How To Select The Perfect Domain In 2020
Your domain name is the virtual face of your business. It builds your brand and attracts the attention of search engines and target customers.
Read on to find a custom-checklist of factors for picking the right name for your dream business. Additionally, discover the five types of web hosting packages and the top hosting service providers.
Important Factors To Consider When Choosing A Domain Name
Whether you’re interested in building an online presence for your business or yourself, selecting the domain name requires planning.
Here are the top things to keep in mind when doing so:
- Use a popular TLD: Top-level domains are installed at the end-zone of your online address. The top three are .com, .net, and .org. The one with the highest memorability and trust score is .com
- Pick a creative name instead of a generic one: You’ll need to focus on a brandable name by using catchy-new words or existing synonyms in your niche. If you’re stuck, use a name generator like Wordoid or DomainHole
- The right size of domain name: 12 is the best number of characters for a domain address. However, shorter is always better. Keep in mind that the best range is between six and 14
- Ease of use: Passing the radio test is important for a website name to succeed. It must be easy to pronounce and type. Moreover, avoid unusual characters such as hyphens and numbers
- Trademark infringement: Go to Google or social media channels like FB, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn first. Next, check if businesses from your shortlisted names already exist
Choosing The Right Hosting Service Provider
Once you have an idea about the domain name, the next step is to determine the right hosting package for your business. Take a look at the list of top six web hosting services to help determine which is the best for your business.
- The shared plan is the cheapest package where several sites share one server. While it’s good if you’re new to hosting, such a plan also exposes your site to numerous problems such as hacking, downtimes, or slow loading times
- Virtual private server (VPS) is perfect for developers, ecommerce sites, and SMEs. It’s safer, more affordable, and more flexible than the shared plan
- The dedicated server offers businesses the entire server to host their website. Such a plan is expensive but offers root access and complete control over hardware and software specifications. It’s ideal for SMEs with large traffic or websites that require superlative security. However, you’ll have to complete admin tasks on your own unless you pick the managed package
- The reseller plan is when you buy hosting space and resell it to your customers with a profit markup. It’s perfect for professionals like developers, content writing agencies, design firms, and similar businesses with an established clientele
- The cloud server is akin to the VPS package and relies on multiple servers around the world to keep your site up and active. It’s a pay-as-you-go plan that’s perfect for businesses that can’t afford a second of downtime
- Niche hosting plans include customized servers for WordPress, gaming sites, or ecommerce sites
Top 3 Web Hosting Services
Now you know just how vital domain names and hosting packages are for creating the perfect domain. Here are the top companies that offer the best hosting plans.
HostPapa
From $7.99 per month to $249.99, this service provider offers a free domain name on its starter pack. It’s a green hosting company with an uptime guarantee of 99.9%.
You can select from shared, superfast VPS, reseller, or ecommerce hosting packages. Additionally, you get multi-lingual support and Cloudflare CDN here.
A2 Hosting
This service provider offers some of the cheapest plans on the market, with plans ranging from $2.96 to $99.59. The best thing is that it offers 20x faster speed than its competition and has an uptime of 99.9%.
Recommended for its reseller packages, the company also sells shared to VPS and dedicated hosting plans.
FastComet
Established in over 70 countries, FastComet is a hosting service with over ten worldwide data centers. While the uptime is unsupported, plans start at $2.95 for shared servers with SSD and go up to $349 per month for dedicated servers.
The host’s best attraction is you’ll get a free domain and an uptime of 99.9%.
