Domain names:
Selection and Registration
Why do you need a domain name. A good domain name gives your site a professional look and may help you to rank well on search engines. More important, however, is that a domain name protects your site against a change of hosting provider. If you outgrow your web host, if your hosting provider folds, or if you just don't like your host anymore, you may have to move your web site to another hosting provider. As you own the domain name you can take it with you and, hence, keep your existing visitors and traffic. If you don't have a domain name, you have to start promoting your web site all over again.
How to select a good domain name. There are several different strategies for selecting a domain name. You can choose a domain name the way you choose the name of a brand (like Yahoo, Google or Roughoat) or you can choose a domain name to convey the kind of web site you have( like Freedownloadsgalore). For most web sites the last strategy is the best. Just take the main keywords that you would like to use to promote your website on the search engines and try to find a domain name that is still free. Many search engines take the name of your site into account when they rank your pages. Hence, a well chosen name based on your main keywords might bring you more traffic.
Where should you register your domain name. Many hosting providers now provide free domain names, e.g the cost of the domain name is included in the hosting fee. Even if you have to pay extra for the domain name, however, it may be best to let your hosting provider take care of registration of your domain name. They normally will then also take care of renewing your domain name each year. Just make sure you check that your domain name renewal did succeed. You don't want to loose your domain name!