Domain Names
Registering your domain name is the first step you take when preparing for a web site and one of the most imporant ones.
Your domain name is your customers path to your business. A hard to remember or tricky to spell domain name could lead your customers to the twilight zone or even worse, it could lead them to your competitors.
We recommend domain names that are as close as possible to your company name. If you purcahse your hosting through us then you can always add on more domain names afterwards. These are called subdomains.
If your company is called Daves Shoes you could have your primary domain as davesshoes.com and sub domains like qualityshoescalgary.com. The benefit of doing this would be that you could improve your search engine positioning for the key words Quality Shoes Calgary.
It isn't just the domain name that you have to decide, though. There is also the suffix. The suffix is the part at the end of the domain, i.e the part bolded in orange in this example davesshoes.COM
Some examples of some common suffixes are found below..
| .com | .ca | .co.uk |
|---|---|---|
| .org | .net | .info |
... and there are many more.
You will read many contradictuary arguments on which suffix is best to use, some stating .com is the only way to go. We don't believe this is true. Every website is different and every website targets a different audience. If you are looking for the services of a local company and you are based in Canada then websites with the suffix .ca will probably be more appealing to you then a .com which normally suggests a US or International company.
So if your business was, for example, a flower shop selling only locally in Canada, a .ca would be perfectly fine and probably better for your business than the .com.
If, again taking the same business for the example, you changed the business from a local market to an International clientel, then the .com would probably be the way to go. The different regions can help your customers distinguish where you primarily do business.
If you are a non-profit charity organiztation, the .org would be a good suffix to use.
If your site is primarily just for information and nothing more, then a .info would be perfectly fine.
And also remember as pointed out above you can always get sub-domains so you could have the .ca, .com and .co.uk if you wanted to really look international. The choice is up to you!