8 Tips Choosing the Top Level Domain (TLD)

TLD stands for top-level domain. We've learned this from the previous post.

In case you plan to build a professional website, Here are some useful tips you should consider when choosing your domain name.

8 Tips Choosing the Top Level Domain (TLD):
1. The chosen domain should be short, easy to spell, and memorable!
e.g. google.com, yahoo.com, hwdot.com etc.

2. Choose .com, your site will look more professional rather than .info
- However, if you're an organization, you can use a .org domain name.
- Location specific names can be used, such as “.us”, but don’t let it be deceptive.
- You can use your full name for a personal website.
Never use .biz, .ws, .info, or other similar domain names. With the explosion of the Internet (and specifically, the world wide web), The world at large has been educated that domain names end it ".com".

3. Avoid dashes, numbers and hyphens, if possible, because they are confusing to say.

4. Avoid Trademark Names and Typos! you can lose that domain name or even worse.
In the United States, a domain name is viewed as a piece of property that can be sued. You can visit the United States Patent And Trademark Office (USPTO) website to do a trademark search: https://www.uspto.gov/

5. Register with a popular domain registrar with a good record like GoDaddy, NameCheap. (The registrar is the company that sets up your new domain name for you).

6. Domain + Hosting?
Getting www.example.com doesn’t mean you have a web site and you can begin adding new pages to it. You need a space on a web server (hosting) that is fully connected to the internet to store your web site stuff and to point your registered domain name.
a. Newbies:
You can get your domain name and buy web hosting at the same time, from the same place. This means you don't have to "link" them together afterwards. However in the long run, you had better do option B.
b. Experienced users: "Do not keep all eggs in one basket"
It is highly recommended that you keep your Domain Registration and Web Hosting separate for various reasons. What happens if your web host or domain registrar goes bankrupt? You should not register your domain name from the same company that you purchase your hosting package from. There were a few companies that caused problems for people who tried to move their domain names from one registrar to another.

7. Names can be up to 67 characters, including the suffix. Some email programs may not handle more than 26 characters.

8. Remember domains names are not case-sensitive meaning HANDIWIBOWO.COM, handiwibowo.com and HandiWibowo.com are same.