Starting a new online business or a blog need a website, which will be accessed throw the domain name, as known as a URL. The fist step on creating your website is to find the best business name for your brand, then register that name as your domain name.
In this post, we are going to explain you in detail what is a domain name, how to find the best name, and how to register your business name as a domain name.
What Is A Domain Name
The domain name is your business name used as a website URL. People can access your business website using your domain name, which is a group of name and extension. Example : SetOnlineBusiness.com, narily.com.
To explain how the domain name works, let’s give this example. We all live in houses and apartments and each one has its own physical address. You maybe living in 1000 Wall Street New York, this is your location and no one in the world has the same address as yours. If it the case, it will be an issue if the postal services receive a letter and don’t know where to send the package !
Because internet is also open and all computers in the world are connected together, it’s very important for computers to have their own address as well. In the opposite of our physical addresses, computers have a logical addresses, which we call, an IP address, IP stands for Internet Protocol. IPv4 for example, can have a form like 192.168.1.220, which is hard for human being to remember, for this the DNS comes in to fix this issue.
Websites also have their own addresses called URL (Uniform Resource Locator). The URL is a group of a Protocol (http or https), a Domain Name, and the Page Name. If your Domain Name is Narily.com, your website URL will be https://www.narily.com. And the page will be https://www.narily.com/online business/. All comes with a Slash (/) as a separator.
What Is DNS
The DNS (Domain Name System) translates human readable domain names to machine readable IP addresses. For example : fiverr.com IP address is 104.16.154.71, and canva.com IP address is 104.17.114.17. The human being can’t remember 104.16.154.71, but can easily remember fiverr.com, and this is true for any website address.
DNS came to make our life easy by associating the domain name human being know, with the IP address computers know. Then, instead of using the IP address which is hard to remember, we use the name instead, canva.com.
So, the DNS is the phonebook of the websites. Humans access websites through domain names. Computers interact through IP addresses. DNS translates domain names to IP addresses to make the navigation easy for us.
Choose The Best Domain Name
Before to register your domain name for your online business, you may already have an idea about the name you want to give to your new company, but did you check if the name is still available ? did you check if that name fit well your startup ? did you use a good strategy to have a good business name ? all these question you may ask, we have the complete and right answer. So please, click the button below to read our post and learn how to find the best name for your business.
Tips On How To Choose The Best Business Name
Domain Name Extensions
There is dozens of domain name extensions you can choose from, but not all are good for your business. To name just a few, we have .com .net .org .live .co .shop .tech .app .us .ca and much more.
If you are creating a nonprofit organization, you may choose the .org which stands for “organization”. But almost all commercial and business websites use .com which is the most popular and stands for “commercial”.
You can also use the country extension like .us for USA, .ca for Canada and so on. But this will limit your business growth if you decide to reach the international customers in the future.
How Much Is A Domain Name
The domain name price can vary from hundreds of thousands to few dollars. Depend on the name you pick, the registrars put a number on it. To make the business fair and not some businesses take the best names, and the small business take only the bad names, the very best name are all very expensive and classed premium.
Let’s take an example : MyDomainName.com, this name cost $324,844.07, which is a house price. If you change a little bit this same name by only adding dashes, My-Domain-Name.com, the price will drop a lot and become $4,671.26.
Continue searching for the best name which is good for your business and very cheap, take only few time trying different names and combinations, before to find the best name. Let’s try Get-Domain-Name.com, and this is available for only $5.99 a year.
All startups take time to test many different names to find the best business name as well as the cheapest possible. This is possible and for some it’s easy, if it’s not for you, check our post and learn how to achieve it.
How To Register A Domain Name
The easiest step when creating an online business is to register the domain name. After spending time to find the best business name, now it’s time to get your domain name already available and fit your brand.
If you didn’t find the best name for your business yet, click here to read our complete post on how to find the best business name. When it’s done, come back to this article to learn how to register your domain.
To register your domain name, open GoDaddy and enter your business name with the extension like mybusiness.com. When it’s done, you’ll see if the domain is available.
When you find the available name for your online business, click Add To Cart, and Continue To Cart.
After clicking Continue to Cart, you will be redirected to the some options you may need to add to your purchase. We recommend adding the Full Domain Protection, since it’s getting to protect your domain name. If you are a big company, we recommend also adding the Ultimate Domain Protection, since this have best protection for your domain name.
In the second section, you can keep it checked to use GoDaddy as a website hosting and create your website. Or uncheck it and choose another website hosting.
Keep creating an email address as it is “No Thanks”, since you’ll add your email address when creating your WordPress website and hosting it in the website hosting.
Click Continue to Cart to be redirected to Checkout. Here you can find the total price for one year. You can register for two, three, five or ten years.
After reviewing your order, click I’m Ready to Pay. GoDaddy will ask you to create an account, which you will use for your future purchases and DNS configurations. Follow the steps to finish your purchase, you can use PayPal or a Credit Card. In this case, you’ll pay only $15.98 for your domain name with protection added for the whole year.
How To Configure Your DNS Entries (Records)
After getting your domain name with GoDaddy, you need to configure your DNS entries (records). The DNS configuration will let know the DNS servers all over the world where to find your website.
Having a domain name, is the fist step, the second step will be to find your web hosting, and the third is to start creating your WordPress website. We recommend using TMDHosting or SiteGround to host your website, since they have the best price, unlimited websites, high performance, great support and much more.
After having your web hosting, Sign in to your GoDaddy account. Click the domain name already purchased, open the DNS page from the menu and add your entries. Point your domain name to the web hosting IP address. Add email management server, and some other DNS entries listed in the next section.
Different Types Of DNS Entries (Records)
There is many DNS entries (records) used by the DNS servers to manage different protocols in your website. The most used are the A entry, which match the name with the IP address. Example, A = MyDomain.com = 120.20.65.23.
The CN entry (record) define the web hosting server, this tells where your website is hosted.
The CNAME entry (record) will provide an alias for another domain name, you can use it to redirect any domain name to another domain name.
The MX entry (record) define the email management servers, this will define how your professional emails will be handled by your web hosting system.
All these DNS entries (records) will be provided by your web hosting service provider. Just ask them and you’ll get all the records as well as their IP addresses. Add them to your domain name on your GoDaddy account.
How To Renew A Domain Name
Renewing a domain name is set by default to be done automatically. If you want to repurchase your domain name in a yearly subscription, you have nothing to do since the payment will be done from your PayPal or credit card automatically.
In other hand, if you are not sure the name is good for your, or you may want to use a specific domain name only for a certain period, to do test or so, in this case you may change the default configuration and stop the auto-renew.
To stop the auto-renew, sign in to your GoDaddy account. In the menu click Domains, and open the domain name you want to stop the renew. Scroll down to Additional Setting and click Turn Auto-renew Off.
However, if you turn the auto-renew off, and the subscription finish before you renew manually, you may lose your domain, because it will be available for anyone to buy. If someone purchase the same domain, this can be a disaster for your business. Then, before to decide to turn off the auto renew, you need to think about it and make a wise decision.
Final Thoughts
Starting a new online business or creating a website for an existing business, can be a time consuming and challenging process, but it worth it every minute you spend for your own business.
Finding the best business name may take time and energy. Configuring a domain name and the WordPress website is easy if you follow the steps provided in this website Narily.com.
However, if you need any help, we can offer you our services to make your online business up and running in no time. Our professionals will follow with you and make your dreamed website for you, with the best name, brand color and much more.
Did your find your domain name ? Create your website ? Share your experience with us by leaving us a comment below.
