As promised, here is Part 2 of my blog post from December 7 — “Why I LOVE WordPress.”
Domain names
If you are thinking about building a website for your company, blog or organization, the first step is to get a domain name. If you don’t already have a domain name, here are a few tips for choosing an effective one:
- Think about different words that describe your business, products and/or services. Play around with them until you come up with a unique name. For example, if you own Main Street Shoes, you might have words like women’s, quality, comfy, brand on your list. Your domain name might develop into “www.MainStreetQualityShoes.com.” This also supports your branding: people will think of Main Street Shoes as selling quality shoes. Other examples are WebMD.com and CareerBuilder.com.
- Make your domain name is unique. Don’t let it be confused with existing websites.
- Try to choose a “.com” for your business or blog. Dot Net and Dot Co are good enough to have an online presence, but a Dot Com is for serious web traffic and brand recognition.
- Make it easy to type, and make it easy to remember. My domain name is signaturegd.com. It may be confusing to many people, i.e. what is “gd”? I say “…signaturegd… as in great design”.
- Keep your domain name as short as possible —- this can be a challenge but it is doable. It allows for more descriptive text in SERP’s (Search Engine Results Pages).
- Avoid hyphens, numbers and underscores.
Domain Registrars
Now that you have your domain name, it is time to check for availability and reserve it with a domain name registrar: a organization or commercial entity that manages the reservation of Internet domain names.
Just about all website hosts are also domain name registrars. Most of my clients reserve their name with GoDaddy. It is simple and easy to do.
Website Hosting Service
A hosting service, for a fee, provides space on their servers for your website files, and in turn makes those files available online to visitors.
Server Room
How to choose a host
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of hosting services available to choose from. As a WordPress user, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- Can the host support WordPress?
- Is there an easy WordPress Install option?
- How is the support?
An article just came across my desk today that describes Wordpress hosting services, and also makes recommendations. You can read it here.
Not included on this list are 2 hosts my clients use: iPower and GoDaddy. Both these hosting services are Registrars for domain names, are compatible with WordPress systems, have easy WordPress install options, offer WordPress Management Support Packages, and from my experience have excellent support.
Another hosting service not on the list (because it is NOT cheap) is WP Engine. This host is dedicated to supporting and managing WordPress sites only.
You can read more about types of hosting services here.
WordPress Install
You now have your domain name, have picked a host and are ready to install WordPress.
- If you have chosen to go with a Managed WordPress account, the host will install WordPress for you.
- You can follow the hosting service’s install instructions.
- Contact an expert to install WordPress for you.
That’s it! Three steps: domain name, host, install.
Now Press On!
