SEO—or Search Engine Optimization—is a tricky, tricky beast. Wouldn’t it be nice if all the best content were rewarded by appearing first in search engine results, and spammers were relegated to page 100? It just doesn’t work that way, though. Spammers are clever and getting more clever all the time, and Google engineers are constantly looking for ways to defeat them.
One thought is that if your company is legitimate, you’re more likely to register your domain for a long period of time. Google is able to see how long your domain has been registered, and how long till your registration expires. The longer for both, the more likely it is that Google will see you as legit.
Network Solutions (and perhaps other domain registrars) are even offering 100-year domain registrations! Let me be clear: a century is overkill. Ten years may even be a bad idea, as we have seen some discussion out there that it becomes difficult to transfer your domain to another registrar and keep your full registration. But anywhere from 5 years to 9 years is a nice long period to register your domain and say to Google “I am here for the long haul and I am a genuine, serious business.”
So where should you register your domain if you’re making a 5-year commitment?
We’ll talk about a few of the most common domain registrars we’ve worked with and the pros and cons.
Register.com. This seems like an obvious choice, right, since the name is register.com? Well, it’s not our favorite. Their help files are not kept up to date, and their interface is not very user friendly, so the functions you need generally seem to be buried several links deep. The pricing is not very competitive.
1and1.com. NOT RECOMMENDED IN ANY WAY. They are the worst. If your billing is not kept up-to-date—and their antiquated system of sending out PDF invoices with obscure account numbers makes it difficult to keep your billing information updated—they send your account to collections. If you let your credit card information expire so your domain would purposely expire, they will send your account to collections. They expect you to actively contact them and cancel the domain registration. We have never seen this with any other registrar.
GoDaddy. GoDaddy is generally one of the cheaper options out there. You can usually find a coupon on retailmenot.com to reduce the price even further. Their interface is nice, but more importantly… web developers tend to be very familiar with GoDaddy, so they can pretty readily make changes if you need them. The one caveat if you’re transferring domains to or from GoDaddy; GoDaddy requires a few extra codes to be input while making the transfer. It’s a bit of an annoyance, but not insurmountable.
Network Solutions. Network Solutions is one of the more expensive domain registrars these days, although it is possible to get a decent deal by calling in and asking. It used to be our top pick, but it’s declined in favor over the years as their customer service has gone downhill. The interface is okay.
Google recently launched its own domain registration service: http://www.geekwire.com/2014/watch-godaddy-googles-fuss-domain-service-poses-serious-threat-traditional-registrars/
We’re withholding judgment on this for now. While it may ultimately be a good option, Google HAS offered domain registration in the past, but it was outsourced to Enom.com, and that made it difficult to change the domain in the future. Above all, we absolutely recommend using a common domain registrar like the ones we’ve listed and NOT registering it through a third party. Why?
Institutional memory is a fragile thing. Say you’re at a large company, and the marketing manager registered a domain 5 years ago. But then that marketing manager moved on a year ago. Now you’re stuck finding out who has the domain and the login information to renew it. It’s going to be a somewhat irritating process to figure out the login information as it is, but if it’s registered with a third party instead of a common registrar, it’s going to be that much worse. Even if you’re not with a large company, it’s still difficult to remember something that you did in 15 minutes 3 years ago… so take that one step to make it easier on yourself!
Tips for Registering Your Domain:
1. Pick a common domain registrar.
2. Search for a coupon or pick up the phone and call the registrar to get the best price.
3. Choose a registration period of 5-9 years to get the best SEO benefits.
4. When registering your domain, do NOT use an email address with that domain name in it. Use an email address you will have access to forever.
5. Record your username and password for the domain registration account in a spot where you’ll always remember it.
6. Set a calendar reminder for the domain expiration date. (Include the username, password, and domain registrar in it to make it easier for yourself!)
If you need help registering a domain, or even gaining control of one you have lost, contact us at 214-321-1110. We would love to help you!
