Tips to Get a Catchy Domain Name
According to some studies, there are more than 60 domain names being registered worldwide per second. No doubt, it is very important to be creative and choosy in case of domain name selection. Being short, logical and accurate does make the domain name catchy and memorable.
If a new enterprise needs to register its domain, it must certainly contact a domain registrar. The process of domain name registration is fairly simple. The first step is to decide what kind of domain needs to be acquired. While the most common choices are .com or.net, a company can also opt for .info or .biz for its website. The next step is to determine the period. Most registrars have certain plans which range from one year to ten years. Companies are also offered for contract renews once it expires.
Another significant aspect of domain registration is the cost involved as per the length of contract. It is always recommended to snoop around or search for domain name registration referrals before opting for a registrar. Beware of some established domain name registrars that provide domain registration at rates which are 200 percent more expensive than what standard registrars charge.
Opting For an Appropriate Domain Name:
Choosing a domain name can sometimes be tricky. However, following some useful and simple tips can result better traffic and minimize the chances of duplication.
Be Short: Lengthy domain names are more prone to spelling errors while typing into the browser. It is a fallacy that long domain names tend to be more descriptive. Actually, long names are difficult to remember. A short, but catchy domain name does the best trick for attracting traffic.
Be Logical: During the process of domain registration, it is very important to register a name that logically matches the theme or purpose of the website. For example, if a site is all about digital cameras, one should register bestdigicams.com. One can even use the name of the enterprise as a domain name. For instance, if the name of the company is XYZ, one should register as xyz.com.
Be Accurate: Being accurate with domain name is crucial, especially if the domain name registrar has a minimum qualified period for refund. One should always spell check before the domain name registration process. However, registrars refund within 5 days of registration if there is something wrong.
Besides, it is essential to know the different aspects of domain registration to acquire a new domain name. A good knowledge about the domain name registrar is important, which is an organization that acts as middleman between the registry and the client website. Your domain name registration service provider helps you by offering the right options for selecting a suitable web address or host name.
10 Things to Check Before You Buy Web Hosting
There are a lot of web hosting providers out there and all of them have different plans and different options to choose from. One of the best things that you can do is look around before you buy; below is a list of 10 things that you should look into when you decide to buy web hosting.
What are the contract terms?
This is something that you really need to be looking into. Most of the time you will go along and find a great deal on a web hosting plan only to find out that you have to sign up for a certain length of time to save money. Some hosts require that you sign up for 3 years to get the deal!
Your best bet is to go month-by-month with a web host for at least a few months. This gives you a chance to test out their network, their customer service, uptime and what not. If something happens and it doesn’t work out, you’ve only spent the money that you have spent instead of buying hosting for a year or longer and not being able to use it. If after a few months everything is working out great and you like the host, you can choose to upgrade for a longer hosting period and there is a very good chance that you will still save money while doing so.
Backup! I need backup!
Let’s be real here, stuff happens. Networks can get hacked, power failures can cause data to get wiped, somebody could press a wrong button somewhere. There are a lot of things that can go wrong and most of the time when they do go wrong, it’s bad.
You are going to want to be sure that the web host you choose backs up your data or make sure that you can backup your own database. Once isn’t good enough, they should have at least 2 SEPARATE areas where your data is backed up. What use is backed up data if something happens and all of it is in the same spot?
Server uptime
You buy web hosting so that you can have a website whether it be for personal use or business. If you purchase web hosting for business needs and your site goes down, it could mean thousands of dollars or more. This isn’t to say that a personal site isn’t just as important as a business website making millions of dollars, nobody should have to worry about whether or not their site is down.
Most of the larger web hosts out there have 99% uptime or better. They have a lot of things in place to ensure that their servers don’t go down and that your site is always up. Most web hosts will proudly display 99.999% uptime or something along those lines, but you can never be sure as all of them are wanting your money in the end. There are many options out there that allow you to monitor web servers and their uptime and while you may not have months to devote to find a web host, there are some sites that provide data on web host’s server uptimes.
Negative press/reviews
A web host is surely going to make it seem like they are the best host to choose from because they want your money. But you should always check out the host before deciding to purchase from them. Make sure you find sites that rate the host based off of user reviews and not the site owner’s reviews. Site likes this one and a few others rate hosts dependent upon what actual customers think.
With that said, about 99% of the time, you will always find at least one bad thing about a web host. There are always those people out there that just have to complain about something. Make sure that if it is a negative review, that the review sounds legitimate and realistic. Don’t just go by one review though, check around the web and see what other people are experiencing with the particular web host.
Awards
Most web hosting rating sites will provide awards to the best web host or certified/trusted web host. You can trust some of these, but it would be a wise choice to look for official awards or good press from actual companies that you have heard of.
There aren’t a lot of awards given out to web hosts for their service quality or what have you, but you can be sure that if you see an award from a big name company that that web host is worth looking into.
Compare prices
Probably one of the biggest things that people go by. Although you may never find 2 hosting plans the exact same with 2 different web hosting providers, you can usually find hosting plans that are somewhat similar. Bigger web hosting providers will certainly be able to provide a cheaper price because they can afford to, but it may wise to choose a smaller company even though they cost more.
Some hosts offer a lot of different plans to choose from and others may only provide one plan to choose from. Just make sure to do your research and comparisons between the hosting plans to ensure that you are getting the best price while not getting ripped off.
Server hardware
Different plans offer different server hardware setups. The better the hardware, the faster the server. A lot of web hosts nowadays have upgraded their servers to better handle the resources that some sites require. The most common hardware information that you will find is the CPU, Disk Space, and Memory of each plan.
You also want to check out the network connections to the servers as well. A server connected to a higher capacity line will enable your site to load faster giving your visitors a more pleasant experience.
Customer/technical support
If something goes wrong, you want to be able to get in touch with somebody to have the issue sorted out. A lot of the bigger web hosting companies offer 24/7 support for phone and email, while some even offer round the clock live chat. Make sure to call up the support department before even purchasing and ask them any questions that you may have. If they cannot answer them in a way that you can understand or send you to 10 different people before you can even get an answer, it is a good chance that they won’t be of much help when an actual problem shows up.
If they offer 24/7 support, test it out. Get up at 4:36am and give them a call. Make sure to ask a really tough question that will get them thinking and see whether or not they provide you with an immediate answer or ask that you email some other department and wait for a response.
Hosting plan details
Surely you are going to want to look into the details for the hosting plan. Bandwidth, memory, and disk space are the 3 big ones and should always be provided. You may also want to check out other features such as programming language support, email accounts, password protected files/directories, server operating systems and so on. If you are planning to setup a business website with a shopping cart, credit card transactions and other secure data, make sure that all of that is covered in the hosting plan. Make sure that you also plan ahead for expansion in the near future. It is always better to buy more then you need instead of coming up short with resources when you actually need them.
Cheapest isn’t always best
As stated in the compare prices section, just because you find the cheapest deal, does not always mean that you are getting the best deal. There are a lot of web hosting deals out there and like all things in life, you get what you pay for. Not to say that the least expensive plan that you can find is the worst one, but really make sure you know what you are getting.
Once again, some hosts require you to sign up for lengthy contracts in order for you to get that great deal. If you do find a great deal, make sure to do your research and ask questions about subjects discussed in this guide. While most people never have a problem when they find a great deal on hosting, when problems do arise, they usually very quickly build up into a huge hassle and can make you regret your decision.
This guide only contains a few of the things that you should be looking at before purchasing web hosting. Do your research beforehand and know what your site is going to require and what it may require in the future.
Would you rather spend a little bit of extra time now figuring things out or spend a lot of time later on when your web host kicks you to the curb because they cannot provide you with the resources that your site needs?
The Planet Pictures
Douglas Hanna visited The Planet Hosting’s corporate headquarters in Houston, Texas and brought home some great pictures of life in a full fledged web hosting facility including these datacenter images. Check out those beautiful server racks!
You can read more about it here:
