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What is Domain? A 3-Minute Quick & Insightful Guide
The first thing you need to know when you want to set up a website is knowing what is domain, how it works and how is it different from web hosting.
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Tech & Innovation
Clueless About What is Domain Name?
The first thing you need to know when you want to set up a website is knowing what is domain and how it works.
What is a Domain Name
Domain name is simply the unique URL name for your website, where others can identify your website with.
Like WordPress.com is the domain name for WordPress Blogging Services.
The name of this website is sbo.sg, which our visitors identify us with.
It is like the business name of your company; it is the name of your website.
Domain is Not Web Hosting
This is one of the most confusing things, especially for business owners who are new to setting up websites.
Domain name is not equal to hosting.
Web hosting is like having an office space for your website.
Like how you need a physical office space for your business.
You register a business name and you will need to rent an office space.
For website, you register a domain name and you will need to rent a web hosting space.
The below is an illustration explaining what is domain and what is web hosting?
Best Practices for Buying and Registering Domains
The Domain Must be Owned by You!
Sign up for an account with well-known registrars such as GoDaddy.com under your own name if you are getting for your own businesses.
Never get a website developer to register the domain name for you under his/her own account.
It is like giving an interior designer your title deed for renovating your house.
No one should own the name except for you. As professional web designers, we usually advise our clients on how to secure and maintain their own domain registration needs.
Recommended Domain Registrars
At SBO, we only use 2 domain registrars, GoDaddy, and Vodien.
We will use Vodien to register .sg domains while GoDaddy will be used for all other purposes.
How Much Does it Cost to Secure a Domain?
For .com domain, it usually costs around USD$20 per year and .sg domain, it will usually cost around SGD$60 per year.
The price will be vary depending on which registrar you are using.
The more popular domain names will be retailing at much higher prices, which can go up to 5 figures.
Local Presence
Do note that for certain country-specific domains, you are required to have a local presence / locally registered entity in the specific country before being allowed to purchase the domain(s).
Private Domain
During the process of domain registration, you are given an option of purchasing privacy add on, which hides your private information.
This means other folks will not be able to find out who owns the domain name and their private details.
Domain Renewal
Owning the domain does not mean you will own it forever, there is usually a renewal period depending on how long you signed up for initially.
Keep the “Auto-Renew: option on and the payment method valid, you will safeguard yourself from losing the domain.
Your Name is your Brand
Choosing a good domain name form the foundation of your future digital marketing success.
It is in our opinion that the name of your website should be something that reflects your brand name and targeted market in the long run.
While you can choose a domain name purely for the chances of boosting your SEO ranking, it will not be ideal for future brand growth.
This kind of SEO tactic is called the Exact Match Domain.
For example, we can get ourselves a domain called “webdesign.sg” and get rank easily for web design related keywords such as web design singapore.
However, we would like to deploy a more future proof approach to growing our brand name in the global industry, thus we used sbo.sg instead.
You should also know that Google Algorithm reduces low-quality Exact Match Domains from their search results.
Further Resource
How to Choose a Domain Name for Maximum SEO
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