With the topic of my first web site decided, I now need to figure out what to call it. Like any business, picking a name is a critical decision. Unless you have a huge marketing budget to give meaning to a somewhat nonsense word like Dell or Amazon, my thoughts are that your name needs to tell people exactly what your site is about. For example, if presented with a name like Festigle or Discount Pet Food, both in the same line of business, which one is easier to figure out? 沒錯。
在互聯網世界,當然,您的公司名稱也是您的域名。 And just as in the real world, your business name needs to be unique in your market. As the Internet is global, that means your market is global, which makes it much more difficult to find a unique domain name that accurately describes your niche that hasn't already been taken.
選擇正確的關鍵字
Fortunately there are a lot of methods that can help you select a domain name. The first area that I like to focus on is keywords. Keywords are the basic building blocks that define the topic of your web site. For me, the keyword that describes my general topic is jobs. There are a lot of keywords that describe my niche, including ESL, EFL, TESL, TEFL, and TESOL. A combination of these keywords would make for an ideal domain name.
Of course, not all keywords are equal. Some will be more popular that others, meaning they are more commonly used when people use search engines like Google or Yahoo. 使用比較流行的關鍵字,將會更有助於吸引遊客到我的網站,它更可能將關鍵字有人使用搜索時。
There are a number of tools that will show you the popularity of keywords. One, The Keyword Suggestion Tool , will show you the rank of a series of keywords across the major search engines, in addition to a lot of other information. ESL作業,英語作業,英語教學工作,英語教學的工作,和英語教學工作時,我發現,ESL的工作是遠遠超過了其餘的流行。 As a result, I'll try to create a domain name that includes those two keywords.
Considering top level domains, hyphens, numbers and length
One factor in choosing a domain is selecting its top level domain, or TLD. There are a number of TLD's, including .com, .net., org, and .info. I'ma huge fan of the .com TLD for a commercial site, although the others are valid for certain niches. On balance, though, I'd always go with a .com. COM頂級域名最強烈的共鳴與人,與證明,至少在我看來,您的網站是合法的。 If my ideal domain name was taken in .com and available as .net or .org, I'd forego the ideal name and look for another that was available as a .com.
Another consideration is the use of numbers or hyphens. For examples, it would be possible to register www.esl-jobs.com or www.esljobs1.com. 同樣,我是一個簡單的風扇,除非有令人信服的理由,使用連字符或數字,我引導他們。 I'll keep looking for a unique domain name that doesn't use either of these elements. There's nothing wrong with using them, but from a style perspective, they don't resonate with me.
Finally, the length of the domain name is a factor. The last thing someone wants to do is type in a horrendously long domain name. Granted, most traffic coming to a web site is via links, and so domain name length isn'ta deal breaker, but as a general rule, shorter is better.
Evaluating possible domain names
With keywords in hand and some guiding principles, it's time to discover what domain names are available. In a perfect world, I would just try different www.keywordkeyword.com combinations in my web browser and a perfect domain name would be available. No such luck for me, as both www.esljobs.com and www.jobsesl.com are taken. That means I'm going to need to get a little creative.
我將需要添加一兩個單詞或ESL和就業機會,以便找到尚未註冊的域名。 One resource I like to use is The Most Common Words in English . My reasoning is that adding a common word will help ensure my domain name is easier to remember and spell correctly. 它也感覺比剛拉出隨意的話更好。 Of course the word needs to relate to my general topic, or the combined keywords are going to be confusing. Spinning through the list, I settle on word #195: world.
Going back to my browser, I'm pleased to find that www.esljobsworld.com is available! My search for a domain name is complete, and now its time for the next step, registration.
Registering the domain name
This is the first step where it's going to cost a bit of money. Fortunately, domain name registration is not that expensive, and there are ways to make it even less so. There's a huge amount of competition in the market, and that means there are always deals around.
I feel it's important to stick with a name brand registrar like Network Solutions or GoDaddy , two companies with solid reputations that have been around for ages. I personally prefer GoDaddy, as they're a bit less expensive, and are very active in distributing promo codes that you can use to reduce the price of many of their services. 是在論壇討論線程可用DigitalPoint的一個有用的促銷代碼清單。 Jump to the end of the thread and work your way backwards; you'll find a number of promo codes that you can use.
The only thing left to do is actually register the domain name, and fortunately that step is by far the easiest. From the GoDaddy home page, just type in the domain name in the form at the top, and follow the steps. Be careful, though, as they will relentlessly try to sell you additional services. Just decline them as you go along, and in less than a minute or two, you'll complete the process.
So after a lot of research and trial and error, I've succeeded in registering my domain name. My next step will be to fined someplace for it to live, a hosting provider!