By: Nicole Shalit

Domain names are an important part of your company’s identity. No two companies can have the same domain name at the same time; therefore, your internet identity is unique. If you have a business site, you can use your domain name as both your online brand, and an online business card. The more you keep up with online marketing, the more your business name gets out there. One advantage of having your own domain name is getting a unique email. Having a unique email (yourname@yourdomain.com) has a professional look. It is important to know how domain names work. A domain is addressing construct, used for finding and identifying computers on the internet. Internet Protocol addresses (IP addresses) used by computers as a series of numbers used to identify each other on the internet; although it is hard to remember ones IP addresses. This is why domain names were developed; people thought it easier to remember a name verses a cluster of numbers. An example of this would be M6.net, which is a domain name. If you type this name into an address bar, the computer translates the domain into an IP address. Are you confused as to what domain you should use? You could try to acquire the .com of your business name. You could also use words or a phrase that is relevant to your company. If it is a business site, the best route to go however, is using your company name. If it is a personal website, the best route would be picking a catchy slogan or phrase that puritans to your website. Also try to keep the domain around 5 to 20 letter/numbers. If it is too long, it could be hard to remember. Spelling could also pose as a problem. Using shorted words such as “luv” instead of love or “u” instead of you, could cause users to get confused. If you acquire a dating site with the domain 1luv4u.com, there are many ways it could be typed wrong. The most common way it would be spelled is oneloveforyou.com, although it could also be typed 1love4you.com oneluv4u.com. etc. So how do you acquire a domain name? There are two ways to go about this. You can either register it yourself using a company such as godadddy.com, or you can have your web host register it for you. Most web hosting companies offer this service when you sign up for hosting. An advantage of having your web host register you is that they have already done this process a hundred times. They will be able to guide you through picking out your name, etc. This will save a lot of time. Another thing you need to do, is make sure you keep your domain registered. If you fail to do so, you could lose your whole online identity, which includes your page ranking, your domain name, and your web site.