Domain Name

What is a domain name?
Just like your home address (in the real world) is unique, domain names are simply unique addresses on the Internet. Every domain name has to be unique; otherwise no one would be able to find the website they were looking for! So when you register a domain name, you are getting yourself a unique address on the web.

Is there any difference between extensions?
Extensions are the last letters that appear after the period (.) in a domain name. For example, for the website 5Corners.com, the extension is .com.

There is really no practical difference between extensions, although, some people still value .com extensions over the others, since it was the first type available. These days, you have a wide choice of extensions when registering a domain name. Here are some of the extensions that are now available (.com, .ca, .org, .net, .info, .biz, .tv, .name, .fam)

TIP: when registering a domain name, you will be asked to choose an extension. Fortunately, 5Corners.com’s domain name registering services will automatically provide alternatives, should you find your first choice is already taken.

Domain Names are getting harder to get
There are a limited number of names out there and it is getting harder to get the exact domain name you might be looking for. Long gone are the days when you could get single-word domains like:

• Business.com
• Sale.com
• Pet.com

A few tips about picking and registering a domain name
You will probably have to come up with some combination of words or pseudo words to get a decent domain name – you will need to be inventive.

For example: What To Do Today + Saskatoon became: WhatToDoInSaskatoon.com

Why not: whattodotodayinsaskatoon.com?

Whattodotodayinsaskatoon.com is pretty good but WhatToDoInSaskatoon.com is shorter and to the point AND that makes it much better.

Top 4 rules of registering domain names

• Keep the domain names short – people remember short names.
• Try to use words in your domain name that relates to your websites subject in some way. Ex: 5Corners.com – makes a reference to the lost intersection at Broadway and 12th Street in Saskatoon (one of Saskatoon's oldest neighborhoods).
• Domain names cannot contain spaces or special characters:
  • This is bad: mywebsite on chickens.com
  • This is bad: m^websitesonflies.com
  • This is good: chickenInfo.com

• Although it does not affect the search engines, .com domains are still perceived as being more valuable by some. For example:

5Corners.com is worth more than 5Corners.org

A FINAL NOTE: Domain names are not case sensitive: Example: 5Corners.com = 5corners.com