Hey newbie. We're talking to you. Yeah, you who wants to start your new business. You know you can do this. But how? You have a computer. You have the internet. Guess what? You're ready for this! Proclaim it and Own it! And do you know what you need now? A real, professional, beautiful website and blog! 

But where do you start?

An essential thing that you need prior to building your website is a place for that website to reside, your own little corner of the world wide web. Your domain name is very own digital real estate.

What factors should you consider when choosing and registering your domain name? Here are some things to think about when choosing where your business will ultimately make its home.

What to Use as a Domain Name?

So you've gone through the naming process for your brand and you have the most amazing name ever in existence that perfectly suits you. Ideally, your “.com” will be available for your specific brand name. Queue fireworks and violins, you actually have the one brand name that also gets the exact domain name. Everything will be hunky-dory, and there will be unicorns prancing and choirs singing, but that's not always the reality (especially the unicorns part, no matter how much we wish it was so). What happens if yours is not available?

Plan B – dot what?

If you do not hear music and see celebratory cherubs, you must choose a different route like to many others. The easiest way out of this conundrum and into a domain name is changing your “.com” to a “.co” or “.mom”, “.pizza”, and “.boo” are all actual possible suffixes of your new domain. The sky is the limit. As long as your actual direct competitor is not camping out at the dot com of your dreams, your SEO should not compete. For example, let's say you are the Cloud Company and sell jars of dye-free cotton candy. The people that own “cloud.com” sell toilet paper. If you purchase “cloud.co” you are not competing with the search engine for cloud.com. Just with your actual competitors. No confusion, no foul!

Plan C – Brand Adjacent

Perhaps it's time to pivot? Choosing a domain name that relates back to your brand is definitely a must. Your brand is your calling card throughout all aspects of your business, so having a domain name that is not related back to your business brand can be a problem. If changing just the suffix is not an option, think of other mutations of your brand name that you can search for. Take note of other businesses using similar domain names, especially if they are in your area and in your same line of business. The last thing you want to do is choose a domain name one letter off from a competitor in your market, leading to them getting all of your potential clients. It is definitely important to have a unique brand name, and a unique domain name is equally important.

Time to Phone a Friend

If you are having difficulties, enlist a fresh pair of eyes or two in the form of friends, family members, or fellow Showiteers! There might be ways to relate back to your brand that you haven't yet thought of that they might be able to steer you toward. If there isn't anything available that suits your brand, or your brand name is very common, there is always the possibility open for rebranding to something that is available.

Make Your Domain Name Memorable, Make it Simple

Simple is always better, and you definitely want a domain name to be catchy and memorable. The last thing you want is a ridiculously long domain name with dashes and numbers and crazy spellings. Simple is always better, and catchy is even better still! You definitely don't want someone forgetting your domain name, or confusing you with other businesses in your same area. Shorter names are typically easier to remember than longer ones, and something unique will set you apart from the crowd.

Set Up a Domain

You are the queen. Or king. And you need a kingdom to rule over. Enter: procuring a domain name. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to get one, so we researched four reputable options, and you can pick the one that makes the most sense for you and your business. There are MANY options out. This is not an exhaustive list. And also note that cheaper options are available if you want to go the .blog, .co, etc route, instead of doing a dot com. Figure out what makes sense for your business right now, but also know that it is a pain to make the switch from being ‘daisyphotographer.blog' and then making it big and wanting to switch to ‘daisyphotographer.com' . Have faith that you won't always be a start up!

Google

With domains starting at $12 a year, this is on par with it's competitors.

Their e-mail options are pretty extensive, which comes at a price.

With G Suite, you can create custom email addresses for your domain, such as you@yourbusiness.com, add email aliases, and manage all your mail from one inbox. This is kind of an amazing selling point.

Each user subscription includes 30 GB of online storage, calendar, video conferencing, docs, and more tools for your business. If you need help, the G Suite Support team is available 24/7.

G Suite is $5 per user per month, and you can cancel at any time.

So you are looking at $72/year or $6 a month if you want the amazing e-mail option.

GoDaddy

We've all heard of GoDaddy, whether you watch the Superbowl commercials or not.

Their domains start at $11.99, which is apparently on sale from $14.99. Is it actually ever $14.99? Not sure.

You can also add an e-mail address for $2.99 a month

So you are looking at $47.99 for the year, or $3.99 a month, if you add an e-mail address.

Hover

This is another domain option that came highly recommended by Support Pro, Christian.

It's $12.99 a year. And they have a few e-mail options.

The first is $5 a year to

• Receive mail
• Forward to: Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo! Mail, AOL or any other email address you already use.

Their most popular option though, that is perfect for individuals or small businesses is $20 a year, and it:

• Send and receive mail
• 10GB of storage
• Mail forwarding
• IMAP, POP and Webmail
• Vacation autoresponder
• Built-in anti-spam/virus

So if you went with the cheapest option, you are looking at $18/year ($1.50/month) and the most popular option is $33/year (broken down to $2.75/month)

Yahoo via Aabaco

Yahoo domains start at $10.99 . What a great deal!

Except that to be hosted, and get e-mail, it's an additional $7.49 . They have other incentives to make you pick this option, but if you do, you are looking at spending $

Create a professional website in no time.

Includes easy-to-use tools, a FREE* domain, business mail accounts and $100 worth of search ad credits to help you succeed.

You are looking at spending about $89.89/year or $7.49/month.

Even though the starting price of a domain is the cheapest one we have listed, to get the e-mail option, this is the most expensive.

Set Up Your Domain With Showit

Now that you have your domain picked and paid for, go back into the Showit App, and find the Site Settings.

It's on the left hand side right under your Site's Name.

A box is going to pop open and the second line is going to say: “Custom Domain: Domain Not Set. EDIT”

Hit EDIT.

Then you will answer a few questions that will then give the Support Pros all the info they need to set up your domain.

And then you sit back and wait. Or you can wait and keep tweaking your site!

Wanna learn more?

What's in a Domain Name from our Showit Design Partner Franklin & Willow

Hopefully you found this helpful! You are on your way to getting the website of your dreams, friend! Keep on keepin on.