Deciding On A Domain name - (and how to buy it.)

Website addresses are often referred to as domain names. The name of your site is very important. It needs to be remembered by people visiting your site so that they will come back. Ideally the name needs to describe the website or be the websites name. Short names are also good as they are easy to remember and easy for people to type in. Abbreviations of the sites name is very common (eg www.newwebsitedesigner.com = www.nwd.com) 

When people type in the address of a site they often put “.com” on the end automatically. For this reason it is good to own the “.com” as well and the address end that denotes your country eg “.co.uk” “.eu” for the web name you have chosen.

You can find out what domain names are available buy visiting a domain name seller. They usually list all the regional names that you can buy the domain name for so you can see which ones are available. There is a price difference for some types of domain name “.co.uk” are cheaper than “.coms” and you have to buy them for a 2 year period.  

There are also so restrictions on who can buy certain domain names for example .tv can only be sold to TV company’s and .ltd.uk can only be sold to UK limited company’s. 

It may be best to start building your site before you buy a domain name as you may find that you decide on a better name.