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Domain Name Articles
Good domain names
By Clare Lawrence 13th September 2003 Clare is the CEO of Discount Domains Ltd a
leading UK domain registrar
No matter what domain name you buy its unlikely to be worth $ millions straight
away, but with some careful though and preparation you can maximise your domain
names potential.
Using hyphens
Almost every word in the dictionary has been registered already so its more than
likely that you will have to register a combination of words. Should you buy a
domain name with a hypen in it?
Generally speaking the answer is no. There are several reasons why not.
Describing a domain name with hyphens can be awkward. Customers have a habit of
forgetting the hyphen and typing in the wrong URL. It’s a misconception that
hyphens improve search engine rankings, the leading search engines now
concentrate on content and pay only limited attention to the URL itself.
Consider a ccTLD
There is no evidence that Country Code Top level domains (ccTLD’s) are treated
differently by Search Engines, though there can be advantages and disadavantages
if your business is regional Submitting your domain to search engines Once you
have configured your domain to point to your Web site, you will need to ensure
that search engines are aware of it. If they aren't, your site will receive very
few visitors - even if you have managed to find a memorable, snappy domain name.
This can be achieved by either directly submiting your URL to the search engines
through using a submission service such as the free submission service on our
site .
Free
submissions
Please be careful when using automated submission tools as the Search engine are
penalising sites submitted in this way. Ours is manual for this very reason.
Or by linking your site to others, this is the preferred way for search engine
to “discover new sites”.
Ensuring you own your domain
Just because you buy a domain name doesn't mean you own it. Some less reputable
suppliers register domain names in their own name. You can see who owns a domain
name by using a lookup call a WHOIS search e.g WHOIS
If you look at the registrant details the name here is the legal owner. For
example if you enter discountdomainsuk.com you will see the legal owner is us
– Discount Domains Ltd
Selling your domain name
Is your domain name near to expiry? Don't let it lapse without offering it for
sale first, there are lots of good sites who only charge if your domain sells.
You might be pleasantly surprised, domain names have fetched a $1 million before
now!
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Clare Lawrence is CEO of Discount Domains Ltd – A leading UK provider of Domain
name registration and Web
Hosting services. Please feel free to re-publish this article provided this
reference box remains together with a hyperlink to http://www.discountdomainsuk.com
Clare can also be contacted on clare@discountdomainsuk.com.
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