How to register a domain name ?

Choose a name

Choosing and finding the correct domain name has become a difficult task nowadays, as so many names are already taken (especially for .com domains) . Here are some tips to help:
  • A short, catchy name, which is easy to spell and pronounce is easier to remember than a longer name, especially for non-native speakers.
  • In the case of commercial sites, the name should reflect the activity or be close to the market segment
  • Be sure that your chosen domain name is not the same or close to a registered trademark.
  • Register the extensions which most suit your business or activities. Having a .com extension is beneficial to any business as well as country specific extensions for your chosen market.
  • People can forget to add a hyphen or plural potentially giving your traffic to other sites or even your competitors. Hyphens are, however, beneficial to be found on search engines.
  • Use keywords relating to your business or activities. This will improve your ranking in search engines.
  • Check the meaning of the name in other languages. Having a name with negative connotations in another language will be disastrous for your business with speakers of that language.
  • For businesses, it is also advisable to register and check for similar names to stop other businesses benefiting from registering them.

Choose your domain name provider

The choice of hundreds maybe thousands of domain name providers will not make things easy. So what are the important points you have to watch out for, especially if you want to register a larger number of domains and knowing that the transfer to another domain name provider will involve a lot of administrative work?

  • How long has the company been in business? A domain name provider which has been in business for 10 years might be more reliable than a beginner.
  • Does the domain name provider have an ICANN accreditation? If yes, it is a big plus because he has to run through all the accreditation checks.
  • Does the domain name provider allow you to control every aspect of your domain? This will make things much easier for you as you will not have to enter a request and to wait days for assistance every time you want to make changes. So be sure you get a control panel and check the functions this panel will give to you!
  • Are there any hidden charges, especially if you want to transfer your domain to another domain name provider?
  • Do they offer you free e-mail accounts and can you send mails via their SMTP server? If yes, how many? 15-20 e-mail accounts should be appropriate, less than 5 would not be enough!
  • Do they offer you big choice of extensions (TLDs)? You might perhaps not need more than 1 or 2 in a first phase, but your business could grow in time and require other registrations!
  • Are their prices reasonable? Don’t forget to compare them to other competitors offering the same services!One thing which is difficult to check in advance is the quality of the global service. Maybe you can perhaps check some forums and find out if your chosen domain name provider is well regarded or not.

Check the availability of the domain name

Once you have chosen your name and your TLD, taking into account that a domain name must be unique, you have to check if it is not already taken by someone else. For this, most of the domain name providers propose a function on their sites to check the availability of the chosen name. If it is taken and if nevertheless you want this specific name, it is worth checking in the name search / WHOIS function (on the domain name provider's site) who is the current "owner", and then contact them, they might be interested in selling it to you!

Register your domain name

Once you have chosen your domain name, you need to register your domain name to be accessible on the Internet. To do this you will have to give your provider some requested information. This information (first name, last name, company name, address, telephone, fax numbers, email addresses etc.) will help to complete the Administrative, Technical and Billing contacts. We advise you to register your domain name with care to avoid any difficulties in the future. If you do not want this information to be made public (this can be found using the Whois /Name search function from registrars and other websites), it is possible to make this information private. This service normally comes at a cost.