Talking to a client recently about domain names, this overview of our conversation gives some good points about domain names and where it should be registered and hosted:
[Website Client] I must stress that I am at the very early stages of setting up my company and that is is NOT a web based service. I see the web site as a necessary part of good business practice but not as an essential part of winning work, which will largely come through open tenders. I Googled a range of businesses that operate in a similar market. Some have ‘exotic’ names (Pegasus, Morpheus, Sapphire,etc) – others have more specific names IT Consultants, IT Evaluation Services ‘its on the tin’ type brands. Will transferring the domain we bought cost us? How much does hosting with you cost?
[Delicious Webdesign] Understand your company not being a web-based business but as you know its inevitable that people know you have a website and can find the info they want on your website during the tender process and we will do our best to ensure you end up with a website that enhances your tender winning potential.
The choice of domain name is largely yours (depending on whats available of course) but I would choose a ‘it does what it says on the tin’ type name personally to give you that ‘SEO’ benefit and the ‘clickability’ benefits where a potential client will be drawn to your domain in a search results page as they can see what you are about just by your domain name.
It will cost us initially but that cost is part of the package deal, after the end of the first year your costs will be the same as if you didn’t transfer, so you will just pay the hosting fee of £45 per year. Very very few clients choose to register and host their own websites and its probably cost effective for you to have your websites on our register and our hosting. Additionally it reduces your admin as you only have one company to deal wit.
