If you want your new website to be successful, one of the most important things that you can do is to have a good domain name. The address that you choose is one of the ways that people are going to be able to identify you , so it is very important that it is one that is short, sweet and to the point. It should also be catchy and very easy to remember. This is all well and good, but you may find out that your perfect domain name is already taken. What can you do then?
You May Be Able to Choose a New Name
One option you have when it comes to finding a new domain name is to simply choose a new one. You may want to use a specific keyword, for instance or a specific theme for your site. Some people might try to add hyphens or underscoring to make their ideal name a reality, but the truth is, those seem to only confuse people. Remember, the more complicated a domain is, the more difficult it will be for people to remember and extra symbols or characters can get you in trouble.
Finding Available Domains
When you choose to get a new name, you will once again need to decide if the name is available. Instead of dealing with the headache of finding this out for yourself, you can use a very simple tool. Known as a whois lookup service, you can contact companies that offer this service in order to not only find out of a domain is available, but other information as well. For instance, suppose you have a great name but do a whois lookup and find the domain is not available at this point. Fortunately this isn’t the only information that you will get. When you do this type of lookup, you can find other information as well, including the date of expiration.
With this date, you can easily see when the registration expires and if it does, it is free game to register yourself. Remember, even if a domain has expired, the owner will have a bit of time to renew it, so you may have to wait a few days in order to make sure it’s yours.
