Reliable and Affordable Web / Email Hosting

When choosing the right domain name there are many things to consider. A right or wrong domain name can mean a lot or no traffic to your website. I’ve put together these couple of tips that I’ve been collecting.

1. Use co.za or .com

In South Africa we know that co.za means that it’s a business. Yes, there are other free alternatives available such as za.net but having a co.za let’s people know that you are serious about your business. Getting a .com has it’s advantage that international users will recognize it as an international site.

So choose whether it will be local or international and stick with co.za or com.

2. No very long names

Yes, you can have websites with long long names, but will people remember them? Stick to something short but descriptive.

3. Avoid using hyphens in your domain name

I’ve read about this a lot and can understand the merit behind all the concerns about using hyphens in your domain name, such as reliable-web-hosting.co.za. It has it’s advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are they look a lot nicer and search engines can easier distinguish between the different keywords within the domain name. The disadvantage is that people might not remember to use the hyphens.

4. Register the domain name with a popular keyword in your industry

Research a bit and see what people search for when they are looking for information on your industry. This is after all what people are likely to be searching when they arrive at your website. Then try and incorporate it in your domain name.

5. Your website name should be your domain name

Although this sounds pretty obvious, a lot of people don’t do it. If you register reliable-web-hosting.co.za, call your website Reliable Web Hosting, or something very close to it. This will also help with your search engine rankings.

6. The name must fit your brand

Remember that having a website is just part of building on your brand. So make it fit in with it.

There are many advantages to registering your own domain name (www.yourdomain.co.za) instead of using the old way of having for example myname@telkomsa.net or myname@mweb.co.za.

First, you will never have to change your email address again, even if you decide to move to a new hosting company or ISP.   You could have an email address such as “yourname@yourdomain.co.za” and never need to change it again.  Even if your ISP goes under, you will still continue to use yourdomain.co.za.

Secondly, “www.yourdomain.co.za” is easier to remember than an extended website address like www.telkomsa.net/~yourbusinessname/.  Not to mention that a website with the www.yourdomain.co.za URL lends more credibility to your organization and usually receives higher ranking on search engines.  This means that search engines will like your website more and bring you more visitors.

Finally, if you do not register your domain name now, somebody else could register the name before you. This might have a huge impact on your branding.  By registering now, you will save money in the long run as resolving domain name disputes can be very expensive.

Better to own your domain name now before someone else claims it.