Clover

We understand that a lot of organizations who are getting ready to create their first website haven't even thought through the need to actually purchase a web address. The process is very easy to do, and is an essential part of your branding.

We thought it would be helpful for us to give you some tips for choosing a web address. We've seen too many people make mistakes when choosing their domain name. Here are some tips:


1. Keep it short:

Sometimes people want to put their whole name in their address such as www.themanagementcenterofthegreaterlosangelesarea.com. Although that address is probably available, it's probably not a great fit for a couple of reasons. 1) The longer your domain name is, the higher the chance of people misspelling it. 2) The longer your domain name is, the higher the chance of people forgetting it. Plus, think of having an email address with that tacked on the end... Your friends and clients won't want to email you anymore. On the other hand, abbreviations can be just as bad, so you'll still want to choose something that clearly spells out who you are.


2. Hyphens are not a great solution:

If your restaurant is named Main Street Diner, you will probably find that www.mainstreetdiner.com was taken 10 years ago. A common tendency is to add a hyphen, and make it www.main-street-diner.com. Although it might seem like an easy solution, don't do it. First of all, most people will type your address in without a hyphen the first time. This is not ideal on any sort of marketing level. Secondly, whenever you tell someone your web address or email address, you'll have to say "www dot main hyphen street hyphen diner dot com". If you can help it, try not to use a hyphen.


3. Choose a name people can spell:

When you started your business, deciding on the name was probably one of the hardest decisions you had to make. I'm sure at one point in the decision making process, a name came to mind that you thought was cool, but you threw it out because it felt like a stretch - either conceptually or alphabetically. You didn't feel like explaining the abstract meaning of your name to everyone you did business with, or having to spell it every time you said it. For example, let's say you're a financial advisor, who's decided to use the Latin word for "security" for your comany name and website. Having the URL as "www.praemunio.com" would be obnoxious both to your clients and to you. It would require them to ask you how to spell it for them every time. So, try to choose a name for your site that everyone can spell. If for some reason your company is already named something like Praemunio, just make sure you have business cards with you to give to people so you're not stuck spelling it out every time.


4. .net, .biz, .info, are not great solutions:

Again, if your business is named Main Street Diner, it will probably be hard to find a short website address with Main Street Diner in it. Resist the temptation of choosing a catchier name with anything other than .com, .net, or .org after it. Most people will go to the .com version of your name automatically, and they may not even realized that it's your competitor.


5. If you find a name you like, snatch up the .com and .org versions:

This is just a good rule of thumb. You can have your preferred address as your main site, and have the other address(es) point to your site. It's probably around an additional $10 a year, but this ensures that no one else takes a similar domain and potentially confuses your audience. It's probably good to grab .net also if it is available. If you're curious how to bounce the names to the address you want, give us a call and we'll walk you through it. It's really easy.



Purchasing your website address:

This process is very easy, although a lot of companies try to upsell you with dozens of unnecessary additional products. There are many places you can buy a domain from, but a couple of the most common are register.com and networksolutions.com. You can start there and search to see if a specific domain name is available. If it is, you can buy it (or "register" it).

As you go through this process, here are some things to remember:

1. Don't buy anything else: Clover provides your hosting, so all you need to purchase is the domain name.


2. Choose "domain privacy" or "private registration" if it's offered: This simply ensures that you don't get a bunch of spam at your email address.


3. Save all of your info (Username, Password, etc): You will need to be able to sign back into your account so you can point this website address to your Clover website.


4. Once you have your domain, enter it in Clover's system. You can enter it when you purchase your Clover website, or you can put it in later in the "Launch Your Website" box on the Greenhouse Dashboard. If you need any help along the way, feel free to call or email us!


Now that you have your web address, you're ready to set up your email. If you'd like a walkthrough on that, read our help article on Setting Up Your Email.

If you don't need to set up new email, you can skip straight to Launching Your New Site.