On this page we'll look at most things to do with choosing a domain name, how to buy it and what hosting is. You need a domain name and to have the site hosted somewhere in order to have a site go live for the world to see. There are also the issues of privacey to consider which includes how to hide your real name when people look up who owns the domain name; branding and how to protect your domain name and branding; passwords and protecting your website from website developers to ensure you maintain control and ownership over the site... yup lots of things to consider with your domain name. A domain name is basically your name, your business and if it all goes wrong, you can be in HUGE trouble.

The following is just a very basic over view of Domain names and hosting for people who may just be beginning creating their own websites. As with all things IT, it is a HUGE topic to cover completely, so the basics is the best place to start here.

What is a Domain Name?

A domain name is the web site and email address that people use to identify you and find you on the internet. It can contain letters, complete worders, hyphens, dots, basically a domain name these days is really only limited by your imagination. They are one of the most important components of building your website so it's important to put lots of thought into the name you're going to choose. A domain name will impact on SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), will either help clients remeber you if it's a catchy name, will brand you, basically they tell Google and your customers alot about you.

A basic domain name is a component of a URL or Uniform Resource Locator which is used to access websites on the internet. It can be broken into 3 sections for example the URL http://www.lucy-blake.com comprises of

URL = http://www.lucy-blake.com

Domain Name = www.lucy-blake.com

First Level of Domain Name - .com

Second Level of Domain Name = lucy-blake.com

You need to have all 3 sections of the domain name to make up the URL.

First Level of Domain eg. .com , .net , .com.au , .org
The first level of the domain serves an IT purpose (DNS) that you will need to know about if you are developing your own website, but for our needs we'll just go through the non development considerations you need to know about. Depending on if you choose a .com or .com.au, a org. or org.au, will tell people people what you offer and where.

Ending your URL with ".com" basically just tells people you are available on the internet but not much else. Whereas ending your URL with ".com.au" tells people you are based in Australia because ".au" is Australia's postcode just as ".co.nz" is New Zealand.

Most people will remember a name that ends in ".com" more easily than ".com.au" or ".net" because the vast majority of websites end in ".com". Always remember you're trying to make your name easy and memorable so guys can type your URL with no mistakes to ensure they can find you.

Legal considerations - .com.au need to be a registered business in Australia to buy

Choosing the rest of your domain name
The most important things to remember is to:

describe yourself
your service
make it short
make it good for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
make it with the key search terms people use.

I own two websites to advertise my escorting service and they are http://www.lucy-sydney-escort.com and http://www.lucy-blake.com . Let's pull them apart and apply the 5 golden rules..

http://www.lucy-sydney-escort.com

describe yourself - tells people I am a Sydney based escort
describe your service - tells people I provide an escorting service predominately in Sydney
make it short - contains 3 words including my name which identifies me, where I am based and what I do. 3 relevant easy words
make it good for search engine optimisation - The two words 'Sydney' and 'escort' are the best words to use for SEO if you're an escort anywhere in Australia (especially in Sydney). The more places I insert it on my site including in my URL, the more Google and other search engines will like me and drag me up the pages. Search engines love words that are relevant to what you're advertising and whatever people put into them to find what they are looking for
make it with key search terms people use - the two words "Sydney" and "escort" are the two most searched words men use to find escorts. Because I have included them, I have more chance of appearing if men put in "sydney escort" into a search engine.

http://www.lucy-blake.com

describe yourself - this URL is bad for describing myself because it doesn't describe anything. The only good thing about it is Lucy Blake is my branding.
describe your service - doesn't describe my service at all so bad URL
make it short - well at least I get this one right, trouble is it's not short with any kind of relevant search engine words
make it good for Search Engine Optimisation - useless for search engine optimisation because it doesn't contain any relevant key terms like 'escorts', 'sydney', 'australia', 'blonde' etc
make it with key search terms people use - fail here again. No-one looks for an escort by searching "lucy" and "blake" unless they already know my name. There is also a writer called Lucy Blake, a famous banjo player in the US called Lucy Blake to name a few. If they google "Lucy Blake", their websites may appear before mine. FAIL!

URLs that follow all the rules would be things like...

blondesydneyescort.com
blonde-sydney-escort.com
internationalblondesydneyescort.com
international-blonde-sydney-escort.com
sydney-escort-GFE.com
Australian-escorts.com
sydney-blonde-escorts.com
Lucy-escorts-sydney.com
sydney-blonde-escort-model.com

Where to buy a domain name
There are a few different places you can buy a domain name and they can cost different prices depending on where you buy them, how long for, if you want your real name and facts kept private, if you want to put a hold on the domain name etc.

written by Sydney Escort Lucy Blake; site design and maintenance by Lucy Blake; Copyright Lucy Blake www.lucy-blake.com 2009 - 2011