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What is a "domain name"?
A domain name is the essence of your company's online identity. It is the address your customers use to find information about your products and services on the web. Domain names allow Internet users to type in a name, such as yourdomain.com, to identify a numeric Internet Protocol (IP) address such as 207.15.12.173. The purpose of domain names is to allow users connected to the Internet the ability to find website's without having to memorize the long, numerical (IP) addresses that actually locate the computers or servers on the Internet.
What kinds of things should I consider when choosing a domain name?
Because your domain name will represent your business, you should make sure that the name you choose is memorable, descriptive and that it instills confidence, particularly if you plan on selling goods and services on your website. Your domain name can be up to 67 characters long and can include any combination of letters, numbers and dashes (although it cannot start or end with a dash). A domain name must end with a domain extension, such as .com, .net, .org or .edu. The letters “www” at the beginning of a name are not considered part of the domain name.
I picked out a domain name. How can I find out if it is available?
You can quickly check to see if a domain name is available at www.ravenpcs.com. Locate the Register a Domain Name button in the upper left corner of the site, type the domain name you are interested in, including the extension, and then click Go. Raven Technology will search to see if that name is currently available. If the domain name is already registered, you may want to try variations of the name. Remember, the domain extension is part of the domain name—mydomain.com is not the same as mydomain.net.
Someone else is already using the domain name I want. Is there anything I can do?
Once a domain name is registered, it belongs to the person or company that registered it. If you are really interested in having a domain name that is already registered to someone else, you can contact the owner of the domain name to find out if the name is for sale or you can wait for the registration to expire.
Can I have more than one domain name? Can they both point to the same website?
You can have as many domain names as you like. You can have each domain name point to a different website, or you can have multiple domain names point to the same website (but not to different pages within the same website). Many companies register several domain names and have them all point to the same central website. This is known as a “domain alias.” Registering multiple domain names for the same site not only brings the largest draw to your website, but it also can prevent competitors from poaching your potential customers. When picking multiple domain names—or aliases—for the same website, consider variations of your name such as common misspellings as well as both singular and plural versions of the name.
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