If you are a new ecommerce web design client or are inquiring about getting a website designed for your business, then one of the first things that will be asked of you is to brainstorm and come up with a Domain Name that will be associated with your website. What is a domain name, you ask? A domain name is the place to which you will go to find your website on the Internet. For easier understanding just note a domain name is what comes after the “www.” You must secure a domain name if you want the graphics and other components that make up your website to be displayed correctly online.

Typically, clients choose a domain name based on their business name, or some words related to the type of industry that their business is in. Domain names always start with “www.” and can end in a variety of ways including the most common .com, followed by .org (for nonprofits and other organizations), .gov (for government entities), .edu (schools and universities), and other endings including .biz, .net, and .tv. In order to get a domain name, one must first purchase and register the domain name that they want through a company that allows you to buy and register domain names. Domains can be registered and used for a year, two years and even up to ten years; however, it is important to make sure that your domain name is renewed before it is released back to the public, or—worse yet—to a domain name company that simply exists to buy up well ranked domains that have a high traffic volume. Companies with the aforementioned goal do exist; forget to renew your domain name and you will find out what happens!
There are several good companies who offer services that allow you to purchase and register domain names. Approachnet, a Florida web design company, is happy to buy and register a domain name for the website design you are interested in through the company that we have used for many years. If we purchase the domain name for you, you are the owner of the domain name. We list our contact information as the email on the account for the domain name to ensure that, when it is time for renewal, we will be notified. That way, we can renew the domain name in time to allow you to keep it. If you choose to use your own domain name company to purchase your domain name and keep the renewal registered for yourself, you will need to keep track of the renewal date and make sure you have properly renewed the domain name. If you allow Approachnet to keep track of this, you are still the owner and primary registrar of the domain name (which is important if you ever want to move your domain name or web hosting to another company); however, you will never need worry about losing your domain name, as we will keep it renewed properly.
In brainstorming for domain names, many clients find that the domain names they had their hearts set on are already taken. These are typically domain names that are the same as SEO keywords that people are searching for, as your domain name can play a miniscule part of SEO web design. Some have found that if you make your domain name a competitive keyword, you have a better chance of getting your site ranked for said keyword. However, since this piece this piece is so insignificant, we do not put much emphasis on making your website domain name a keyword related to terms for which you would like to rank. The most important thing to remember when brainstorming about domain names is you want the domain name to be short and easily remembered. That way, when potential leads and current clients are thinking of your business and company, they can easily remember the domain name associated with its website, and find it easily.
Once you have purchased and registered the domain name that you have chosen, the domain name must be hosted on a server if you wish to have a website. The host server is where the files that make up your website live, and the location to which any changes to your website need to be uploaded.

Approachnet is a Florida web design company and we host client domain names on our servers. Some of the companies that allow you to purchase and register domain names for a cheap price also provide domain name hosting. Keep in mind when trying to do anything with these types of companies that they are very large, international companies that could be harder to deal with than a smaller company such as Approachnet. In our experience, clients that host their domain names through these companies generally have much greater headaches than the clients that leave all of the technical elements regarding their domain name and Domain Name Hosting to our company. That being said, we do have clients who choose to host their domain name with a company of their choice, and they also take care of their renewals themselves. You must be very careful if you decide to take this route, and make sure that you are properly renewing your domain name at each designated period and paying the other company for website hosting.