.
* Web Space or Bandwidth:
Finding the Right Balance.
Before you choose a hosting plan, there are many things to consider. Two of the most important are the Web Server Space and the Data Transfer Allowance (also called bandwidth) that you will need. Web hosts will usually try to lure you with either a large amount of Web Space or monthly Data Transfer Allowance. Though the best case scenario would be to have plenty of both, most hosts tend to offer more of one and less of the other, so you will have to find the right balance. To decide how much Web Space and Data Transfer you need, you must first decide what kind of site you will have. Small business sites generally fall into one of three categories:
One-product website (mini-site): Usually a very small site with two or three pages; its focus is to sell just one product, or to collect visitors' email addresses to try to sell them at a later date. This kind of site is usually just a long sales letter plus an order page and a contact page.
Company brochure site:
Usually around 10 or so pages describing what the company does, its products or services, its location, the markets it targets, an about us page, a contact page, etc. It is basically an online brochure of the company.
* Theme-based site:
Revolves around a very specific topic or market niche (for example: work-at-home moms), and is updated frequently with new articles, tutorials and resources. These sites can also sell products from affiliate companies, or sell their own products. Each of these sites has different web space and bandwidth requirements. A one product website doesn't need a lot of web space. However, if the site ranks well with the search engines or has a large number of affiliates promoting it, it will generate a lot of traffic and the data transfer allowance will become very important. A company brochure site doesn't need a lot of web space or bandwidth. For this kind of site, a basic package offered by a reputable host is usually more than enough.
A theme-based site won't probably need a lot of web space or bandwidth at the beginning. However, if the site is updated frequently with new articles and resources, its web space requirements will increase. Also, as the site gets more traffic and offers more content, the data transfer allowance will also become important. You must plan for the future from day one, and get more web space and data transfer than you seem to need at the beginning.
Here are some expamples of how you can estimate and calculate your web space and data transfer requirements (we will assume that the average size of a web page, including pictures, is 50 Kilobytes). One-product Site
If your one product site has just three pages, it will just need 150 Kilobytes of web space (a drop in the bucket considering that basic packages nowadays offer upwards of 50 Megabytes of space). However, if it receives 150,000 page views per month it will require approximately 7.5 Gibabytes / month of data transfer.
* Company Brochure Site
If your company brochure site has 10 pages, it will only need 500 Kilobytes (aprox. 0.5 Megabytes) of web space. If it has 5000 page views per month, it will need 250 Megabytes (aprox. 0.25 Gigabytes) of data transfer per month. Theme Based Site If your theme-based site starts off with 50 web pages of content, it will need 2.5MB of web space. However, if you add ten pages of new content per week, you will need 26 Megabytes more in your first year. After two years, you will need 52 Megabytes, and so forth. As you see, your need for space may add up pretty quickly. If we estimate that your site will have 30000 page views per month, its monthly bandwidth consumption will be 1,500 Megabytes (aproximately 1.5 Gigabytes). This figure will most likely grow as you add more pages. Your space and data transfer needs will also grow dramatically if you offer large files for download. For example, if you give away a 1 Megabyte PDF Ebook and 1,000 people download it in a given month, you will need 1 Gigabyte of data transfer just for that one particular download (and you still haven't accounted for the data transfer consumed when users access and browse your site!).
Since web hosts will usually charge you fees if you use more than your alloted web space and bandwidth, you must carefully monitor your consumption of both. However, you should pay extra attention to your bandwidth. The reason is that it is easier to control your web space use (after all, it is you who decide how many files to load up to your host's server). Data transfer, on the other hand, is not as easily controlled. For example, your site may suddenly get a good search engine ranking for a popular search term and receive a traffic boost, which will consume more bandwidth than you had originally planned. or, unscrupulous webmasters may "steal" bandwidth from you by linking directly to images on your server, instead of saving them in their own web server space.
Therefore, it is wise to plan for the unexpected, by making sure that your host doesn't charge unreasonable fees every time you exceed your web space and data transfer allowance, and that it offers a free and easy way to upgrade to a better hosting package whenever the need arises.
* 301 Redirects and Search Engine Optimization:
There are multiple reasons to redirect URLs. For one, your web pages may have moved but their old URLs may still live in users' bookmarks or in search engine indexes. Without implementing some sort or redirection, that traffic would be lost to a 404 Error Page custom-error-pages.html
On occasions, you may also want to register several extensions for your domain name: 'mydomain.com', 'mydomain.net' and 'mydomain.org', and have 'mydomain.net' and 'mydomain.org' automatically redirect visitors to your site, hosted under 'mydomain.com'.
Furthermore, if your company sells several products, you may want to give each of them an individual domain name, and have it point to a specific subdirectory of your main site. For example, if you own a site called 'businessvideos.com' that sells a product called 'Marketing Made Easy', you may want to set up a domain such as 'marketingmadeeasy.com', and redirect it to subdirectory:
www.businessvideos.com/marketingmadeeasy/.
There are several ways to redirect domains, however, most of them will get you in trouble with the search engines. The search engine friendly way to redirect URLs is to use what is know as a 301 redirect (you can see how Google www.google.com/remove.html and Yahoo! help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/indexing/indexing-08.html> specifically endorse this kind of redirection). Here is my take about the different redirection methods and their implications on search engine optimization:
* Meta-Refresh Javascript Redirect:
You can redirect visitors by placing a snippet of javascript code within the HTML code of the page you want to redirect. With this method, you can specify the number of seconds before the visitor is automatically redirected to the new page. Search engines don't like this method, because of the potential for abuse: you could write an optimized page for a non-competitive search term, and then automatically redirect your unsuspecting visitor to whatever URL you want. For example, it could be relatively easy to write a page about english literature, have it indexed and highly ranked by the search engines, and then redirect your visitor to a casino or Viagra site. If search engines allowed this, users would quickly stop trusting them. That is why search engines penalize this practice, and why you should avoid it.
Parked Domains
You could register an additional domain name, park it, and make it point to the DNS servers of your main site's hosting account, so that when somebody types the additional domain, they will be transported to your main site. However, this approach may lead to search engines listing the same content twice, one for your main domain, and one for your additional domain. In the past, unscrupulous webmasters would use multiple domains to spam search engines and directories, making them list the same pages hundreds of times under different domains. Even if your intentions are good, we don't recommend this approach to redirecting your additional domains, since search engines may penalize your site for duplicate content.
* 302 and 301 Redirects:
When a request for a page or URL is made by a browser, agent or spider, the web server where the page is hosted checks a file called '.htaccess'. This file contains instructions on how to handle specific requests and also plays a key role in security. The '.htaccess' file can be modified so that it instructs browsers, agents or spiders that the page has either temporarily moved (302 redirect) or permanently moved (301 redirect). It is usually possible to implement this redirect without messing with the '.htaccess' file directly, using your web host's control panel instead.
From a search engine perspective, 301 redirects are the only acceptable way to redirect URLs. In the case of moved pages, search engines will index only the new URL, but will transfer link popularity from the old URL to the new one so that search engine rankings are not affected. The same behavior occurs when additional domains are set to point to the main domain through a 301 redirect.
* The URL Forwarding Feature:
Most domain registrars offer a feature called URL Forwarding. With this feature, you can register a new domain, such as 'mydomain.net', and have it point to mydomain.com (or to any other URL). The problem, however, is that registrars usually do this by implementing a 302 redirect (page moved temporarily). While Google handles 302 redirects very well, passing link popularity from the additional domain to the main one, other search engines don't do this well, diluting link popularity by splitting it between the two domains, and negatively affecting rankings. Therefore, it is better not to use this method, and implement a 301 redirect instead.
* Redirecting Old URLs:
To '301 redirect' an old URL to a new one, just go to your web host's control panel, and choose the "Redirects" option. You can then set up the redirect by filling the blanks. You want to chose redirect option "Permanent" to implement a 301 redirect. Redirecting additional domains:
To 301 redirect an additional domain (like in the case of the .net or the .org version of your domain name), you have to set it up as an add-on domain with your web host (some hosts offer this option for free, and some others charge a small monthly fee per domain). If the additional domain was not registered with your web host, you will first have to go to your domain registrar and change the DNS (domain name servers) to the DNS of your web host (you may have to wait a couple of days before this change becomes functional). Once you've done this, go to your web host's control panel, choose the "Add On Domains" option, and set up your add on domain as follows:
*New Domain Name:
additionaldomain.com (Do not put any http:// or www) Username/directory/subdomain: additionaldomain (Enter 'additionaldomain' by itself. Do not put any '.com' or 'www')Password: 123ABC (Enter whatever password you want).
Then, set up the redirection by filling the appropriate box with the URL of the landing page (where you want your traffic to go).
Once your additional domain is redirecting to your landing page, take this one last step to see if everything is working fine: go to a server header checking tool www.seoconsultants.com/tools/ headers.asp, type your add-on domain in the query box and hit enter. If you get a message similar to this: "Status Code HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently", then your 301 redirect is working.
You can also use 301 redirection for common mispelled versions of your domain name, or for other good domain names that you don't want your competitors to get.
You can freely reprint this article provided that you include the following resource box:
Mario Sanchez is a Miami based freelance writer who focuses on Internet marketing and web design topics. He publishes The Internet Digest ( www.theinternetdigest.net ), a growing collection of web design and Internet marketing articles, tips and resources.

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