Choosing your Domain Name

One of the first steps to building your own website is to choose and buy a name for the website. This is called the website's Domain Name.

With many names already taken, this can prove difficult, but with a little inventiveness you should be able to buy something suitable. You should choose a name that correctly describes your company name or utilizes some of the keywords that a potential visitor may use to find the site.

Have a brain-storming session to get a list of key words for your site and then visit a company like 123-Reg or Fasthosts to check availability of certain name combinations.

The cost of a domain is not expensive and so once you find a name that is available, we would recommend that you buy it to prevent anyone else doing so. As soon as you have you domain name you can begin forwarding email in the format yourname@newdomain.com.

When buying a name, also consider buy some similar alternatives to protect your brand name in the future. Things to consider would be to buy the .co.uk and .com versions or perhaps consider some potential mis-spellings of your new web address.