Choosing a Domain Name
Best Practices
Choosing a domain name is an important part of designing your church website. For instance, people will have trouble remembering a domain name that is too long.
Also, your members and visitors might not always type in a domain name with dashes or hyphens in the browser address window correctly.
What is a Domain Name?
Before we go further, let’s make sure you know exactly what a domain name is… A domain name is what people type into a browser to reach your website (i.e. www.ChurchesInChicago.com). Also, a domain name is what comes right after the “@” sign in an email address.
Let’s dig deeper… a domain name is basically the home address of your website. It is an identifier for your website that is unique from any other website on the Internet. It’s comes right after the “www.” that you see in the address bar window at the top of a web browser. Here are two websites that provide interesting facts about domain names:
When you begin to register your domain name, you will have the option of choosing three common extensions or endings, they are:
There are other extensions, that you can use for your domain name, but they are far less common than the three I just mentioned.
How Do I Pick the Right Domain Name?
Here are a few tips that will help you choose the best domain name for your church website:
- KISS – Keep it super simple, try to make the name as short as possible. If the actual name of your church is available, you can select it. But you do not want a name that is so long that people can’t remember it. If your church’s name is not available, try something that is close to the name and if all else fails, choose a name that’s catchy. Catchy names are always easy to remember.
- Choose a “.org” extension. While you are free to choose whatever extension you desire for your church website domain name, virtually all non-profit organizations tend to use .org. If you choose not to use .org, then use “.com”, “.net” or “.info” extensions, in the order I have given you.
- Avoid using hyphens, dashes or any other special characters. These make it hard for people to remember and type in a domain name.
Take-A-Ways
A domain name creates the first impression in the visitor’s mind when they visit your site. If you want them to have a favorable impression, choosing the right domain name for your church website is a step in the right direction.
