To start a new website, you’re going to need two things:
- A domain name (it’s your website name like weeblytutorials.com)
- Hosting (where your website lives on the internet)
For the hosting, we’re going to use Weebly site builder which, itself, can be used for free, however, a domain name can cost you anywhere between $10 – $15 a year. We’re still good as this costs less than a Starbucks coffee, so it won’t break the bank.
Having your own top level domain name looks a way more attractive and professional than if your website is being shared with a free subdomain (like yourwebsite.weebly.com), and it’s really affordable, too.
Top 6 Tips for Choosing the Best Domain Name
When launching a website, choosing a domain name is something that you can usually worry and stress about. It’s something crucial as you don’t want to make a mistake when doing so. To make things easier for everyone, we are listing here our top 6 tips that you can use to choose the perfect domain name for your website.
1. Stick with the most-known Top Level TLDs – preferably the .com.
Domain names around the world usually end with .com, .net or .org, but in recent years, plenty of domain TLDs have come out, ranging from .club, .computer to even .sucks.
The best advice that we can give here is to avoid as much as possible using the new TLDs. In short, we simply always recommend going with a .com domain. A .com domain is still by far the most popular and credible TLD. It’s also the most memorable extension that anyone can think of. A Newer domain like .bar or .photography can seem untrustworthy.
2. Use keywords
One of the most important facts in a domain name is the keyword use. By using keywords, the different search engines will know directly what your website is about. This for sure, along with unique, high-quality content will help rank your website higher on Google.
We admit that it’s pretty difficult to find a superb domain with your target keywords. Most of them will be already registered. You will need to be patient, innovative and associate your keywords together to make your domain stick out.
3. Keep it short
Before you register a domain, ask yourself: Is it memorable? While keywords are for sure important, it’s not recommended at all to take a long domain. It’s better to have a domain name that’s short, clear and memorable. Because if it’s not the case, I mean your domain is too long or something, users may forget it easily
4. Make it catchy, easy to pronounce and spell
You may share your domain name with anyone. We advise making it easy to pronounce and spell. This will make it automatically memorable for everyone.
5. Keep it brandable
For instance, if you make a website about books then best-books-website.net is not a good choice: bookstore.com or readabook.com is a way better and brandable. You may also want to take a look at other websites with similar niche so you find out what names they’re using
6. Avoid hyphens
It’s recommended to register a domain with hyphens.
This can be a sign of spam domains, in which you do not want to be associated with. Typically, hyphenated domains are not the way to go with a professional website.
Where do I get mine? Best Place to Register a Domain Name
For the domain names, we’ve mostly used www.Bluehost.com (one of the oldest brand names when it comes to web hosting & domain registration) as our main domain registrar for almost all our projects. For sure, you can try any other domain registrar, we just recommend BlueHost as we have used it for years and everything so far has been going great. We’ve also gone out of our way to negotiate exclusive offers with them for our users. So save yourself some money and go with a recommended domain registrar.
Getting your own top level domain will also get you a personalized email address: hello@yourwebsite.com – way more professional than any other standard free email provider.
Free Domain Registration with a Paid Weebly plan
If you’re launching a new Weebly website, then it’s a smart move to take advantage of this offer and get your domain name for free. Otherwise, you may always connect your domain name that you’ve purchased from any registrar to your Weebly.
Final Thoughts
If you are starting a website for the first time, then you may find our ultimate guide on how to start a Weebly website helpful because it walks you through everything step by step.
You may also want to check out our Weebly deals page to find the best discounts on your new domain and other web services.
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Great article and it sounds so simple. I look forward to to working with you.