There are a number of ways and locations to purchase domain names, and research and knowledge are keys to making the right decision. Therefore, it is important to know a number of things when purchasing a domain name.

1) Accredited Registrars

All domain names must be sold by accredited Registrars certified to do so by the governing body . Registrars are required to follow the procedures set forth by the governing body , giving consumers a dispute organization in the event one is needed.

Registars are required to pay a fee to the governing body for the purchase of each domain name. One of the areas that separate registars is the price charged to the consumer. Domain name registration varies from $4.99 at the low end to $65.00 depending on which registrar you choose. And the only  diference in the domain name at $4.95 to $65.00 mybe value added services.   Services offered with domain name purchases also vary depending on the registrar selected, such as DNS, forwarding, email, hosting and parked pages.

The services offered are just as important to purchasing a domain names as the name itself. If you own a .com domain name and purchase the .net name, then free forwarding would be a great deal. If you want to point the domain name by DNS then not only is free DNS pointing required, but if you have no experience with DNS the support to set up DNS records will also be required. All registrars are not created equal and some sell low cost domains but with limited support. Granite Belt Hosting offers low cost domain names and low cost hosting with full support

When selecting a registrar look at your short term and long term needs, whether it is one domain or multiple domains. Although a low cost looks good up front, do your research and make sure all your needs will be filled. When looking for a domain contact the registrar and ask questions like: Do you have 24/7 tech support, does your support cover DNS record set up, advance record set up, what will you be expected to do and what will they do for you.

2) Domain Resellers

Resellers are partners of accredited registrars, reselling their products and services, but are not accredited to sell domain names. When purchasing a domain name from a reseller, be prepared to be patient. Most offer very little to no technical support or rely on the accredited registrar for support. Resellers like Granite Belt Hosting  will give you the support you need and have a support network so if you need the support just log a help ticket

There are also times the reseller goes out of business without notifying the domain owner leaving them with little knowledge of who to contact if the domain requires DNS record changes or even simple renewals.

3) Domain Deals

Searching the Internet for a registrar will lead a surfer to many results. Beware of some of the results and domain gimmicks. Yahoo offers domains for a low price with their hosting, but is not an accredited registrar or a reseller. Yahoo uses a third party company that is an accredited registrar. Most consumers do read the Terms of Service when making a domain purchase, and doing so will allow you to see that Yahoo states that they assist you in purchasing your low cost domain.

Unless you read the Terms of Service, knowing that your domain will be registered somewhere else could lead to long term issues. These issues include domain renewal notifications or confusions when wanting to transfer the domain to a new registrar.

Check out all domain offers, read the fine print and make sure you know who your are really dealing with.

4) Domain Protection?

When you purchase a domain it is yours to use for the period your selected to register. Once purchased many registrars automatically put on a service to prevent your domain from being transferred to someone or somewhere else without your permission. This service has different names depending on where your domain is registered, but may be called domain lock and domain protect.

Domain protection is a valuable service and should always be left on unless you intend to transfer your domain to a new registrar. Never allow anyone to tell you to turn off your domain protection for any reason but to transfer. Many times a hosting company or web designer will tell a client to turn off the lock so they can set up services, but this is not required to set up any service its only for transfering the domain to another registra.

5) Additional Domain Services

When going through your purchase flow you will be offered a number of additional services, none of which are required. Web hosting will be needed if you do not have your own server, but if you just plan on parking the domain or not using it then why get hosting. Email can be used for your domain with many Internet Host Providers like Granite Belt Hosting. Check with your provider and ask them if you can set up your domain and receive email using your current service. If so there is no need to buy the email service.

Domain registration with a particular registrar does not mean you must use all or any of the services they offer. You can purchase a domain with a registrar and host with a different company.

Private Registration is the only service that must be purchased form your registrar, this product will remove your personal information from the WHOIS database and make ownership of your domain anonymous.

 

 Author:  John Kinney

While almost anyone can have a web site these days it’s much harder to
have a good website. From design aspects to readable content many sites fall
flat. Below I’ve arranged a Top 10 list, because everyone loves a Top 10!
Include a detailed About Us page
The About Us page is a good place
for new visitors and target traffic to find out who you are, why they should
read your content or buy your products, how valuable your site can be, and also
general information about your company, web site, or you.
It’s a good idea to include contact information or at least a clear link to
your Contact Us page. Keep concise and accurate. People want to read about you
but they don’t want a novel. Add important information on this page and point
them to other pages for more in depth coverage.

Include a Contact Us page
Visitors (shoppers, target traffic) need
an easy way to get in touch. Have a clearly marked link for contact information
and include every avenue you receive communication through. Telephone and fax
numbers (both local and 800), e-mail addresses, physical addresses, etc. all
should appear on this page.
To help navigate further, clearly indicate which contacts go where (i.e.
Admin, Tech, Sales, etc.) This will decrease frustration on both ends and allow
better communication to flow. You want to show your visitors that you are
competent and friendly, being easy to contact is one of the best ways to
accomplish this goal.
Add a News, Press Release, Blog, and/or Articles Page
These pages
inform customers of current events, products, endorsements, and other company
happenings all in one place. Make sure to maintain these pages with fresh
content that is reader friendly so your target traffic is more likely to come
back, bookmark your page, and they may even provide word-of-mouth advertising.
Free advertising!
As a bonus, search engines love these types of pages. New, fresh, relevant
content is the stuff of search engines (well, there’s obviously more to it than
just content). Each time a search engine spider crawls your site and find new
content it ups your chances of ranking higher in the organic search listings.
More free advertising!
A Relevant Page Title
As uninteresting as this may sound your page
title holds a lot of weight. If you’re unfamiliar with a page title it is the
name appearing in the blue bar across the top of the page. If your says
something like "Untitled Document" I’m talking to you.
Page titles should be different for every page in your site. They should
clearly and accurately describe your page, and you should try to use keywords in
the page title.
Search engines display the title of your page on SERPs. The catchier and more
accurate your title the better the chance you’ll hit target traffic.
A Relevant Page Name
Again, not so interesting as flashy designs or
up-to-the-minute content, but it’s a necessity to get your target traffic to
your page to see or read the goods.
It’s better to have straightforward page name showing in the URL than names
with ? or other symbols and numbers. For example, a search engine will go to
www.yourdomain.com/about us.htm it will only go to the ? in
www.yourdomain.com/aboutus?094837 . You want search engines to find your pages.
You also want humans to be able to read your names. Keep it simple and
clean.
Good Grammar, Correct Spelling, Complete Thoughts, Sentence
Structure
Everything you were supposed to learn in grade school, use it
now. Not only should your site have relevant content - the more the better -
people should be able to read your content. Choppy or runon sentences that seem
to go nowhere cannot provide the type of readership concise, correct sentences
can.
Misspellings, wrong word usage, bad grammar are all distractions. You do not
want to distract your readers, you want to captivate them. Slang and derogatory
language also distracts. If your site is a business site avoid slang and
offensive language all together - unless that’s your selling point. Jargon is
different, just don’t confuse readers more than necessary.
If you aren’t in command of grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc. or
if you’d rather focus your efforts elsewhere, that’s fine. It’s a good idea to
beg, plead, hire, or force someone else to take care of this part then as
ignoring the problem won’t make it go away though it may have that effect on
site traffic.
Professional Design, Colors, and Images
Design should be
implemented with usability in mind. Not all visitors will be as web savvy as
you’d like, create easy navigation and links to all your pages. A search bar for
your site is also a good idea.
Colors should be inviting, not blinding. Use colors to emphasize your brand,
product or content. Don’t overpower the visitor with colors. Use colors to make
text pop without being distracting or hard to read.
Images should be friendly and relevant to your site. Images of people work
better than objects and clip art rarely has a positive effect. Make sure your
images can load within a reasonable amount of time, you don’t want to lose
visitors because a single image caused an incredible amount of load time, or
worse froze the visitors browser.
Make Sure ALL Links Are Working Links
This should be a no-brainer,
however it is always a good idea to check and double check your links. Fix any
broken links A.S.A.P. Your reputation counts on it.
Think of any site you’ve been to with a broken link. Disappointing isn’t it?
You probably left or at least had a negative image about the company. Avoid this
mistake and check, recheck, and check your links again.


Use Your Log Files
Log files offer a plethora of information on
your web site, your visitors, what works and what doesn’t. You can’t afford to
miss out on this information - if you can afford it you shouldn’t anyway.
Best idea: Get a program that converts the lengthy text into readable
documentation. It’ll save you time and energy while getting you the information
you desire. Log files will describe customer behavior, they will show you broken
links, and you’ll see where customers flow freely and where they abandon the
site. The invaluable information is at your finger tips. Use it!
SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Certificates
These can be used on any
site asking for sensitive information. Not every web site needs this, however if
you plan to collect any visitor information it is a good idea to have some SSL
pages. Though not every page need be SSL.
Pages requiring e-mail, names, telephone numbers, addresses, credit card
information, social security information or any other information visitors may
not readily be giving up online should be securely collected via SSL.

About the Author: Kristen Owen, CEO of ContentWorthhttp://www.contentworth.com/”>ContentWorth> .
hosting/”>http://www.granitebelthosting.com”>Hosting by granite belt host  affordable hosting , domain name registration and free shopping cart install

1. Optimise every page on your website

The major search engines are not looking at individual websites and ranking them, they are ranking pages from every website in the world. This means that if your website contains more than one page you should optimise for the specific content that is found on each page.

Optimising each webpage is overlooked by so many websites within Ireland and can be the difference between competing for a highly competitive keyword phrase such as “Irish Hotels” and competing for a much less competitive keyword phrase such as “Hotels in County Galway”. After that they can check out the rest of your website that is all about “Irish Hotels”.