|
What is
a domain name?
The purpose of a domain name is similar to that of a street
address or telephone number. The domain name directs
customers to you on the Internet. The domain by itself is
not your email or web address. The domain does form the
base from which these addresses are derived.
For
example:
Company Name: Websites 4 Small Business
Domain Name: web4business.com.au
Web Address: www.web4business.com.au
Email Address: info@web4business.com.au
Do I
need to register a domain name to have a website?
The
simple answer is NO. You do not need to have your own
domain name. Your website can be created and hosted without
it. Your website address will look something like this:
www.web4business.com.au/JBCleaning OR
www.ozemail.com.au/~JBCleaning
The only advantage of not registering a domain name is that
you will save yourself A$70 per year (it costs approx A$140
for 2 years to register a '.com.au' domain name). The
disadvantages of NOT having your domain name include:
1. If you decide to change your Webhosting company or if
that company goes out of business, you will lose your
website address. Your website can be transferred to a new
company, but your address will change. And that means
re-printing stationery and re-doing all your advertising,
notifying all your customers etc.
2. Website addresses that contain information other than
your company name are long and hard to remember and do not
appear as professional. Compare these two and see which one
you are more likely to remember
www.ozemail.com.au/~JBCleaning OR
www.JBCleaning.com.au
So it is
a good idea to register a domain name, even if it is just to
protect yourself for the future. Say for example, your
business name is JB Cleaning and you decide not to register
your domain name for now.
Along comes Joe Bloggs who opens his own cleaning business
and registers JBCleaning.com.au domain name. After a year
you decide you want to have your own domain name, but since
Joe Bloggs already owns it, you won't be able to register
it. Not to mention your customers who know your business
as JB Cleaning may visit his website, thinking it's your web
address and instead hire Joe Bloggs Cleaning.
What does it all mean?
A domain
name normally consists of 2 parts - your company name and
the organisation type/region. For example with the domain
web4business.com.au – web4business is the company name or a
name derived from it. The .com.au indicates that Websites 4
Small Business is a commercial organisation in Australia.
|
.com.au |
Commercial Organisations in Australia |
|
.net.au |
For network infrastructure and Internet Service
Providers in Australia |
|
.gov.au |
Australian government and semi-government
departments |
|
.org.au |
For clubs and various forms of affiliation groups in
Australia |
|
.edu.au |
Australian educational institutions |
|
.asn.au |
Australian associations |
|
.com |
Commercial organisations in the United States |
|
.net |
For network infrastructure and Internet Service
Providers in the United States |
|
.gov |
US government and semi-government departments |
|
.edu |
Educational institutions in the United States |
Choosing a domain name
Domain
name allocation is governed by a set of rules to ensure that
no misuse of domain names occurs. Domain names must be
unique within .com.au and should not contravene anyone
else's right to the use of the name. Domain names must be at
least two characters long and contain only alphanumeric
characters. Traditionally, Australian commercial domain
names could not be common English dictionary words (e.g.
lawyer.com.au or phone.com.au) or place names (e.g.
Sydney.com.au). However, this system is under review and
some such 'generic' names are becoming available.
The domain name that you request must closely resemble your
existing registered company or business name (e.g. a company
named Acme Oils Pty Ltd could register one of the following
domain names - acme.com.au, acmeoils.com.au, ao.com.au,
provided they are not already taken. Acme Oils Pty Ltd would
not be able to register impact.com.au, oil.com.au or
goodoil.com.au because they do not resemble the registered
business name closely and they are common English dictionary
words.
When you register your business domain name, the registering
authority requires an ACN (for companies) or an ABN (for
sole traders). Once the domain name is registered through a
national body, webhost's servers must then be set up to
identify the domain name as a unique address, and to
propagate it through the rest of the internet to ensure it
can be accessed all over the world.
Domain Name Checklist
The
following checklist will help ensure that your domain name
is not rejected.
- You must supply the legal name of the organisation.
- You must supply your ABN, CAN or Business Number
- Domain name must be at least two characters long.
- Domain name must contain only alphanumeric characters (ie.
A-Z, 0-9) and hyphens (-).
- Domain name must not start or finish with a hyphen.
- Domain name must be directly derived from the legal name
of the commercial entity,
Once you
have decided on the domain name that you would like, you
need to check if it is available. To check, visit:
MelbourneIT –
www.melbourneit.com.au
Final Tips for Your Domain Name
- Under NO circumstances should you use your domain name in
advertising material, office
stationery until it is officially approved.
- Try to keep the number of letters in your domain name to a
minimum.
- Domain names are not case sensitive. But you can use upper
and lower case to improve the readability of your domain
name. eg. Web4Business.com.au.
 About the Author: Ivana Katz, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Ivana Katz is the owner of Websites 4 Small & Growing Business, a company specialising in the design and promotion of small and growing business websites. She believes that every business deserves to have a successful website, no matter what its budget is. info@web4business.com.au - http://www.web4business.com.au
This article can be republished for free as long as the author information and website links are included.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
