Do I need to register my website domain name?
The answer is simply yes! First of all, you will need to have an ABN or ACN for your business to do this. The next step is to think about a unique name for your website URL, otherwise known as a domain name. If you don’t need a website for business use, then you can register for a domain ending in .com, .net, .org or .info. You can buy a domain name from any registrar online. However, you will only be able to purchase a domain if it is still available and hasn’t already been taken by another business.
Alternative Domain Names
Because domain names are offered with many different extensions (.com, .com.au, .net.au, .biz for example), many people wonder if they need to purchase every variation that is available. There is no hard and fast rule as to what you ought to do, or which are the right domains for you to own.
The short answer is that you only need one domain, the primary domain. If you do purchase multiples then our recommended configuration is that they all redirect to the primary one. This means that Google will never index the other domains, so it is not a search engine visibility tactic. Rather, it is for preventing other people from having access to using similar domain names to yours. By registering them, no one else can then use them.
Likewise with clever alternative phrases. For example, for a while we used eastgosfordwebsites.com.au as a second website for search engine purposes. Since then we have closed the second website and redirected it to our main website. We still keep the old domain for redirection purposes, but it is no longer boosting our Google visibility because there is no website published on there that can be indexed by Google.
What about shortened domain names?
This can be good if your website is difficult to spell. For example, when I had EastGosfordWebsites.com.au we also thought about using egw.com.au. The best way to use this is to make the long phrase the primary domain, and then set up redirects and email aliases so that the short domain always ends up on the long domain. That way Google can read the full keyword length, and all your printed material can have the shorter length that is easier to type.
Remember if you are using .au then you still need to adhere to the AUDA rules and register it against your ABN.
Domain Name Costs
Usually these are between $25 and $70 per year for you to keep the name associated with your website.
Web Hosting
We recommend buying your web hosting and domain name at the same time – it’s more practical having the one company manage both your domain and web hosting.
MakeWeb Domain and Web Hosting Provider
We offer a domain name concierge service. So we’ll brainstorm with you and then purchase the domain on your behalf, registering it under your business name and ABN. Then we point it to the correct server and configure it all for you.
Likewise with hosting, rather than just giving you hard drive space in the cloud and leaving you to fend for yourself, we do all the configuration and alterations to DNS records which is included in all our hosting packages. That includes email deliverability and ensuring contact forms are sending from your website to your emails and so on. This level of service is unmatched anywhere that we know of.
We can manage the entire process for you. We’re local, affordable and offer Australian business hours customer support. Contact MakeWeb for further information.