Domains 101
This page is to give you some of the basic information on Domain Names, things to watch out for when registering the domain names
What is a domain name? A.K.A. - Your website name
In the most basic terms, A Domain name is the address that someone types in to go directly to your website. It is also known as a Website Address.
For the more tech people.. I have included some more tech knowledge with the small faces.. feel free to read if you like.
🙄 Tech talk: Your actual website address is NOT just the domain name in a lot of cases. Most website addresses may have a number “I.P. Address” (Internet Protocol address) that points to the space where your website lives online. However, a domain name attaches to that address and makes it much easier for someone to find you and easier to remember.
Protocol: This in laymans terms meaning the http:// or the https:// - This tells the internet what version of your website it should be looking for. I would normally recommend that this should be a secure version of the site or https:// later you will be able to click on the link to go to that part of the site.
😏 http:// - This you telling the internet that you are looking for a web page – most times this address does not need to be typed In, however as of late, people would be looking more for http(s) – the S stands for secure. - I will get into how to make your site secure later (see ssl certificates).
SUBDOMAIN: A sub domain could be the www, but it could also be something like shop.websiteinfo.com. It will tell the internet web browsers what page you are supposed to be on, this can be really helpful when you get your site set up if you are trying to send people to a particular part of your site.
😏 Www – For those of you who are old enough to remember this, you used to have to tell the web search engines where you wanted them to look for information. Did they want to look in a database website that you were in or did you want it to look at the World Wide Web? This is where the www came from. There are times that people will want two different landing pages, one flor www and one for people who do not type in the www. like an internal database. Today generally the domain names
DOMAIN NAME: Technically when people talk about the “domain name” they are talking about both the domain name portion and the top level domain. Meaning shaneparis.com is my full domain name. But someone else owns shaneparis.info and someone else owns shaneparis.ca. If you are lucky enough to have a domain name that no one else has bought any of the other extensions. I would look at trying to secure as many as you can.
*Common misconception - The idea that you NEED to have the .com version of your domain name. Unfortunately we have all basically been trained that the .com is THE domain name that you have to have. To be honest, the .com is not the be all of domain names any longer. The domain is really important if you are trying to get people to go directly to the website, however if they are doing a Google search, Google doesn't care about if you have the .com or not.. other than how long a domain name is registered can affect the rank.
What domain name extensions are Available
Original Top Level domain names
.com - the granddaddy of all of the domain names. People believe that you should always have your .com domain name even though this is not necessarily the case.
.biz - Back when the domain names first came out, people thought .biz would be for business to be done on.
.info - People thought that the .info would be for informational sites.
.org - Was originally thought to be for organizations.
.net - Because your site is on the internet.
Country Code domain names – The country codes are specific to the country where you are going to be working from. What I mean by that is if I want a .ca domain name for Canada, Canada has its own rules on who can own one of those domain names. You need to have a Canadian Billing address or it will not go through.
Every Country code has it’s own rules.. You will need to look them up as you go.
NEW top level domain names – Over the past ten years, the master registry has launched over 300 new domain extensions. Everything from .pizza, .beer, .coffee, .mom, .dad and so many others.
To see all of the new top level domain names click here.
Which domain is right?
Now what most people think is that you NEED to have the .com domain name. Well there is really no reason to have the .com other than that is the grandaddy of them all. And that you have been “trained” to look for the .com domain name and not any of the others. Google actually doesn’t care that much about domain names and extensions anymore. Google is much more interested in the content and the way the site is set up than just the domain name.
To do list
Now there are a couple of things to think about when you are looking to buy your first domain name.
1) What domain extension fits you?
2) Does anyone else own any of the other extensions?
3) Is the domain extension important to you? - Are you an orgnization or a business?
4) Should we brand protect? Meaning should you buy as many extensions as you can so that no one else can buy them and build a similar or different site on the other extensions?
How do you register a domain name and what does that mean?
Let me start with this comment. “You don’t own your domain name”.
“But Shane I have the trademark on it”
“But Shane I pay for it”
“But Shane I was told that when I pay for it once it is mine”
Let me explain this easily. Do you own your license? (You actually don’t the government does) And with your License if you don’t pay to renew it, it runs out. If you leave it go too long you may need to re take the test to prove that you can still drive.
Well Domain Names are much like that. There is a master registry that has the lists of the domain named, and they control the registration of the domain names, ensuring that only one person or company can own the rights to the domain name at one time.
The rules of MOST of the domain name extensions state that you are basically leasing the domain name for a term. At the end of the term if you don’t renew there are a few things that can happen with the domain names and I will get to that.
There are basically three terms you want to know:
Registry – there are generally master lists of all domain names. One of the largest is Icann - the Internet corporation of assigned names and numbers. This is one of the largest Registries that are out there. Now you can’t deal directly with the Registry, instead you need to use a company to register the domain name on your behalf. They are called Registars.
Registrar- These are the companies that Register your domain name for your and ensure that your domain name contact information is correct and that all of the rules on domain names are being followed. Registrars are a little “interesting” as there are literally Hundreds of places online where you can register your domain name. The only problem is that some of the “Registrars” aren’t actually registrars, they regsiter the domain name through an actual registrar and depending on how you are set up, they are registered under your or their names. I will go into this further shortly.
Registrant - This is the “owner” of the domain name – meaning you. Whatever name goes on the account technically owns the rights to the contract for your domain name. This is one of the biggest errors or issues I see when people are getting their domain names. I will go into the “proper” way to register shortly.
When trying to choose your domain name you want to keep these things in mind.
1) Your company name
2) Your product names
3) Where you are located
4) Social media presence
5) Your competition
6) Your mis spellings
One of the biggest issues I hear is from business owners who go to get their website name is that they think that whatever they put on their business license has to be the exact match of their website domain name. That isn’t how it works.
You can have pretty much as many domain names going to your one website as you want. So technically if you sell cars, you could be carshalifax.com, halifaxcars.com, carsforsaleinhalifax.com, halifaxcarsforsale.com.
You could have all of those domain names going to your main website which could be oldschoolcarshalifax.com
No different than if Amazon wanted to, they could have different domain names that will go to different sections of their website.. They could have amazonelectronics.com / amazonschoolsupplies.com / amazondeals.com
So when you are choosing your domain name you want to keep in mind that you may want a few different ones to go to different places on your site.
Also if you are planning on having different locations for your business, you may want to make sure you have the city name / state name in your domain name as well. (Just a thought)
DOMAIN BRAND PROTECTION.
Brand protection is one of the iffy parts to domain names. When you first start out you don’t want to “overspend” on your domain names, but if you don’t buy as many of the important extensions, there is nothing to stop your competition from coming and buying them up and pointing them to their domain name.
Look at my case. My domain is shaneparis.com I also have shaneparis.ca but someone else owns shaneparis.info and he is in the tech industry as well. There is nothing I can do to stop him from using the domain name on his end. This is why when you are registering a new domain name we would recommend that you look at the different extensions and branding.
Things to consider when purchasing your domain names:
Be careful when registering the domain names.
Domain name costs
Domain names have a few different prices for different reasons.
Premium domain names.
Ownership of domain names.
What is a domain name? A.K.A. - Your website name
In the most basic terms, A Domain name is the address that someone types in to go directly to your website. It is also known as a Website Address.
For the more tech people.. I have included some more tech knowledge with the small faces.. feel free to read if you like.
🙄 Tech talk: Your actual website address is NOT just the domain name in a lot of cases. Most website addresses may have a number “I.P. Address” (Internet Protocol address) that points to the space where your website lives online. However, a domain name attaches to that address and makes it much easier for someone to find you and easier to remember.
Protocol: This in laymans terms meaning the http:// or the https:// - This tells the internet what version of your website it should be looking for. I would normally recommend that this should be a secure version of the site or https:// later you will be able to click on the link to go to that part of the site.
😏 http:// - This you telling the internet that you are looking for a web page – most times this address does not need to be typed In, however as of late, people would be looking more for http(s) – the S stands for secure. - I will get into how to make your site secure later (see ssl certificates).
SUBDOMAIN: A sub domain could be the www, but it could also be something like shop.websiteinfo.com. It will tell the internet web browsers what page you are supposed to be on, this can be really helpful when you get your site set up if you are trying to send people to a particular part of your site.
😏 Www – For those of you who are old enough to remember this, you used to have to tell the web search engines where you wanted them to look for information. Did they want to look in a database website that you were in or did you want it to look at the World Wide Web? This is where the www came from. There are times that people will want two different landing pages, one flor www and one for people who do not type in the www. like an internal database. Today generally the domain names
DOMAIN NAME: Technically when people talk about the “domain name” they are talking about both the domain name portion and the top level domain. Meaning shaneparis.com is my full domain name. But someone else owns shaneparis.info and someone else owns shaneparis.ca. If you are lucky enough to have a domain name that no one else has bought any of the other extensions. I would look at trying to secure as many as you can.
*Common misconception - The idea that you NEED to have the .com version of your domain name. Unfortunately we have all basically been trained that the .com is THE domain name that you have to have. To be honest, the .com is not the be all of domain names any longer. The domain is really important if you are trying to get people to go directly to the website, however if they are doing a Google search, Google doesn't care about if you have the .com or not.. other than how long a domain name is registered can affect the rank.
What domain name extensions are Available
Original Top Level domain names
.com - the granddaddy of all of the domain names. People believe that you should always have your .com domain name even though this is not necessarily the case.
.biz - Back when the domain names first came out, people thought .biz would be for business to be done on.
.info - People thought that the .info would be for informational sites.
.org - Was originally thought to be for organizations.
.net - Because your site is on the internet.
Country Code domain names – The country codes are specific to the country where you are going to be working from. What I mean by that is if I want a .ca domain name for Canada, Canada has its own rules on who can own one of those domain names. You need to have a Canadian Billing address or it will not go through.
Every Country code has it’s own rules.. You will need to look them up as you go.
NEW top level domain names – Over the past ten years, the master registry has launched over 300 new domain extensions. Everything from .pizza, .beer, .coffee, .mom, .dad and so many others.
To see all of the new top level domain names click here.
Which domain is right?
Now what most people think is that you NEED to have the .com domain name. Well there is really no reason to have the .com other than that is the grandaddy of them all. And that you have been “trained” to look for the .com domain name and not any of the others. Google actually doesn’t care that much about domain names and extensions anymore. Google is much more interested in the content and the way the site is set up than just the domain name.
To do list
Now there are a couple of things to think about when you are looking to buy your first domain name.
1) What domain extension fits you?
2) Does anyone else own any of the other extensions?
3) Is the domain extension important to you? - Are you an orgnization or a business?
4) Should we brand protect? Meaning should you buy as many extensions as you can so that no one else can buy them and build a similar or different site on the other extensions?
How do you register a domain name and what does that mean?
Let me start with this comment. “You don’t own your domain name”.
“But Shane I have the trademark on it”
“But Shane I pay for it”
“But Shane I was told that when I pay for it once it is mine”
Let me explain this easily. Do you own your license? (You actually don’t the government does) And with your License if you don’t pay to renew it, it runs out. If you leave it go too long you may need to re take the test to prove that you can still drive.
Well Domain Names are much like that. There is a master registry that has the lists of the domain named, and they control the registration of the domain names, ensuring that only one person or company can own the rights to the domain name at one time.
The rules of MOST of the domain name extensions state that you are basically leasing the domain name for a term. At the end of the term if you don’t renew there are a few things that can happen with the domain names and I will get to that.
There are basically three terms you want to know:
Registry – there are generally master lists of all domain names. One of the largest is Icann - the Internet corporation of assigned names and numbers. This is one of the largest Registries that are out there. Now you can’t deal directly with the Registry, instead you need to use a company to register the domain name on your behalf. They are called Registars.
Registrar- These are the companies that Register your domain name for your and ensure that your domain name contact information is correct and that all of the rules on domain names are being followed. Registrars are a little “interesting” as there are literally Hundreds of places online where you can register your domain name. The only problem is that some of the “Registrars” aren’t actually registrars, they regsiter the domain name through an actual registrar and depending on how you are set up, they are registered under your or their names. I will go into this further shortly.
Registrant - This is the “owner” of the domain name – meaning you. Whatever name goes on the account technically owns the rights to the contract for your domain name. This is one of the biggest errors or issues I see when people are getting their domain names. I will go into the “proper” way to register shortly.
When trying to choose your domain name you want to keep these things in mind.
1) Your company name
2) Your product names
3) Where you are located
4) Social media presence
5) Your competition
6) Your mis spellings
One of the biggest issues I hear is from business owners who go to get their website name is that they think that whatever they put on their business license has to be the exact match of their website domain name. That isn’t how it works.
You can have pretty much as many domain names going to your one website as you want. So technically if you sell cars, you could be carshalifax.com, halifaxcars.com, carsforsaleinhalifax.com, halifaxcarsforsale.com.
You could have all of those domain names going to your main website which could be oldschoolcarshalifax.com
No different than if Amazon wanted to, they could have different domain names that will go to different sections of their website.. They could have amazonelectronics.com / amazonschoolsupplies.com / amazondeals.com
So when you are choosing your domain name you want to keep in mind that you may want a few different ones to go to different places on your site.
Also if you are planning on having different locations for your business, you may want to make sure you have the city name / state name in your domain name as well. (Just a thought)
DOMAIN BRAND PROTECTION.
Brand protection is one of the iffy parts to domain names. When you first start out you don’t want to “overspend” on your domain names, but if you don’t buy as many of the important extensions, there is nothing to stop your competition from coming and buying them up and pointing them to their domain name.
Look at my case. My domain is shaneparis.com I also have shaneparis.ca but someone else owns shaneparis.info and he is in the tech industry as well. There is nothing I can do to stop him from using the domain name on his end. This is why when you are registering a new domain name we would recommend that you look at the different extensions and branding.
Things to consider when purchasing your domain names:
Be careful when registering the domain names.
Domain name costs
Domain names have a few different prices for different reasons.
- The domain extensions have different prices. - Because there are so many new extensions, the master registry allowed “individual companies” to own the MASTER LEVEL rights to the domain name. Meaning domains like .nyc are actually owned by New York City. They set the costs and the rules behind the domain name.
- Was the domain name ever owned before? - When a domain name has been owned by someone else before
- What company are you going with?
- How much assistance will you need in the long run? The more you need normally the more a domain name costs.
Premium domain names.
Ownership of domain names.
- registration pitfalls
