I’m surprised how many time this question gets asked on various forums and answer websites. I’ve seen some pretty crazy answers out there, and I think I’ll add mine to the list.
My process is simple: Get hosting. Buy your domain. Develop your website. Launch.
Purchase Web Hosting
Since my business started doing web hosting way back in the 90′s, I’m a bit partial to hosting with my own company. For less than 11 bucks a month you can have everything you’ll need to get just about any website a place to live.
There are tons of hosting companies out there, just do a search and you’ll find plenty. For SEO purposes, I’d recommend staying away from Windows servers, though.
Now, you don’t have to have hosting when you go to buy your domain, but it is highly recommended. We’ll discuss that below.
Making the Decision – Domain Purchase
There are literally thousands of domain names being researched and registered every day. Heck, every hour! If you find a good domain name, you should register it immediately. This is without question the most important step.
Let’s say you’re building a new website for your company. You know your name is available, but you want to get the site up first. You don’t want to have one of those ‘under construction’ banners on your website, and I can’t say I blame you.
Finally you get your site ready, and then you go to get the domain name and sure enough, someone has registered it. What could have cost you $20 bucks or less now may cost you hundreds, thousands, or even worse, the person doesn’t want to give it up. Now you’ve got to come up with something else. That bites.
The Development Period
During the time after you buy the domain and before you launch the website, you can do a few different things.
Under Construction – Back in the early to mid 90′s this was the norm. People would buy a domain name and put up a crazy (or boring) message saying something to the affect of “This site is under construction. Check back later”. Like someone is really going to check back. My recommendation: don’t do it.
Block the Spiders – If you’d prefer, you can simply block all spiders from crawling your page. This will allow you to build your website right on your domain (if you so choose) or you can put up the God-awful ‘under construction’ banner, but it won’t get indexed. I’d only use this method if you are in no big hurry to get indexed. Need to know how?
Park the Domain – Another one I’d probably not recommend. Most domain registrars, when you purchase, will offer you the option to park the domain for free on their server. They’ll put up a splash page with ads and basically make money off any type-ins that may occur.
Probably the biggest reason that parking occurs is because you have purchased a domain name, but haven’t got around to getting the web hosting yet. This is something you need to have prior to getting your domain because they’ll ask you for information (such as name server addresses) when you purchase the domain name.
Splash Page – If you want to at least let the search engines know you exist, and briefly what you do, you can put up a simple page of content (text, not graphics) that explains what your website will be about. This will give your visitors a reason to check back (if they like what you’ve written) and will also be a small bit of fodder for the spiders.
From a marketing standpoint, this is probably your best option. While you won’t have much info out there, at least it’s something. And you can start doing some low-end link building too, which may help you when you finally launch your site.
Conclusion and Cheap Plug(s)
If you come across a good domain, or if you have a business and want to register your name before someone else does, do it. Don’t wait.
If you don’t know anything about registering domains, or need ideas for good marketable domains, just contact me or visit my business website. If you need hosting, I’ll throw the domain in free for the first year. What could be easier?
