You already know that in today's business environment, having an online presence is necessary and expected. How, and where, to begin the process of establishing yourself online can be a bit unclear. Two important, but often overlooked, first steps that you need to take seriously are: (1) Registering a domain name, and (2) Finding a reliable company to host your website.

Let's look at the first step in establishing an online presence: registering a domain name. This can be an overwhelming task since there are so many different registration companies. A Google search brings up 5,740,000 results! Each company seems to offer the same service so what should you look for, and which company do you choose? Here are three basic elements to note when deciding.

1. Domain Ownership. Make sure that when you register a domain, YOU are the owner. It's a common mistake to allow the person or company who registers it to be the owner. If you don't own the domain, it can be difficult if you ever want to move to a new hosting company. The good news is that there are resources online called "whois" that can identify the domain owner. If you discover that you don't own your domain, you should work to get that fixed right away.

2. Domain Renewals. Check with the company who registers your domain to see how they handle the renewal process. Make sure they alert you well in advance of expiration so that you don't have to worry about your domain expiring and your website and email becoming unavailable. Be aware that there are many domain scam artists out there. Some will make you think your domain has expired and have you pay to get it back. Some will make you believe they are the official renewal company, but actually, using them gives them ownership.

3. Simplicity. Registering a domain should be easy. If there are steps in the ordering process that are confusing, or if the price at the end doesn't match what was promised at the beginning, go somewhere else. You domain is your online identity. If a company cannot make that step easy for you at the beginning, how will they handle your relationship later on?

The second step in establishing your online presence is to find a reliable hosting company. One thing you must remember is that the environment that your website is hosted in and the crisis solutions that are in place are just as important as the service that is offered. Here are three elements to look for when choosing a hosting company.

1. Uptime Reliability. Make sure the company has high uptime reliability. You want your website to be available 24/7 even in the event of a power failure or disaster. Be sure to ask about their connection to the internet and how they handle website backups.

2. Monitoring and Security. Inquire what steps are in place to monitor your site and ensure your online assets are protected from worms, hacking, power outages, hard drive failures, etc.

3. Technical Support. Find out what type of technical support the company offers. What type of support do they offer outside of business hours?

An online presence is an excellent way to promote your business, both locally and to the world at all times. There are over 200 million internet users in the U.S. alone, so make sure that you have an appropriate domain name, pointing to a functional and useful website, hosted with a reliable company.