I will cut to the chase and make my case for WordPress right away. Considering many other options and trying some of them WP has become my CMS of choice (at least for now).
Reasons are many, I won’t list them here but you can see few reasons on this list.
How to pick a good domain name
It’s not enough just to have any domain name—you need to pick the right domain. We have a few best practices for you to keep in mind as you go about your search.
Keep it simple
First, you want to make sure your domain name is simple, not too long or difficult to remember.
TonysPizzaNewYorkCity.com doesn’t exactly flow off the tongue, however, TonysPizzaNYC.com might be a better fit.
This will likely be the email that you use for your business too, so it’s important to find something that you and your customers can remember and spell out. The shorter the better, the more memorable and intuitive the better.
It should accurately represent your brand
It’s not necessary to have your business name in your domain, but it can help. Even if your business name isn’t available, you could choose to use your main offering in your domain, something like TiresForSale.com.
Don’t limit yourself with your domain.
If you do choose to go the services or products route in your domain, be careful not to pick something that will limit your business.
For example, let’s say that you choose TiresForSale.com because that’s your main product as you’re getting started. But later down the road you may want to start offering tire maintenance services or selling other vehicle parts. When people see your domain, they may think that you only sell tires.
Keep the bigger picture for your business goals in mind as you choose an effective domain.
Which Hosting Do I Need
Since I opted for WordPress, your hosting need to optimized for WP CMS.
Specifically Managed WordPress Hosting would be great for your CMS. You want to have a sever that will perform at least decently. WP may sometimes be a little “heavy” and I would suggest you stay away from $3/month hosting.
You should be receiving most of your new customers via your website so I don’t think you should be taking the cheapest hosting. That would be compared you trying to save money on your tires and brakes. You don’t want that since your life depends on them. Saving on the stereo will not jeopardize your safety while driving – you can save there, but not the brakes and tires.
Getting WordPress
Normally your hosting will most likely have a WordPress installer. If not you can download it here. You will need to upload the zip file to your www folder, unzip it and open your domain URL to start the install process.
There are many videos on YouTube which will show you how to do that. In case you want help just set up an appointment and I will help you install and configure it.
Once you install it you may need additional themes and plugins to install to get the desired functionality and design that will make your business proud.
In case you want to master the foundations of WordPress you can get a comprehensive WordPress Course here. If you get your website done here you may get this entire course as a bonus (for free). If not, ask me and you may get a coupon for a significant discount of this course.
