Expected Cost of a Domain Name

Worlds Most Trusted Hosting gets $10.50 per year.

Go Daddy gets $10.99 per year.

Name Cheap says you can get one "from" $2.99.

So why are the prices different? ICANN eventually gets ALL domain names in their registry and all the registrars send them in to ICANN. Well these registered registrars will usually mark up what they pay for registration by a small percent so if you are seeing a really low price point make sure of what the TLD is. In other words, a.com name and a.info name are not the same price.

So how much does a domain name cost? Well it costs the price of the registration for whatever period you choose 1year, 5year, or whatever. And then it could cost you your online business. What I mean here is your domain name has a cost to your website business, either positive or negative.

Choose your domain name wisely or it will cost you business losses in lost traffic because the search engines do not index it properly, lost visitors because the name is not clear on what the site is about, lost visitors you verbally tell your domain name to who then enter it incorrectly. Your name should be as brief as possible and yet as exact as to what your site is all about. Long names with words run together can be confusing. Some names use the dash between words to make them a little more legible but a verbal description of that name can drive some people crazy. Remember that the search engines will look for key words in your name that are in your body content of the site to rank you higher in the search results.

So don't overlook the hidden costs when you purchase that domain name, spending $10.50 per year is nothing, but losing out on the traffic can be fatal for your business.

About the Author George Savery writes on business, web hosting, and email marketing. For more information on domain names and hosting, visit George's hosting site Worlds Most Trusted Hosting. If you use email marketing in your business, be sure that you do it the right way. George has an email marketing tutorial available here, Email Elite