Website / Name Purchasing and Hosting (Help)

[muddyfox470]

Ok,

I need help, well a friend does. They currently have a website hosted by Demon and they pay a set amount each month. However does this mean they actually own the website name, or that they are only entitled to it for the period of the contract etc?

If so how does someone go about buying a website address, i.e. buying www.webaddress.co.uk (an example btw) so they do not have to rent it (the just need to find a host for the name that they possess.

Also a few other questions (while i am at it) what is the most reasonable website host for a business website, it should get a reasonable amount of traffic, etc, however they do not sell directly from they website (they are a consultancy firm) and basically just for advertisement and awareness really!

Also is it best to buy up some cheap but relatively relevant website addresses so they can just forward it to their main site, so they can have multiple results etc via search engines, or just for blatantly obvious addresses that someone may just type in?

Finally how does one go about submitting their website to search engines and so they can ensure decent positions in the returns, i.e. high up the list for searches such as 'noise consultants' etc. How much is this likely to cost and what is the best way to approach this - submitting your website? I believe all the meta tags are all sorted etc. What cost should i expect and does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing!

Any help much appreciated

Ian

PS. I have seen sticky and done a quick search, but would like more specific answers / responses to the above questions, please!

[Kumagoro]

placing the link to the site in another already indexed site will get you in within a week.
that will work for google msn yahoo altavista which is more than enough right.

Google works on text in the page title and a repeat of it in the body of the text as well
as links to the site from other sites.

[Twigman]

placing the link to the site in another already indexed site will get you in within a week.

ie past it into this thread

[IBM]

You can't buy domain names outright (unless someone knows something I don't....which wouldn't suprise me when I think about it). You have to rent them, but it's hardly expensive, and since you can buy domain for up to five years (maybe more) for .com and others, it's not really an issue.

The sticky should cover a good business host. I use www.brinkster.com but only 'cause they have a decently distributed SQL Server backend, something you're probably not going to need since your site is just advertising space.

You can pay google to give you pride of place on the search listings, and it's sometimes cost effective, especially in the more specialised areas, but you'd have to research it http://www.google.co.uk/ads/

As for rankings, if you find out a good way of doing it, let us all know. There are so many different ways to get your position moved up the boards. Getting your domain mentioned on listed sites is a good way of doing it, but it's just another farming (or is it 'pharming' now?) method, and having correct and relevant content is still the best way to get on, and stay on, the listings - as long as you're not trying to get a high ranking with 'Website Design' as your search criteria...

[Dougal]

If you own the domain name (i.e. web address) do a WhoIS lookup on it, it shoudl have your name on it.

You should have also recieved a letter from the domain registrars (IIRC nominet) with a PIN number to claim it as your won, you can then print off a certificate.

http://www.nominet.org.uk to check if you own it.

FOr example my holding domain: necrodeemerdeisgns.co.uk

http://195.66.240.211/cgi-bin/whois....rdesigns.co.uk

Has my name as the registrant

When you rent a domain you ahve a period of 6months i believe after it has expired where you are the only person that can register it, after that 6mnths its a free for all.

[realm]

Also add a site map to your site this also can be a good method of boosting you in the search engines.

[Mike Fishcake]

Apparently it's incredibly difficult to get a site have a decent pagerank on google these days. Or so I've heard. Not sure how true that is though :-/

[Twigman]

well it depends really.
If you want to be in the first page of results for "computer" then you are pretty screwed, but if its something more specific then its not too bad.

[Jonny M]

You can't own domain names for eternity, they are renewed when they expire (each year unless you chose a 2, 3, 5, 10 etc year lease). The actual domain is registered in your name though, so as long as the bills are paid and you aren't infringing on trademarks, you "own" the name.