I receive a lot of emails with questions about domain names, how to renew them, where they should be registered, etc. I thought I would take a moment to review some tips to help you with your domain name.

1. What is a domain name?
A. A domain name basically exists to provide a more memorable name than a numeric IP addresses. Here is what wikipedia.org has to say about domain names.

2. Where can I register a domain name?
A. There are many places to register a domain name. Here are a few of the big companies that have beeen doing it for a while and have reasonable prices – www.godaddy.com, www.networksolutions.com or www.webnames.ca (for .ca’s)
(this is where we register ours)

3. How can I see who owns a domain name? or where it is registered?
A. I really like coolwhois.com as it gives you quick accurate information for almost any domain name extension. You can see where a domain name is registered, where that domain name points to and most importantly who owns the domain name.

4. How many years should I register/renew my domain name for?
A. Lots of chat around the Internet suggests that Google and the other major search engines look at the expiry date of your domain name as a way to determine the legitimacy of a website. Spammy websites don’t usually have their domain name registered for too far into the future. The same thought goes for when a domain name was registered. The theory is that if your domain was registered 4 years ago and is prepaid for an additional 10 years that your website is more “legitimate” than a website who’s domain was registered yesterday for 1 year. Here is some more on this topic here and here. Plus keep in mind that Google is a domain registrar which gives them access to the domain data.

5. Are you interested in buying a domain name that is already registered?
A. Check out snapnames.com as they have a solution that “snaps” names right after the expire. The idea that their system will watch the domain name you want and if it becomes available it will “snap” it up for you.