How To Select a Domain Name Registrar

You have several options in selecting a company that will register your domain names. Many web hosting companies will provide domain name registration services in addition to hosting that domain. Some of those hosting companies, such as GoDaddy and HostGator, will register one name for free, if you subscribe to their hosting services.

There are also some domain registration services that specialize in registration such as Namecheap and Network Solutions. Do a Google search for domain name registration services. Visit their sites. For the ones that interest you, do a Google search for the registrar's name along with the word "review." Read the reviews from several sources.

You want a company that has been around for a while and that has a price that entices you.

Thoughts On Hyphens In Domain Names

When some one else has already registered the domain name that you want, you may want to insert hyphens into your domain name. Often the name already taken is available with hyphens. As I've noted before, the conventional wisdom frowns on hyphenated domain names. The bulk of that conventional wisdom appears oriented towards the problems searchers might have in guessing your domain. They're correct to some extent.

There's another reason to avoid hyphens in whatever you've selected. Google suspects that any name with more than one hyphen is a spam domain. And if Google suspects that your site is a spam domain, it will adversely affect how Google indexes and ranks your site.

If you put only one hyphen in the name, Google won't discriminate, but searchers will have an even more difficult time remembering. "Thisismydomain.com" is much easier to remember than "This-ismydomain.com."