Now it's time to purchase your first domain! How exciting is that? Before you purchase, here's a few things to consider.

Domain Basics & Costs

  1. Domains cost roughly $10 to $15 a year. We recommend using www.namecheap.com - they are reasonably priced, the back-end is easy to use. Godaddy is great too!

  2. Domains ending in .com are the most common. Canadian domains end in .ca. If you are Canadian, we recommend you get both. You never know what people will try to type in.

  3. Domain registration, ownership, and renewals is 100% up to each client! Brixwork does NOT manage the domain purchase nor renewals for you, as it's your intellectual property. Your accountant wouldn't have your debit card pin # - it's the same dynamic.

  4. We are not responsible for your website/email going down if you fail to renew your domain each year. Most domain providers have an annual renewal cycle, so it's up to you to keep your credit card on their platforms up-to-date, with auto-renewal turned on. 

 

Picking A Domain Name

A domain name is like your address book on the web, so it must be carefully picked. Here's some things to consider:

  1. We always recommend that you have your own personal name domain - it always comes in handy.

  2. Having multiple domains point to one destination is an option. i.e. having a .ca domain point to your .com domain as well. But it does NOT help with ranking on Google at all.

  3. If somebody else has already taken the domain, forget it. Even if you feel you have intellectual property rights over a taken domain, reclaiming domains through intellectual property claims is lengthy, expensive and not always guaranteed. They may have it for sale (domain squatting) - it's your decision to see if the price is worth it for your branding.

  4. If your name is too common, you can variate it to fit your business. For example, a Realtor® named Chris Brown uses . Many people will Google your name anyway if your name is too common, so ensure that your bio page has the right data. The domain matters little.

  5. The shortness of a domain is greatly overrated! It's better to have a longer but easy to remember domain. Remembering a short 4 letter acronym that means nothing unless the words are memorized is much more difficult than just remembering Chris Brown real estate DOT com.

  6. City names or area names in domains do NOT help with ranking: 


 

Purchasing your First Domain Name!

Here we go finally! Once you have a few domain name options, the next step is to see what's actually available for you and start purchasing. 

  1. Go to www.namecheap.com or www.godaddy.com (we highly recommend namecheap)

  2. Start searching for domains, and pick one(s) you like. You rarely need more than 2 (.com and .ca).

  3. When you picked one (or more) domains you like, proceed to check out.


Pointing your new Domain to Brixwork Servers!

Your domain must point to our servers to activate the website we build for you. 


IMPORTANT: If you already have an existing live website DO NOT follow the below step until your new Brixwork site is ready to go live!



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