A guide to website hosting and ecommerce

Establish Your Online Identity

The first step toward e-commerce is selecting the name of your site. Your web address (also known as a URL-Uniform Resource Locator — or "domain name"), tells customers who you are and how to find you on the Internet. It is the core of your Internet identity — your online brand. And because no two parties can have the same Web address, this online identity is totally unique.

What's In a Name?

Quite a lot, actually. Remember that your domain name not only tell customers exactly how to find your business on the Web, but also it communicates and reinforces the name of your business to each web site visitor. It can be used as part of your e-mail address. This reinforces your online identity. Keep these tips in mind before you choose:

Make it memorable.

"Amazon.com" is much catchier domain name than "booksonline.com."

Describe your business.

Another approach is to simply and logically describe your business. "Flowers.com" works perfectly for a florist. And if you are setting up an online presence for an established business, keep the name of your site the same as the name of your business.

Keep it short.

The best domain names are those that customers can remember and type into their browsers after seeing or hearing them only once, so complicated strings of words like "onlinemusicstore.com" don't work as well as a simple phrase: "music.com."

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