I assume you are done playing around on all the free platforms like Blogger, Tumblr etc. and ready to get down to serious business building your own brand or niche website on a personalised domain. The only question that remains: “Where is the best place to buy a domain name?” Perhaps there is a second important question: “How do I find the perfect domain name?”
I will start by answering the second question first.
How Do I Find The Perfect Domain Name?
Two Types Of Domain Names
There are two types of domain names, the so called brandable domains and then also your keyword rich domains. In general people get caught up way too much in trying to include keywords within their domain. The relevance of your domain in regards to your brand and niche is much more important. Remember, ultimately it is the content that you have on your website that will rank for specific keywords and therefore it is not that important to create a keyword rich domain. If you are able to do so and it is still relevant to your brand or niche then of course it is ideal, but certainly not necessary, as it will only target one keyword, whereas the content on your site is eventually going to target thousands of keywords.
What Type Of Domain Should I Buy?
I personally recommend that you buy a .com domain if you could find one that you like. If not, the second best TLD (Top Level Domain) is a .net or .org. Buying a .com domain indicates to Google that you are the “brand owner” and this gives you more authority in the eyes of Google which will certainly help your content to rank within the search engine of Google. The exception to the rule is probably if you have a local business and would like to rank locally. You will then buy a domain with the extension .co.uk for a local business in the UK for example. However if you have an international business and trying to rank globally, then a local domain extension will not be such a good idea as you indicate to Google that you are aiming to rank for the local market. This however does not mean that you will not be able to rank a .co.uk domain for the global market, but it will prove to be more difficult when having to compete with a .com domain for example.
What Is The Best Place To Buy A Domain Name?
In order to answer this question I will provide you with a table that compares some of the biggest domain name providers in the industry.
NOTE: THESE WERE THE PRICES AT THE TIME OF POSTING, BUT THESE PRICES ARE OF COURSE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
When studying the comparison between some of the biggest names in the domain name industry, it is not difficult to see that there is a clear winner. In fact there is no comparison. It is pretty surreal when considering what value WA (Wealthy Affiliate) is offering in comparison with its competitors. In second place we have Namecheap, if price is the only consideration.
I personally have all of my domain names registered at GoDaddy and I am very happy with their customer service, but the only reason I am with GoDaddy is because in 2010 when I registered my first domains, I was not aware of the existence of WA and I was under the impression that domain name providers are all pretty much one and the same, with no real big difference in regards to domain pricing. At the time I was quite naive and did not realise that there is quite a steep discrepancy in regards to certain essential up sales e.g payment for privacy, SSL certificates, email hosting etc.
Who Can Buy Domain Names From WA?
Unfortunately only premium WA members can make use of this opportunity as WA’s domain name feature is integrated with their hosting platform. The next thing you would have to consider however is a hosting company and if you think that WA’s domain name package is incredible value for money, then wait until you see the hosting they have on offer. Once again, just like is the case with the domain names and their add ons, there is simply no comparison when it comes to the shear value that WA offers in terms of hosting. If you would like to explore WA hosting and its features then you are welcome to read my article: “Top Website Hosting – The Best Hosting Companies Revealed”
Note: WA also takes care of the DNS setup process automatically, there is no need for you to configure the DNS setup.
Out of interest I would like to add that I have not joined WA for their hosting, but for the online business training they have on offer as Wealthy Affiliate is an online marketing training platform in the first instance.
Conclusion And Feedback
If you have no intention of trying out WA, then Namecheap seems to be your cheapest option.
Please do contribute to the comment section should you have any questions or should you like to discuss certain aspects regarding this article.
Great stuff, mate! Thanks for sharing this. The deal at Wealthy Affiliate looks unbelievable compared to other leaders in the industry. It’s good to know where is the best deal. You’ve mentioned an online business training at Wealthy Affiliate. What is the deal with that? Is it included in the price of the domain name or do I pay extra to get the training as well? Thanks! Ivan
Ivan, just like with any other domain name provider Godaddy, Namecheap etc. you have to pay for each domain you are interested in buying. However with Wealthy Affiliate as can be seen in the comparison table in this article your domain Private Security, SSL Certificate, Premium DNS and associated personalised email account is included in the price. This offer is unmatched and unheard of in the domain name provider industry as it is usually with these type of up sales mentioned here where domain name providers are making their big money. With Wealthy Affiliate there are no up sales.
To answer the second part to your question: When you sign up as a premium member of WA then you will have access to WA hosting, full access to all training materials and access to a community of more than 1.7 million online marketers which includes many leading experts in the online marketing world that is happy to support you with whatever question you may have in regards to online marketing. The hosting with WA is free when you are a premium WA member and if you host with WA you will then have access to this unbeatable offer when it comes to purchasing domain names.
You can sign up to WA for free and will be entitled to host a couple of free sites with WA built on their very powerful SiteRubix platform. For a duration of seven days you will have many of the premium features of WA activated in order to test drive WA before making the decision whether you would like to upgrade to a WA premium membership.
The deal looks fantastic. Thanks for your reply.
You are most welcome!
This is looking good and the online training where you mentioned the branded domain name and the keyword rich domain, is good to know.
Dear Sue, I am glad you found this post informative! Wishing you the very best in finding that perfect domain name for your online business.