Small Business Design Resources

Quick Tip: Register Your Domain Name for More than 1 Year

If your domain shows that it’s expiring in less then a year, the search engines see your website as not being stable and they may deduct points for SEO. It’s best to register your domain name for more than a year to show the search engines that you have a stable website and that you’re not a temporary spam site.

How to Start a Website

I get many questions from small business owners asking about website basics. So much of what is written seems to be written by those, and for those, who already know what they are doing when it comes to having a business website. So let’s take a step back and review a few basics, because I know from talking to small business owners that there are many of you who will appreciate this information.

The two must have things to having a website live on the Internet for everyone to see are a domain name and a hosting account. Let me explain what those are and pointers on few other things that are needed to get your website online:

1. Domain Names
   A domain name is what you call your website. It is also referred to as an address or a URL. This is what the user will type in the browser to find your business. You must use a unique domain name that no-one else is using. The Internet is built using many large computers, called servers that know how to talk to each other using special addresses, called an Internet Protocol addresses or IP addresses. When you create a name like MyBusiness.com you need to register the domain name so that:
   • No-one else can use it
   • The internet servers will know how to find it by assigning an IP address to it

There are many organizations that will register the domain name for you, but we use and recommend startlogic.com.

2. Domain Name Extensions

By convention, a .com address is a commercial business and is the most widely used in the world. Other conventions used in the U.S. are .edu for educational facility, such as a university, .org for an organization such as not-for-profit organizations, and .gov used by government websites. After .com, .net and .org are the most memorable extensions. Different countries use different conventions, generally used to indicate their country. For example check out www.google.ca (Canada’s Google), www.google.com.mx for Mexico’s Google, and www.google.co.uk for the United Kingdom’s Google.

3. Hosting a Website

Some organizations only give you the name – they don’t give you a space for your website. Lets compare this to a P.O. Box. When you just get a domain name it’s like getting a P.O. Box address, you can’t actually move your stuff in there. The whole purpose to have a business website is to attract visitors to your products/services, for this hosting is required. Some companies will both register your domain name and host your website. However, domain and hosting providers can be different for one site. Again we use and recommend startlogic.com for your website hosting needs.

4. Building a website

Registering a domain name and signing up with a hosting provider does not necessarily mean you have a website live online. What you have is a space for your website to live online. Let’s take an example of a physical retail store. To have an actual brick and mortar retail store, you need to lease a space, so once you sign your lease you can move in your products and organize your store. Same goes for a website, domain name is your address, hosting is your space and now you need to build a website for your customers to view your products/services. There are two ways to build your business website. You can learn how to build your own or have a professional web designer do it for you. Building your own is the most cost effective way to put up a website but it means you have to spend time to learn something about building and maintaining it, that means taking you away from your business duties. Having a professional web designer create your website will assure you that your website is built right, user friendly and free you to work on your business.

5. Working with Design Leap

Choosing Design Leap to build your business website means you have a one-on-one relationship with a professional designer to guide you and answer all your questions while developing a business website that is targeting your ideal customers. This is the way to go if you’re looking to save time and money in the long run.

How do I change my domain DNS record?

Specific steps on how to change your domain DNS record varies from one provider to another, but basically all you have to do is ask your hosting provider for their DNS which will look something like this:

Primary Nameserver: ns1.hostingcompany.com

Secondary Nameserver: ns2.hostingcompany.com

Then you will need to go to your domain registrar (the place where you purchased your domain) and look for DNS change or something similar to this in the control panel. Some companies won’t let you do it through your control panel, so you would have to contact them and give them the new DNS names.

It’s important to remember that the actual update might take anywhere from 24-48 hours to change.

Quick Tip: Domain and Hosting providers can be different for one site

Once you’ve registered a domain name for example with Godaddy.com, you’re not obligated to purchase their hosting services for your website.

You are free to choose another hosting provider for your website and all you would need to do is change the DNS (Domain Name System) settings on your domain name to direct to your hosting provider. Find out more about DNS.