Domain Name Registration Tips
for Jewelry Websites
First you'll need to decide on a name for your website. Use your jewelry business name if you can, or try to come up with a name that expresses your jewelry and your business, without sounding generic. You may get better results with a website URL that sounds like it’s related to jewelry, rather than something vague like
www.brownenterprises.com.
If your domain name has multiple words in it, you can hyphenate between the words (you can't use spaces) to make it easier for humans to read. Also, search engines can pick out any keywords you want to emphasize in your URL if the words are separated with hyphens.
The downside is that when most people enter a website URL from memory, they don’t think to insert hyphens — so they might not find your hyphenated name that way. However, when you arrange for your domain name registration you could buy two versions of your domain name - one with hyphens:
www.uptown-jewels.comand without hyphens:
www.uptownjewels.comThen, in your domain registration account, you can direct ("point") both versions of your URL to land on your website's home page. That way you won't miss any traffic from people who didn't type in the hyphen.
Come Up with Some Alternative Names
Before you go to your chosen domain name registrar to secure your website URL, think up a couple of alternate domain names. With billions of sites on the web now, your first choice may be already taken.
However, you can also register domain names that end in .net, .info, .biz, and many other options, which may allow you to register the domain name you really wanted, even if someone else already has the .com version of it. Just remember that most people automatically think websites end in .com, so you may lose some traffic if you choose an ending other than .com.
Consider Including Keywords
in Your Domain Name
To rank higher in the search engines for particular keywords related to your site, consider including an important keyword or two in your website URL when you submit your domain name registration. Whatever keywords you choose, they should be very closely related to your jewelry and your business, to draw targeted traffic.
Also consider that many of the people who could arrive at your website by following links from other sites may not choose to click on your link if your site name doesn't convey what they would find on your site.
Shorter URL's Are Easier
Although domain names can contain up to 67 characters, shorter is often sweeter. Long domain names can be extremely cumbersome to work with, and harder for your customers to remember correctly.
Be sure to take the time to think of a great website URL that you'll want to live with for a long time, before you forge ahead with your domain name registration.
Domain Privacy
Another issue in registering your website's domain name is keeping your personal information private.
Unfortunately, the Internet Coalition for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) currently requires that the mailing address, phone number and e-mail address of the person registering a domain be made publicly available through the "Whois" directories. Of course, the downside of that policy is that it opens the door for spammers, marketers, identity thieves, hackers, etc. to mine the Whois directories for personal information about domain name owners.
You can prevent your personal information from being made publicly available by opting for "private domain registration". For a small additional fee, some registrars will replace your info in the Whois database with the contact info of a proxy service in place of yours.
This doesn't completely guarantee your privacy, however. For example, a court order can force the proxy service to reveal all. But private domain registration does make your personal information harder to access.
Recommended Domain Registrar
The domain name registrar I use and would recommend is.
GoDaddy offers a domain privacy option when you register your domain name, automatic renewal of your domain so it doesn't expire, and a very user-friendly system for managing your domain.
For more tips on building your successful jewelry business website:
Jewelry Business Website Tips for Success
Jewelry Website Resources
My top picks for jewelry business website resources, including web hosts, online credit card processing, other forms of online payments, and traffic building. For jewelry business websites, I think these services are the best of the best.
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