Domain Registration : Do You Have More Than One Name?

Summary : How will your customers look for you online? Will they all enter the same thing, or are there several 'identities' they may try?

Online Identities

Do you know that you can have several domain names pointing to the same web site? For example, the URL for my site is http://www.idealady.com/, but you can also reach the same site by entering http://www.cathystucker.com/. Domain registration is not limited to a single site name.

Why Choose Multiple Domain Name Registrations?

There are several reasons you may want to have multiple URLs pointing to one site. For example, when I chose my site name, I wanted something easier to remember and spell than my own name. Now that more people know who I am, some may look for me on the web by simply typing my name followed by ".com". For this reason, I wanted both my original domain name and my own name to point to my web site.

You may want to register misspellings of your name or business name, so that people who incorrectly spell your company name, for example, still reach your site. You may even want domain names representing your company name and the name of your most popular product. If you have changed web URLs, you could have both the old and the new names pointing to the new site.

Domain Registration and Pointing

The mechanics of this are simple. It is a matter of domain registration and pointing. One way to handle it is to ask your web hosting company (the company that owns the computers where your web site is stored) about adding an alias or redirect. There is typically a one-time charge to set this up, although some may also charge a monthly fee. An even easier way is to set it up is through your domain registrar. That's the place where you selected and registered the domain name. Some will allow you to redirect the domain name you registered to any URL. I use http://www.000domains.com/ for domain registration, and they include this service in the $13.50 per year registration fee.

Copyright 2003, Cathy Stucker 

About the Author : Cathy is the owner of IdeaLady.com