Domain Names

The Domain Name is the name of your site. It usually looks this www.yoursitename.com. The www stands for "world wide web" and the com is one of several extentions that can be used.
Common extentions include the following - this is not a complete list.

  • gov - Government agencies
  • edu - Educational institutions
  • org - Organizations (nonprofit)
  • mil - Military
  • com - commercial business
  • biz - Business
  • info - Informational site
  • net - Network organizations
  • tv - Television
  • ca - Canada
  • th - Thailand

Domain Names are attached to IP Addresses that have the following format: nnn.nn.nnn.nnn. There is normally one IP address per computer. To see the IP address of your computer Click here.

Domain Names also are used in the URL (Uniform Resource Locator)address line to find your site and all of the pages on your site.



The first thing you want to do when deciding on a website name is to determine if the name you want is available. Most 2 word combinations are taken, unless you have an unusal spelling (but know that this can create problems for people who have only heard the name of your site and have not seen the site name in print.) Click here to see if your site name is available, and some possible alternatives. You can also look up a known site - try www.ddswebdesigns.com - and you can see the information about the owner and location of the site.

When looking for a website name - if possible stay away from plurals (end in 's'). Google search engine will take the 's' off and look for the name without the 's'. Another thing to do is to go to the different search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo) and search for your name. This will give you an idea of how unique your name is and what you will be competing with when people search for your site.

Once you have decided on a name and know that it is available, you must then register your site. There are many sites where you can register your name. It is a good idea to decide on one place (website) and then register all future domain names with the same site. GoDaddy is a very poplular site, but I don't think the shopping cart is user friendly. At any rate, do not spend more than $10.00/year on registering your site name (domain name). You can decide on whether to make your information public or not, that will be an additional cost. If this is your first site, I would not register the name for more than 3 years. This is enough time to see if you want to keep the site and maintain it.

When you purchase/register your domain name, be careful that you are not also signing up to have your site hosted at the same place. This is not always a great idea, and you will probabily pay more than if you went and found your own hosting company. See more on hosting companies.