How to Choose a Domain Name for Your Online Course Website

What is a domain name and why do you need one for your online course website?

If you have been asking yourself this question, keep reading below. In this blog post, we will explain everything you need to know about website domain names and how to choose the right domain name for your online course website.

Are you looking for the perfect domain name for your online course website? Heights Platform customers get a free .academy domain for one year in partnership with Name.com! To redeem your domain, create a Heights Platform account.

What is a Domain Name?

A domain name is the equivalent of an address for a website. It is what users type in a browser's search bar to visit a site directly. Domain names are unique and cannot be shared between different sites: each website has its own distinctive domain.

Most domain names are composed of three parts. Let's take the domain of Heights Platform as an example: www.heightsplatform.com

The first part (www) is the host name and it stands for World Wide Web. The second part (heightsplatform) is the name of the website itself, and the last part (.com) is the TLD (Top-Level Domain) or domain extension.

Domain names are associated with the website's IP address, a series of numbers unique to each website. Since IP addresses are long and complicated, domain names were created for users to easily access a website.

Whenever someone types a domain name in the search bar, a request is sent to different DNS (Domain Name System) servers. At this point, the DNS associates the domain name with the unique IP address of the website’s hosting server and makes it accessible to the user.

This is why every website needs a domain name. If you want, you can decide to purchase a domain name that best represents your business. Keep reading below to learn the benefits of purchasing your own custom domain name and how to do it.

Why Do You Need a Domain Name for Your Online Course Site?

If you are using Heights Platform to sell online courses, you can easily create a website for your online course business.

Whenever you sign up for a Heights Platform account, you automatically get a free subdomain name where your website is hosted (yoursubdomain.heightsplatform.com).

You can either decide to keep this subdomain or purchase a custom domain name. There is no right or wrong way to approach this, and it highly depends on your needs.

Here are the benefits of purchasing your own custom domain:

• It can be easier to remember: purchasing your own custom domain can make it easier for users to directly access your site by typing the domain name in their search bar. If you choose a short and memorable domain, chances are that your visitors will remember it and come back to your site in the future.
• It improves your credibility. Using a free subdomain won't necessarily impact your website, however, it might damage your credibility in the eyes of potential customers.
• You can link your domain to an email address. With a custom domain name, you can create unique and professional email accounts (for example [email protected]). This can improve your brand awareness and credibility.
• Helps with SEO. If your domain name matches your business name or whatever your customer type on Google in order to find your page, it can improve your SEO and help you rank higher on search engines. Learn all about SEO for your online course website: All You Need to Know About SEO to Sell Online Courses

Tips for Choosing a Domain Name for Your Online Course Website

Now that you know what a domain name is and the benefits of getting your own custom domain, let's see how to choose the right one for your online course business. Here is what to consider when picking a brand new domain name:

• Look for your business name: your domain name should represent your brand and make it easy for users to search for your website. So needless to say, the ideal domain name should coincide with the name of your business. It can happen that the exact name you are looking for is already taken or it is very expensive: in this case, you can try different combinations such as looking for a different TLD (.com, .org, .academy and so on...), adding a word to your name and so on...
• Keep it short: to make your domain easy to remember for your visitors, keeping it short is key. The ideal length for a domain name is below 20 characters. This can be challenging for online course creators, especially if your online course name is long and you want your domain name to reflect the course name. If this is the case, try removing unnecessary words from your domain name and focusing on your most important keywords.
• Avoid numbers and hyphens: your goal is to choose a domain name that is clear and easy to type. So to avoid people misspelling your domain name and having a hard time finding your website, it's good practice to avoid numbers and hyphens. If your desired domain name is too expensive or not available, it might be tempting for you to choose a cheaper one that includes hyphens or numbers, however, this might cause confusion in your visitors.
• .Com is not the only option: most of the websites you visit every day use a domain ending in .com, so it is common for creators to think that they absolutely need a .com domain. The truth is that you don't necessarily need this type of TLD, and there are plenty of other options to choose from that can offer more variety and cheaper domains. For online course creators, modern domain TLDs such as .academy, .training, .school, .education, .institute and so on can be a great option that still makes you look very professional!

How to Set Up Your Domain Name with Heights Platform

As we learned so far, a domain name is a unique address used to access a website. Getting a custom domain name for your online course website has many advantages, including improving memorability, branding, SEO and credibility.

In this article, we explained what domain names are, the advantages of purchasing a custom domain, and a few tips on how to choose the right domain name for your online course business. To conclude, let's see how you can link a custom domain to your Heights Platform account.

Heights Platform automatically generates a free subdomain for your business when you create an account, so you don't have to worry about purchasing a custom domain until you are ready!

Once you have chosen your custom domain, you can link it to your Heights account in a few easy steps. Otherwise, you can simply keep using the standard subdomain (yoursubdomain.heightsplatform.com).

Heights Platform also offers creators a free .academy domain for one year in partnership with Name.com! So if you are still looking for the perfect domain name for your online course website, start a Heights Platform free trial and grab your .academy domain!