How to Secure Web Domain Name?
 

Actually I have 2 questions for the brain trust.

1) I have an idea that I want to start online portal - with securing a web address / domain. Then if the address is available, I want secure additional similar sounding domains.

Where do I go to do this? Is it expensive? How often is the renewal if any?

2) Is there a way to obtain from Google how many times a particular search phrase or similar was entered in a region year-to-date? By state, zip locality?

Thanks!

for #1, I use http://Register4less.com - $16/year per name.

Godaddy is cheap with their if the domain name is only going to be used for a couple of years. Seen em as cheap as $3/year

I use Safenames.ca and Enom.com because I have wholesale accounts with them. $11/year does not go up.

99% of folks use Godaddy. You can usually get the first year for about $11, then $15 per year thereafter. You can register all the iterations at the same time.

Interesting question #2. Let me chew on that...

Some registrars will give you a discount for multiple years, others will charge more for multiyear registrations.

1) I would recommend Namecheap. Better policies than GoDaddy and they're not constantly pushing upgrades/new product in your face on every page.

2) That type of historical information won't be available to you from the get-go. There are some things you can do but it's all domain-name related in Search Engine Results Pages. You'll need to enroll in a service to get that type of tracking/reporting.

Here's a tool that gives you some pretty good keyword research.

https://adwords.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/

Google will likely sell you any information at all.

Contacting a human at Google will be a challenge.

Google currently has the best/better deal that I know of for domain registration $12/year.

Unlike godaddy, which tempts you with a cheap price and then raises them every year...

Also google doesn't engage in ****ery with your DNS and any other services you've configured elsewhere. They make it easy to put in glue records (so you can host your own DNS), and it Just Works.

As far as actual hosting, I'll be happy to park any domains you buy and give you access to put up a single page "business card". Or, I can set up a linode.com instance for you with a nice control panel so you can manage web space, email accounts, etc.

BUT... I'm a believer in having full and total control of my own stuff. If you just want to buy the domains and get cheap webspace, I thin 1and1 still has a good reputation for cheap hosting. I'd still buy the domain from google, and keep my domain ownership separate from whatever hosting company i'm using

uh, no... Of all the companies out there, they are probably the worst as you can't link accounts/have different cpanels for different domains, etc.. GD is aimed for the mom and pop single domain weekend website warrior..


Use Hostgator..

Thanks all will start researching the above advice

I don't know if it's still true, but had to jump through hoops to wrestle a domain from godaddy...

It was relatively easy for me once, harder a second time due to timing.

I hate godaddy.

Namecheap.com or even google themselves will do the registration for you at the same pricepoints as godaddy.

^This. Sage advice