Once an individual or a company has decided to have a website, the first step is to engage the services of a reputed web designer and development company to get a website designed. While entrusting the design and development job to a design and development services provider, clear and lucid ideas must be given about the type of website the customer wants.

Once the design and development is ready, the next important step is the registration of the website. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN is the authority where the website has to be registered. This has to be done through an approved Domain Registration Services provider or web hosting agency. If registering through a web hosting agency, make sure that the name is registered in customer’s name only to prevent future misuse.

Choose a good name or website address and get it registered without wasting time. There are hundreds of reputed website address registries available and choose a reputed one amongst theme. Once the names are registered, the website has to be pointed to the address through DNS servers.

While choosing a registrar, make sure that the registrar has transparent fees structure, registers and maintains ‘whois’ records which are accessible to the website owner, offers sufficient storage space in server, has minimal downtime of servers and provides quality privacy-assured email services.

Website address registration is full of tricks and pitfalls. Always verify what you get finally and never go only for cheap rates. Sometimes it is worth the effort to pay higher fees for real quality work. The general complications that arise as a consequence of registering with malafide registrars are many and damaging. The unscrupulous registrar could sell the valuable domain name by registering it in their name instead of the website owner. The registrar could disappear overnight leaving you in the lurch.

Deciding upon a name for your website is almost like naming your child; once it’s named, that’s it and you can’t change it, well, you could but it will cost you. Your website name represents you and your company; it should be meaningful and hopefully something that someone can easily remember. What is involved and why is a good name so important?

Time – Take time to create names. Use key words and try to leave out words such as best, greatest or superior because they don’t actually give any information. The name should reflect the product. If you look at any of the major products on the market today, you will find that the website name is actually the name of the product. For example, SC Johnson’s cleaning product Scrubbing Bubbles has its own website called scrubbingbubbles.com. It is simple, easy to remember and to the point.

Individualize – How one comes up with names will vary on the person and how they work as an individual. A quick and easy (yes, I said easy) is to brainstorm and just list whatever comes to mind. First think about what you are offering and everything that it can do. Then start writing and even if it sounds funny or stupid to you, write it down. If you want a different point of view, ask someone else to brainstorm for you or with you. When you are done, you will have a number of words and/or phrases that you can use to begin creating a name.