Wildwood Forest Studios, Web Site Design & Development Atlanta Alpharetta Custom Websites, Ecommerce, Graphic Design, Marketing

The Domain Name System is managed by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).

Selecting a Domain Name
A domain name can end in .com, .net, .org, .info, .us, .biz, .tv and others. We recommend that you select a name that has a targeted key word in it, as that will help in search engine positioning. An exception to this might be if your label (or company name) is highly recognizable in your local area, then perhaps it would be best to include it in the domain name. Other things to keep in mind: keep it easy to remember, easy to spell, not too long. And most people consider the dot-com names to be preferable for a business.

Do a "whois" search
First, make sure your domain name has not been registered by someone else by doing a "whois" search. Most domain registration sites maintain a whois database, you might try the one at:
e-Nom.com. Enter the domain name you want to check into the online form (do not enter "www"). We strongly suggest that you do NOT use the whois search at NetWorkSolutions because they have a nasty policy of buying the name you search for and holding it for ransom for 5 days. They will allow you to purchase it from them at their inflated price during the 5 day period, but you will be unable to buy it elsewhere at a lower cost.

Where to register your name
The big companies like Register.com and NetworkSolutions.com charge ridiculously high prices ($30-35/year), but you get the same service at many other companies for much less. If you are in the USA, I would recommend sticking with a USA based company and one where you can speak to a real person for customer service.

The important thing to keep in mind is that you want to be sure that your domain name is registered to you and not to a host that may want to hold it "hostage" if you decide to move your site elsewhere. Think of your "domain" as your realm" .... you want to own it and control it.

Wildwood's Domain Registration Service
We have partnered with e-Nom.com to offer our clients an easy solution for registration. If you like, we will register your domain, entering your name and contact info as "Registrant" (owner) and Wildwood as "Administrative and Billling" contact. That means though you fully own the domain name, Wildwood will carry it on our auto renewal account and bill you for $10 annually. You can then rest assured that your name is safe from transfer scammers. You will be given a login password where you have control over your name if you so wish.

If you already have your domain registered with a different service, you can just provide us with your login info and we can manage the Domain Name Server (DNS) setting from there to point to your web site. Or, if you like, we can transfer your registration to our auto renewal services at e-Nom.com.

How does your domain name work?
So now if your URL (Uniform Resource Locator) containing your domain name, is typed into a browser or clicked on a hypertext link, the browser sends a request for the web site files and that request goes to what ever web server is associated with your DNS.

Your URL will start with HTTP:// (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) indicating that it is a a hypertext document.
That is followed with www. indicating that it is a web site.

That is followed with YourDomainName.com (your unique registered domain name).
Additionally there may be parts that specify the name of a specific file within the site, for instance /contact.htm

Some FAQs about URLs to keep in mind:

The first sections of the URL (from the beginning through the domain name) is NOT case sensitive, meaning upper and lower case may be used interchangably. However everything after the slash to the right of your domain name IS case sensitive.
Most modern browser versions do not require you to type in HTTP:// or the www.
The browser will auto fill that in for you.
There are no spaces in a URL
URLs always uses forward slashes (//)