Domain names - Why are they important?

The Internet is the world’s biggest market place and there is a mad rush among producers, manufacturers and sellers to grab a piece of this market place. There is no place for a business if it does not exist on the Internet.

If you are one of those who are looking to mark a presence on the web, then it is essential that you have a domain name for yourself. To do well in your business, you must be considered seriously by your customers. Without a presence on the Internet, the chances are very high that you will not be taken seriously.

But before we go any further, it is important to know what a domain name is. On the Internet, it is essential that once computer can be identified from another one. A domain name is the host name of a computer that differentiates it from other computers.

Domain names that are registered with the registrar are called registered domain names. They belong to the businesses that registered their names. The top level domains are right there at the top of the domain name hierarchy. All the domain names end with a top level domain name level. Some of the top level domain names are .com, .gov, .edu, .org, .net etc. For example, if we have the URL of a website as http://www.exampledomainnames.com, the actual domain name is www.exampledomainnames.coma and the registered domain name is exampledomainnames.com.

Now that we know what domain names are, it is important to understand why a domain name is important for your business.

The foremost point is that as a business, you must mark your presence on the www. If you don’t have a website, it is assured that you will be losing out on a huge amount of business. The Internet is the world’s biggest market place and it remains open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. Through the Internet, you are able to reach out to potential customers located as far as on the other side of the globe. The number of online shoppers has increased drastically and very soon, online shopping will eclipse traditional shopping when it comes to revenue and business generation. So, we don’t need to tell you now that how important it is to have your own domain name.

There are some companies who register with domain name sites that offer a free website. However, when companies go for a free website, they simply add to the database of the hosting company’s domain. For example, if I were to register a free website called myexamplewebsite.com with a domain called exampledomain.com, the actual website address will be http://www.myexamplewebsite.exampledomain.com.

Anyone who sees the website address will understand that it is a free website and the image will not be positive at all. When users visit a website, they expect to see a paid and owned website and not some free site. It simply does not gel well with potential customers.

Moreover, when companies use a domain name service to upload a free website, they have to accept advertisements from the host, whether they want it or not. More often than not, these advertisements will not be at all related to the content of the company’s products or services. The company will have or little control over the website.

Hence, as a professional organization, you must pay for your website and use paid services offered by web hosting companies. That way, you will have a website name that will be completely dedicated to your business and you will be able to exercise full control over the website. There are various ranges offered by the domain name hosts and you can choose the option that is most suitable for the type and size of your business. As your business expands, you can go for more expensive options that give you more control and more features.

There are some basic rules when you register your own domain name. If you are looking to make your mark in the world of Internet, it is recommended that you follow these rules. For starters, make the domain name easy to remember so that you can tell the visitors about the business you are in.

If you have a complicated domain and website name, the visitors are bound to forget or ignore the name. And when that happens, it is most likely that are not going to return to your website and they are not going to talk to their friends about your website. The domain name should also be explanatory. If you are in the business of, say, fresh flowers, you must use relevant keywords in your domain name. You can use words like flowers, fresh etc. in the domain name. The best domain names are also short in length. Short website and domain names are easy to remember and quicker to type. However, you must also remember that you should not make the name short but so complicated that it is not easy to pronounce.

After the name is taken care of, you must consider other things like LSI and bounce rate. LSI, or Latent Semantic Indexing, is the process of using synonyms and related words and phrases for your website keywords. LSI will help your website to get noticed by search engines and search engine users. Bounce rate is calculated as a percentage of visitors to a website who leave without visiting any other pages. If your bounce rate is too high, you may be penalized by the search engines because they will consider your webpage content irrelevant against the keywords. So, when you use keywords in domain names, the chances of bounce rates going low are high because visitors will already know what to expect in your website.

When you have your own domain name, you present a professional appearance of your business. When people see a simple domain name that is independently and professionally handled and is not a free website, they tend to recall that website and promote it through word of mouth.

If you are into an affiliate business, there may be a time when you will feel that you have done enough for the affiliate website that you are part of. When you have your own website, you have the option of changing links and other content and mark your independent presence on the web. Apart from that, with your own website, you can use a capture page with your own auto responder and collect contact information of those people who visit your website. Once you have collected a sizable data, there is no stopping you from making an impact in the field of online business.

With your own website and domain name, you can exercise complete control over everything, from the keywords to the content to the advertisements to be displayed. When you have a sizable business, you can use your own domain name to brand your business. Apart from that, when you buy a domain name, you also get an email address for yourself. So, you don’t have to mention @yahoo.com or anything else. You will also be able to promote multiple products.

As you can see, the advantages of owning a domain name are enormous. So, don’t wait! Go and get your own domain name today!

Tags: Domain names, SEF URLs