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Questions about website domain names - Q & A

Alan calls from Texas with some domain name questions for his business website.

Rich Sloan: We're going to Alan.  866-55-START is the number he called.  Alan, welcome to the show, out of Plano, Texas.

Alan:  Hello, Rich, Jeff.

Jeff Sloan:  Hi there, Alan.

Alan:  Hey, I really enjoy your show and thank you so much for taking my question.

Rich Sloan:  Go ahead.

Jeff Sloan:  Go ahead.

Alan:  I am in the process of building a website from a service I found online, and after I get this site up and running -- the question is, can I switch to another host and use the same domain name?

Jeff Sloan:  Yeah.  You absolutely can.  I think they're required -- any of those domain name registrars, as it is, I --

Rich Sloan:  As it were.

Jeff Sloan:  As it were.                              

Rich Sloan:  Shall we say.

Jeff Sloan:  Yes, if you will.

Rich Sloan:   Indeed.

Jeff Sloan:  You can transfer, yes, absolutely.  You can transfer from one to the other.

Alan:  Very good.

Rich Sloan:  Now, what about -- what if he's signed some kind of contract with a hosting firm?  He has to make sure that he isn't locked in in any way.

Jeff Sloan:   There may be a certain minimum period of time; you've got to check your contract.  But I don't think that really, I don't think that's a big issue.  I think what you'd sacrifice there, if anything, might be the balance of the period of time worth of payment for the registration.  But I think you're free to pick up your registration and move it wherever you want it.

Rich Sloan:  Your domain name is yours, Alan, so you can move along anywhere, anytime.

Alan:  Wonderful.

Rich Sloan:  What is the domain name? 

Alan:  It's Creativeconceptslandscapedesign.  And that creates another question.  Someone told me the shorter the domain name the better.  Is that really --

Jeff Sloan:  That's absolutely true for two reasons, one, efficiency when someone goes to type it in.

Alan:  Okay.

Jeff Sloan:  They don't want to type in a bunch of words to get to a domain.  And the other thing is, remembering the name.

Rich Sloan:  Yeah.

Jeff Sloan:  The name should be easy to remember so when they go to type it in they know exactly what it is to type in.

Rich Sloan:  All right.