The purists may say that domain name registration is a completely separate issue from web hosting, and indeed, it can be. You can register your domain name with company XYZ, buy your web hosting account from company ABC and tell the 2 companies to talk to each other.
Still with me? Probably not - too many challenges all at once.
This is one area where, for your first website, I think it is better to accept that you are willing to pay a little bit more for your domain name to have an easier life. I would recommend that you register your FIRST domain name via your web hosting provider.
There are many, many specialist web hosting companies out there. There are fewer companies specialising in domain name registration. To complicate matters, there are domain name registration companies that will host your website, and web hosting companies that will register your domain name.
It is far more important that you choose the right company to host your website, than it is to do your domain name registration with the right company. Get the web hosting wrong and it could have a dramatic adverse effect on your business (just think in terms of your website being down for, say, one hour per day).
Web hosting is a 24/7, 365/6 days a year service. Register your domain name and that’s it, done, until you need to renew it.
So when you are signing up for something as important as your web hosting account, you don’t really want to get side-tracked by searching for the right domain name registrar.
This is the procedure, I recommend:
Firstly, remember the importance of “keywords” in your domain name. Go to a keyword research tool, such as that given to us at Brighton. Click here to access it.
Spend a lot of time trying various keywords (and combinations of them) that are appropriate to your target market. Aim to come away from that site with a sizeable list of popular, but appropriate keywords.
Next, go to the website of a specialist domain name registration company. These can have more sophisticated search facilities than specialist web hosting companies. What we are going to do is use these sophisticated search facilities solely to research our domain name (which we can do, quite freely). Then we are going to take the results of our search to a specialist web hosting company and buy the domain name from them. That way our domain name registration is done by our web hosting company, and it is immediately linked to our hosting account, without us having to learn how to do it.
After buying my first domain name through my hosting account, I have since bought my others through a specialist domain name registration company.
In the top left-hand corner, you will see the domain name search box. Best to swallow your British pride and accept that “.com” is the best option to go for here. Enter your keywords, or combinations thereof, until you find a domain name that isn’t already taken. (REMEMBER, we are not buying here.) Keep changing the keywords until you’ve found at least three domain names that are available. Take a careful note of these, we will need them when we’ve chosen our hosting company. (More on that in my next post.)
Comments 6
Hi David
Thanks for all the info. I have someone who will build me a website and do all the hosting etc. What is the going rate for hosting per year?
Regards
Maks
Posted 28 Jul 2008 at 10:54 pm ¶Hello Maks,
Have a look at my posts Web Hosting (2) and (3), which give you a lot more info on this topic, including what I pay.
David
Posted 30 Jul 2008 at 10:45 pm ¶Hi David, I came and read! You can always transfer your FIRST domain to another domain registrar but firstly, check if there are additional costs for this. Some webhosting service providers charge for such a transfer.
I kept my own domain name and hosting seperately. No webhost can hijack my domain name.
Posted 23 Nov 2008 at 2:51 am ¶Hello Kelly!
Thanks for your visit and your comment.
The aim of my post was to simplify the process of getting both a domain name and a hosting company. That was my biggest worry when I first started and I think it will be for a lot of my readers who haven’t taken that step yet.
But you are quite right in what you say - once you are set up, you can split the domain from the hosting company if you wish.
David
Posted 03 Dec 2008 at 7:02 pm ¶Hi David,
Posted 13 Jan 2009 at 3:24 pm ¶What is the procedure I should use to split my Domain from my hosting account?
Hello Gene,
Thank you for your question and I’m sorry to have kept you waiting for a reply due to my recent surgery.
Gene, I’ll be honest with you - this is not something I have done myself as the domain name I registered through my hosting company is not one that I am actively promoting (so it won’t be a big issue if I lose it). However, I’ve done some research on your behalf and you’re welcome to what I’ve found.
The formal process is done via your new registrar, but before you start on that I would contact your hosting company and ask what their procedures are should you wish to transfer your domain name to another registrar. Kelly, who sent in an earlier comment, has clearly come across some hosting companies who charge for a transfer. If there is to be a charge or any other complication from your web hosts, best to find out before you initiate the transfer process.
I ran the question past my own hosting company:
http://www.recommendedbydavid.com/products/webhosting.php
and they DON’T charge, and they seem to make it a straightforward process.
Having cleared the idea with your web hosts, now you can begin the formalities of the transfer.
As the whole point of this exercise is to protect your domain name, do your own due diligence on domain name registrars before you decide which new company to use.
Any company specialising in domain name registration services are likely to have a guide to transfers on their site. The principle seems to be that you apply through them and they will hold your hand through the rest of the process.
I appreciate that my last paragraph is not very “precise” about what happens. During my research for your question, one of the sites I visited was http://www.godaddy.com. They provide a very helpful PDF showing the whole transfer process - I assume that it illustrates THEIR process, but I expect it to be very similar to that of other companies. I certainly learnt from the PDF, so I hope you do too.
Anyway, here’s the link to the PDF:
https://products.secureserver.net/products/domain_transfers/transferinsider.pdf
I hope all this helps you. Do let us know how you get on. I’m sure my other readers will also be interested to read of your experiences.
David
Posted 22 Jan 2009 at 4:08 pm ¶Post a Comment