Choosing a .SG Domain Name

What to do after registering a .SG name

Temporary Page

It is a good practice to 'point' your visitors to a temporary page when you have registered a domain name but are not yet ready to put up content on a website using the domain name. Some people buy domain names in advance to secure the names they want and its variations, without having a website ready to publish yet. Some domain name vendors provide the service of a temporary page that points visitors to a website which contains links to advertisements. These temporary pages with advertisements earn referral fees if there is traffic that goes from the temporary page to their websites.

A better interim measure would be to put up a web page with a short notice of 'site under construction'. A domain name should be used for a website, or be directed to an existing website to ensure that interested audience will return when your website is ready.

Setting DNS for a domain name

The Domain Name System (DNS) translates domain names into IP addresses (a string of numbers used to identify the location of a device or network on the internet). The string of numbers is an address for the computer to read and decipher where to locate the domain name you type into the computer on a browser or in an email. This is how a website is found on the world wide web and how an email reaches your mailbox.

Every Internet Service Provider has its own DNS servers. DNS records are stored in a zone file covering the more common details such as A records, CNAME records, or MX records in a nameserver which is generally referred to as NS or DNS. The 2 options in managing DNS records are :

  1. When you bundle purchase a domain name with hosting package
    Usually your hosting provider will have an automatic DNS setting on your domain name with a hosting package you purchased with it. Some will also add the "www" prefix automatically to your domain name. This is the most straightforward method.
  2. Separately purchase a domain name and hosting package from different providers
    In this case, you will have to obtain the DNS records from your hosting provider (not from your registrar) to provide to your registrar or its agent. This is when you either call your registrar or utilize an online management panel from your registrar to input the DNS records. There are also specialized DNS record service providers who manage your list of DNS if you have a long and complex list.

The following is a brief explanation of the function of each record in the nameserver. These records are usually inputted by your web designer when your website is ready to be pointed to:

  1. A record: A Record is used to point a written domain name, such as "SGNIC.sg", to the IP address of its hosting server, "74.125.224.147".
  2. CNAME: The CNAME record maps a domain name to another name. It should only be used when there are no other records on that name. An example is "example.welove.sg" is point to "eg.welove.sg" page.
  3. MX record: Mail Exchange record (MX record) is used by mail server to serve your email to the name of your email address.

Most DNS records such as MX record and/or your website DNS are records provided by your hosting provider, not the registrar. Do be aware that the performance level of the DNS records provider will have a direct impact on the uptime of your website and email, hence it is important to check their SLA (Service Level Agreement) for their promised service level.

When there is a need to change or update your nameserver data, for example when you change the hosting provider, you may contact your registrar or make the update on your online management panel provided by your registrar. The online management panel will enable you to input the DNS records from your new hosting provider whenever there is a change. Any changes to the nameserver will take effect within 1-2 days around the world wide web.

Website design

Know your web designers

A web designer is someone who prepares the style and design for a website using texts, images or animated applications. It is important to have a good web designer because he or she will help create a website for your entity that is functional, visually pleasing and more importantly, easy to navigate. A qualified web designer should have a strong background in visual communication, web application programming, digital arts design, multimedia production and also be proficient in Basic web development coding of HTML, CSS, PHP and MySQL. Another consideration when engaging web designers is their knowledge of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your website.

Some pointers when hiring a web designer:

  1. Take a look at their portfolio. A good designer should be able to produce and organize quality content and layout in various formats. Their work should be reflected in the webpages that are easy to navigate, rank high in web searches and provide an intuitive experience throughout.
  2. Check their references and clients list.
  3. Ensure they have good communication skills and that you are comfortable getting your point across about your goals, product information, target audience and other related concerns. They should be readily available to attend to your queries and feedback.
  4. Consider a design team with established business and experience with design skills matching your needs.
  5. Avoid paying in lump sum. It is advisable to pay in instalments based on progressive completion of tasks.
  6. Apart from relying on word of mouth, you can search for a web designer through web search engines, web designers associations and web designers directories. A web designer's own website is a good indication of his skill, commitment and talent.

    It is also important to consider how effective a business site is in generating income and not only focus on how aesthetically pleasing it looks. The amount of investment into a website design should be judged by how effective it is in displaying your identity, branding and content with consideration of user experience. Some designers will utilize a content management system (CMS) or site builder application which a website owner can use for future updates for their website.

Follow-through for future update

Below are several issues and challenges faced by clients of web designers. . We have also listed some suggestions to resolve or avoid potential situations:

  1. As mentioned earlier, the ownership of your domain names should not be under your web designer or hosting company. You should obtain the rights to your domain management at the point of registration where possible, otherwise, ensure that the domain name is transferred to you when it has been registered.
  2. Any content found on your website or published by you on the web that is not produced by or originated from you or your web designer, belongs to someone else. Therefore proper citations and credits should be given to the original source. If it is a payable content or image, do remember to obtain proof of purchase over the right of use. If the content is specially created for you, it is important to obtain explicit written permission for use and ownership from the creator.
  3. There should be a proper contract and specification details between you and your designer on what is expected by both parties to avoid future arguments.
  4. In order to make sure that both the designer and you are always on the same page when it comes to content, direction and deliverables, maintain regular two-way communication and be reasonable and concise. Any change or adjustment will cause delay and more man-time of the designer will usually incur extra cost.
  5. When you hire a web designer or web hosting company, make sure that you are personally involved in the process of evaluation, selection and payment. For the purpose of building your website, create a separate FTP (File Transfer Protocol) account with a different password for your web designer so that he or she can access and publish on your website. In case of future problems or end of contract, terminate your web designer's access by deleting the FTP account. In this way, you need not change the primary access each time there is a change in vendor or persons handling various functions of the FTP.

Website and email hosting

A website and email needs a space in a server to host it. Hence a web hosting service is required to be rented from hosting providers. Hosting providers will lease segregated server space according to requirements ranging from small MB size to a whole server machine.

Choosing between a free or commercial web/email host

Most free web hosting providers impose advertising in the form of pop-up windows, banners or advertising frames on your site. Most business websites are usually hosted by professional hosting providers for more security and service as well as for projecting a professional image.
To start planning for a website, determine how much web space you need for your texts and images. Most free web hosts offer about 5MB of web space. Some hosting providers will claim that they are able to provide big disk space or unlimited disk space. Do check your specific need from your web designer as normally, you only need about 20MB for an estimate of 400 web-pages unless you have some applications that require large disk space.
You need to have FTP access in order to be able to transfer your files to your web pages. Some free web hosts restrict the size and type of files uploaded.
You should also consider the speed at which your customers are accessing your websites. If access is too slow, they may lose interest and move on to something else, or worse, your competitor's sites. For commercial hosting service, most service providers have a guaranteed uptime of 99% or higher. Look for a guarantee from your hosting provider and get some form of refund should the minimum uptime fall below the promised level.
Before making a decision on the right hosting provider you should also check if emails are included with your hosting package. Do take note of the number of email accounts included per hosting package as they vary amongst different providers.
Do note on data transfer size. If you anticipate that you would have large files for your emails or there are heavy downloads on your website, it is important to check that you have purchased the right hosting service package.

Customized Email

Customized email can be set up to use your registered domain name. In purchasing email hosting, some factors to be considered are the capacity or space size, whether the email will be accessible by smartphones and desktop applications, reliability and responsiveness of support and additional features like address book, calendar etc. as well as security features such as anti-virus and anti-spamming.

Having a customized email would project a professional image for your business. For example, if your customer is sending a request for product information, receiving a reply from your sales team via an email address that says confirmation@hotcoffee.com.sg will be better that info3@hotmail.com. It also creates an image of personalized attention to your customers. Within your business or organization, having a group email address to represent a function will facilitate specific conversation subject reaching a group of employees. An example is having the address of enquiry@hotcoffee.com.sg that goes to a group of sales representatives.