Ragister:

Register Your Domain

Once you've decided on a great domain name, where do you go to sign up? In order to buy a domain name, you'll need to go through a domain name registrar. These are companies authorized to sell and register domain names.

How much should I pay?

Registering your domain name will cost anywhere from a few dollars to around $40 per year. Companies will often give you discounts if you register for multiple years.

Don't forget to renew your domain

Your domain name will expire if you don't renew it at the end of the registration period. This could lead to your website being unavailable when people come to visit.

A quality domain registrar

The old saying that you get what you pay for is true. Look for these characteristics of a reliable domain registrar:

• has been in business for some time with a good track record
• customer service is available via phone or email
• offers competitive pricing
• allows easy updating of registration information

Our recommendation

We have used GoDaddy.com as our registrar for several years and have enjoyed excellent service. Pricing is around $9 per year for each name you register. We've had our questions answered quickly through either their thorough online help or customer service emails. They are also available via phone. GoDaddy frequently has domain sales with reduced prices.

Ranking:

Search Engine Ranking

The odds are that most people will arrive at your site by way of a search engine. Although there are no guarantees with where you'll be ranked in search engine results, these things will improve your site's performance:

• quality content
• keyword rich content
• frequently updated content
• professionally designed site
• links from related sites

Web Hosting:

Quality Web Hosting

Finding a company to host your website comes down to your business needs. Keep in mind the following when selecting a web host:

• Features
• Reliability
• Support
• Price

Features

What kind of functionality will your site have? Will it be just a few pages and images? Or will you want to run a complex online store? Your business or site needs will dictate the type of web hosting package you should use. Top quality web hosts will offer many features, some key points to check are:

• available disk space
• number of email addresses
• monthly bandwidth limits
• database availability
• server side support for your programming language of choice

If you are confused on what you may need for your site, we'll be glad to help.

Reliability

You want your website up and running all the time. Your business can not afford missed opportunities because the server was unavailable. To find a quality web hosting company you should look for one that offers:

• uptime guarantees
• details on server location, security and maintenance
• backups of your files

How to choose name for Your Site:

Choosing a Domain Name

A carefully chosen domain name can be a great asset to your company or organization. To be effective, your domain name deserves thoughtful consideration or it may not work as well as hoped.

What is a domain name?

A domain name is your address on the internet. For example, this site's domain name is joeskitchen.com. You pick the name of your site along with the top level domain like .com, .net, .org, or others. Your site name can be a combination of letters, numbers and hyphens.

How will your domain be used?

Before you choose a domain name, think about the following ways people could be introduced to your domain name:

• print advertising
• official letterhead or business cards
• search engines
• links from other websites
• word of mouth
• conversations over the phone or in person
• printed on the side of a company vehicle

A great domain name will cater to all these possibilities so that potential customers and site visitors will find your site quickly and easily. Try to anticipate what the first impression will be when people see your domain name.

A great domain name

An effective and solid domain name will be:

• representative of your company or organization
• indicative of your site's purpose
• memorable
• easy to spell
• professional
• not confused with similar names
• not use a lot of numbers or hyphens

When your choice isn't available

It often seems that the perfect name or the name you want has already been taken. If this is the case, you have a few options:

• try other word combinations
• if your company name is taken, try a phrase or words that reflect your company's purpose
• buy a domain from a domain name reseller
• try the same name but with different domain extensions like .net or .org

U know How Web Sites Work:

Every website has 3 things in common. You'll need these to get a site up and running:

• domain name
• host for your website
• pages and content for your site

Domain Name

Your domain name is your address on the internet. For example, this site's domain name is joeskitchen.com. Your domain name can be a combination of letters, numbers and hyphens.

You can register domain names in one year increments. At the end of each year, you can choose to renew your domain name or you can let it expire. If you choose to renew, there is an associated reasonable renewal fee.

Website Hosting

Everything that goes on your site, including pages and images, needs to be housed somewhere. Web hosting services let you rent space for your site on their web server. When someone types in your domain name in their browser, they end up seeing pages stored on a web host.

Website hosts come in all shapes, sizes, and prices. Your site and business needs will dictate the best web hosting for you. We use and for your hosting needs.