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Here are some important tips to think about before you register a domain name.
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1. Protect your Strategic Domain
It can be confusing and frustrating if your customers land on a different site because they typed in the wrong extension. Your best strategy for protecting your online brand is to own every possible extension (.ca, .com, .net, .org, .biz and .info).
Using Extensions Effectively
Customers make assumptions about the size, location and nature of your business based on which extension you use.
Which extension should you be promoting? That depends on what message you want to send to customers. Consider promoting different extensions in different contexts and with different customers.
| Here are the traditional associations for domain name extensions: |
| .ca | Brands your company as home-grown and may encourage customers to "buy Canadian." |
| .com | Suggests a global-focus and international base. |
| .net | Traditionally used to designate a network of companies or strategic partners. Now interchangeable with .com for most web-users to suggest a global company or organization. |
| .org | Traditionally used to designate a non-profit organization. There are no longer rules barring for-profits to use this extension; however, its traditional significance still holds for most web-users. |
| .biz | .biz is a restricted gTLD approved by ICANN. Domain names registered under .biz must be used for business purposes.
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| .info | Your opportunity to reach a worldwide audience with information about you, your ideas, or your organization. |
2. Only Alphanumeric Characters and Hyphen Allowed
Any combination of letters from the alphabet and roman numerals is acceptable.
Remember
- NO spaces between words
- You cannot begin or end a domain name with a hyphen (it must be surrounded by alphanumeric characters)
3. Make it Descriptive
The goal is to make it easy for your customers to remember your website address and associate it with your products or services.
More Ideas
- Use your name - by including your company name in your domain, you help customers find you on the Internet
- Use keywords - these are words that come to mind immediately to describe what you offer your customers
4. Shorter is Better
It also happens to be harder to obtain short, descriptive domain names that are available for registration.
Limitations
- For .ca extensions, domain names must be less than 50 characters (including extension)
- For .com, .net and .org extensions, domain names must be less than 67 characters (including extension)
5. Keep it Simple
A domain name that's easy to remember and spell will increase the number of hits to your site - and more importantly - improve the recall of your website address among your target customers.
6. Plan Ahead
Experts suggest that at the current rate, the Internet will run out of addresses by 2005. Get in a good position for the rush. Reserve your domain name now, even if you're not ready for a website.
Check the availability of your domain name with Canadian and International registries here.
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| * Special Rate of $25/year for clients with more than 25 domains. |
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