Registering Your Website Domain Name

You will first need a domain name. This is what you type into the URL box to go to your website or any website. It’s a
unique location directing users to your website location. Examples include: www.google.com or www.yournewwebsite.net or www.yournewwebsite.org

Every domain name has a suffix that indicates which top-level domain (TLD) it belongs to. There are only a limited
a number of such domains. For example:

• .gov – government agencies
• .edu – Educational institutIons 
• .org – Organizations (nonprofit) 
• .com – commercial business
• .net- Network organizations
• .co.za –  South African Top-level domain 

Registering your domain with a specific extension emits a different online presence to web surfers. For example, yoursite.com is a generic domain but yoursite.biz will straightaway tell your audience that you’re doing business. However, there are no hard and fast rules on which one you should use. Basically, it’s up to you.

Domain Name Availability

You can check if a domain name is available by visiting any hosting provider and continuously checking a variety of domain names to see if they are available. Once your domain is registered it will remain registered for a year meaning it cannot be registered by other users. Be sure to set the details such as registrar email and contact to that of your business and employ whois privacy to stop users extracting information about you. 

Alternatively, New perspective Design offers domain name registration for clients free.