Web Hosting Domain

When starting a web hosting business, the first thing you will want to purchase is a domain name so that you are able to set on your web hosting company’s name in concrete. Once you have acquired the domain you want, you can start to build up your web hosting business by creating a website then purchasing servers so that you can start to host customers. There are many different factors that you should take into consideration before purchasing a domain name for your web hosting business; you need to make sure that your domain name includes your business name, as well as keywords related to web hosting but at the same time you want to keep your web address as short as possible.

Every time you visit a website, you enter the address into your web browser; a domain name is the address that you enter, i.e. ‘eukhost.com’ is an example of a domain name. Unless you run your website off a direct public IP address, your website visitors will type in your domain name each time they want to visit your website. In some cases, choosing a domain name for a web hosting business can also be choosing the business’s names, allowing you effectively kill 2 birds with one stone; in this case there are certain keywords that you may want to consider for your domain name:

• server hosting
• web hosting
• dedicated web hosting
• hosting
• reseller hosting.

You should consider the TLD that you use for your web hosting domain name, since the TLD is normally specific to your target audience or country. There are both country specific domains and worldwide domains that are more specific to the type of website that they will be running. Typical examples of TLDs include .com and .co.uk. The main domains that you should consider for UK web hosting for example include:

• .com - this is a worldwide TLD which has been designed for use by commerce websites
• .co.uk - this is a typical company TLD used by many companies in the UK
• .net - this TLD has been designed with internet companies in mind, although its main use these days is as a service TLD
• .net.uk - although this TLD is now discontinued, it was previously used by UK based web hosts and ISPs.

By choosing a domain that contains keywords related to your business along with the use of a TLD which is either international or local to your country, you are able to ensure your web hosting business a high ranking in search results specific to your country. As well as using keywords in your domain name and a specific TLD, you should also consider hosting your web hosting business’s website in the country that you are aiming at if you have a specific market. The reason for all these keyword and country specifc measures is that search engines will give more weight to your website in searches for certain keywords, since they will see that you have put in the effort to target that specific audience.

As mentioned previously, you should try and keep the length of your domain to a minimum since this will help it be more memorable. You should also try and leave out use of other characters such as hyphens (-) although more or less any other character which isn’t a letter or number can’t be used in a domain name. Examples of good UK web hosting domains would include:

• ukwebhosting.com
• webhosting.co.uk
• webhost.co.uk
• ukwebhosting.net

All the above domains include the relevant keywords such as ‘uk’, ‘web’ and ‘hosting’ and be ranked high in UK specific search engine results. However, the following would be examples of bad domains for UK based web hosting:

• premium-uk-web-hosting.co.uk
• free-ukwebhosting.com
• uk-web-hosting.com
• web-hosting.co.uk

Although they all contain keywords, hyphens have been used and in some cases are long which wouldn’t help make them memorable.

However important keywords may be when choosing a domain, you still need to include your company name in the domain somewhere. Without having your business name included in the domain, it is pretty much useless for people who are trying to recall your business’s name but are only able to remember the website address. Without your web hosting business’s name in your domain name people may not be able to find your business specifically through search engines when they enter the name of your web hosting business into the search box.

Once you have chosen the domain that you would like to use for your web hosting business, you can go ahead and register it. It is important that when registering a domain for a business that you choose to make the whois details for the domain public, since this will increase consumer confidence in your business since prospective customers will think that you have something to hide if you choose to keep the whois details private. You should also and try purchasing your domain using a reseller service such as eNom, since this will allow you to customize the whois results but mainly will allow you to offer domain registration services to your customers.

When choosing a domain for your new web hosting business, it is important that you optimize the domain to include keywords and that you choose a relevant TLD so that you are able to raise the rank your website will be given in search engine results. However, with optimization in mind you will also want to keep your domain short to ensure that prospective customers as well existing customers that want to recommend you and still remember your website address with ease.

The main thing to remember that in web hosting, your domain name and website are your ’shop floor’ in terms of what people use to browse your products. If your name isn’t memorable, then you can forget any possibility of having existing customers referring friends and colleagues in need of web hosting to your business.