Get a Life, Buy a Domain Name

By Lee Hodgson

Web-hosting companies are beginning to offer free domain names; or to put it more accurately, free Web addresses.

By signing up for these services, you get a free address.

Great, you think, no need to go to the trouble and expense of registering a domain name. But is there a catch with these free Web addresses? You betcha!

First, understand the makeup of a typical free Web address. Let's use http://yourcompany.webhostingcompany.com as an example. The .com will be familiar to everyone. It is often called the domain extension, or top-level domain (TLD). It can be .com, .net, .org, .tv etc. Moving left we have webhostingcompany, which is called the domain name, or second-level domain (SLD).

Left-Leaning Tendencies

As we move left again, things begin to get interesting. For most Web sites, this will be www, but with our example it is yourcompany. So what's going on here? Is our example name still part of the World Wide Web? Yes it is. What's happened is the Web-hosting company set up what is known as a "sub domain" or host for the domain name webhostingcompany. They have not registered an extra domain name but added an extra entry to their domain name service (DNS).

"So what?" I hear you say. "The Web hosting company has set up a Web address for me. What do I care if it is a real domain name or just a sub domain?" Well you should care, and if you are planning to run a business with one of these sub domains, you must care. It could be the difference between launching a successful online business or a three-month disaster.

It might be a cliché to say that first impressions count, but in the online world it's undoubtedly true. And what's the first impression people get of your online business? Your Web address, of course. Do you want potential customers to think you can't even afford $20 (U.S.) for a domain name? How many Web sites using free sub domains have you bought a product from recently? No, me neither.

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Ex.  GFCOATM (Medium)      Basic: $35.20 ea.       Posted Upgraded Price:  $17.60, (at Intlwholesale.com)    Actual updated Upgrade Prices on New UPG Members site:  (this is what you will see on the new UPG Site)

UPC Each Weight Case Weight Carton Cubic Foot Case Pack Available   3.900 39 10 1944 Warranty Catalog Origin Product Code Next Shipment 036B China Giftware Clothing 4-29-2002 Price Count Each: $17.60 1 Case: $16.72 10 Quantity: $0.00 0 You can see the value in the upgrade, right?  If you were to order 3 jackets, you would have paid for the upgrade in the savings of $51.15 if you compare the price discounts.

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Short Is Sweet

It is well accepted that Web addresses need to be as short is possible. Even if people can remember long addresses, nobody wants to type them in repeatedly; and the longer the address, the greater the chance it will get misspelled or mistyped.

Your Web address will appear on printed business cards, letterheads and marketing material. The longer it is, the less room you have for your sales message.

Using an accelerating trend in the domain name world, name-savvy companies now use two- and three-letter domain names. Andersen Consulting is ac.com, and Major League Baseball recently bought mlb.com. You probably can't afford one of these really short domain names, but you can avoid unnecessarily increasing the length of your Web address.

The Internet can be a very confusing place, even for experienced users. If people see your site listed as "yourcompany.webhosting.com," they might well type in "www.yourcompany.webhosting.com" simply because they have never seen a Web site address without the "www" prefix. The result? Frustration for users and lost customers for you.

Search Engines Sputter

If the reasons outlined haven't convinced you, here's the clincher: By using a free sub domain, your site is penalized by search engines. Don't believe me? Search engine expert Sumantra Roy of 1stSearchRanking.com explains:

"The reason search engines don't like free sub domains is that people spam the engines using these sub domains," Roy said. "In order to prevent this, search engines often ignore these free sub domains."

So, if you can live without a Yahoo! listing or decent search-engine traffic, and you aren't worried that your sub domain will create a bad first impression or confuse your customers, please stick with it. Otherwise get a life; get a domain name.

The views of our authors don' t necessarily reflect the views and policies of this company or its advertisers.