Successful Internet marketing or website design begins with a few not so sexy details that need to be taken care of first.

One of these details is domain name registration.

The process is an extremely important, yet often overlooked part of marketing your business online. If you’re new to dealing with it, here is some basic information you should know, including 10 important do’s and don’ts.

What is a domain name?

A domain name is a website address, for example, www.thenewmediagroup.ca.

It’s not a website itself – it’s just the actual name which comes after the “www.” part.

It is essentially the internet equivalent of your business name and you need one in order to have a professional online presence, period.

What is domain name registration?

Domain name registration is the process of purchasing and registering your website address.

You can search for what domains are available through websites called domain registrars.

There are plenty of registrars out there, and like buying anything you want to be careful who you pick.

I personally recommend Godaddy.com because they’ve always provided me with good service.

How does domain name registration work?

You search to see if your domain is available and then you purchase it for a period of time. You will need to pay this fee yearly to stay registered.

They are inexpensive, usually about $20 or so a year.

5 Domain name registration DON’Ts

1. Don’t pick a name that is an acronym of your business name. No one will remember it
2. Don’t pick a name that is longer than 15 or so characters
3. Don’t pick a name with dashes
4. Don’t pick a .org or .net, unless you’re a not for profit
5. Don’t let your website designer handle your domain name registration for you unless it states in your contract you own the property rights to everything they do on your behalf.

5 Domain Name Registration DO’S

1. Do pick a name that’s easy to remember – think in terms of benefits or keywords – we own BESTCALGARYWEBDESIGN.COM for example
2. Do pick a .com or .ca
3. When you’re in the process of domain registration, do click the Auto-renew option. This ensures you’ll be automatically billed each year, and won’t risk losing your domain
4. When you’re in the process of registration, do make sure the email address you input is one you will be able to access in the long term as, you’ll need to access it if you need to make any changes to your website hosting provider
5. If a web design company is handling your registration for you, do be sure they put you as the Registrant and Administrative contact- this ensures if anything goes wrong with that relationship you can get access to change providers.

Domain name registration privacy

If you don’t choose the privacy option, the billing address your credit card company has on file will be made available to anyone searching to find out who owns your domain.

If you want this information kept private, select the privacy option.

Domain name registration in Canada

When you register a .ca, it’s mandatory to create a CIRA username and password. You’ll get the request via email.

Be sure to keep this information on file. You’ll need it if you want to make changes to your domain name registration.

Your Turn!

I’d love to hear your questions or challenges – Tell me in the comments below.

And, if you enjoyed this post, please share it!

Laurel Lindsay is a Calgary Internet Marking Consultant & President of The New Media Group Inc. She has over 8 years hands-on Internet Marketing experience.

Laurel is enthusiastic and passionate about helping people live better lives by leveraging the power of the internet.