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One of the most important things you will do when creating your website is selecting
its web address. When you choose a web address, you want to make it descriptive
of your company name, or the service you offer. Let's say you own a company called
Acme, Inc. and you make widgets. Your first choices would be www.Acme.com or www.Widgets.com.
Other options could be www.AcmeWidgets.com, www.WidgetsByAcme.com, www.GreatWidgets.com
and so on. You want to be sure that the names you're considering are as short
as possible, easy to remember and relate to your company. While descriptive, you
wouldn't want your web address to be www.TheGreatestWidgetsInTheWorldAreByAcme.com.
This is just to long for people to remember, and rather egotistical.
You'll want to have several names picked out in case your first, or second
or third, choice is already taken. You may easily do this with minor changes
in spelling or word order. So www.PearlPrideOnions.com could be changed to www.OnionsbyPearlPride.com
or www.Pearl-Pride-Onions.com. You could also change the .com to one of a different
extension. Other extensions most often used are:
.net - Like .com, this can be used by anyone.
.org - This is used by non-profit organizations.
.biz - Businesses and corporations use this extension.
.us - This signifies a company or person based in the United States.
Once you have several names selected, then you need to go to http://www.whois.net/
to see which of these names are not being used. After you have found a name,
then you need to register it through your web host company.
Be sure not to use one of the many free sites. You don't want your site to
be www.YetAnotherFreeSite.com/Acme.com. This looks very unprofessional, is difficult
to remember and does not instill people with confidence. You can have your site
hosted on a web host for about $8 a month. So what kind of a message are you
giving to a prospective client when they see that you can't afford this minimal
fee? Would you trust someone to deliver a product you ordered, or with your
credit card number, if they couldn't afford such a low month?
As you start to add pages to your site, you want to be sure to keep using short,
descriptive names. If you have a links page, call it www.Acme.com/links.shtml,
not www.Acme.com/InterestingPlacesToVisit.shtml. Besides being to long, does
this go to a links page, a travel page or some other obscure place?
If you keep your website and link names simple and descriptive, visitors will
be able to find you site on the Internet, and navigate your site easily. As
always, think of your visitors first, and they will show their appreciation.
About the Author:
Jeff Colburn |
