Skip to main content

Writing // Article

Writing // No. 06

How to buy a domain name for your business (and keep it in your name)

// By  // 5 min read

Buy it yourself, from a domain registrar, registered in your own name or your company's, and keep the login. A .co.uk usually costs somewhere around £5 to £15 a year, and buying it takes about ten minutes. The harder part is making sure the domain stays yours, whoever builds your website.

The basics

What a domain is, and what it is not

Three things get muddled together, and they are sold separately:

  • The domain. Your address on the web, like yourbusiness.co.uk. You register it for a year or more at a time and renew it. Nobody buys a domain outright for ever.
  • Not the hosting. Hosting is where your website's files live. Your domain points at it. You can change host and keep the same domain.
  • Not your email. The domain lets you have an address like jo@yourbusiness.co.uk, but the mailbox is a separate service, usually paid for separately.

The ending

.co.uk or .com?

If your customers are in the UK, .co.uk is the natural choice. People recognise it, and it tells them you are a UK business. A .com is fine if the name you want is free and you work further afield. There is also the shorter .uk, which works the same way as .co.uk.

If the budget allows, register the .co.uk and the .com together and point the second at the first, so nobody else can use it. It is optional.

The name

Choosing the name

  • Keep it close to your business name. Customers will guess it from your van, your card or your Facebook page.
  • Make it easy to say on the phone. Spell it out loud once. If you have to explain it, simplify it.
  • Skip hyphens and numbers. They are the bits people forget or get wrong.
  • Check it is not someone else's name. Search Companies House and the UK trade mark register before you buy, so you are not building on a name you might have to give up.

How to

How to buy it, step by step

  1. Pick a registrar. A registrar is the company that sells and manages domain names. For .uk names they are accredited by Nominet, which runs the .uk registry. Choose one with a clear renewal price and two-step login. You do not need their hosting or website builder.
  2. Search for your name and check the basket. Untick the extras you did not ask for: hosting, a site builder, "SEO" add-ons. You can add email later if you want it.
  3. Register it in your own name. The registrant is the legal owner, and it should be you or your company, with your real name and address. Nominet checks these details for .uk names, and a domain whose details cannot be checked can be suspended.
  4. Use an email address you will keep. Not a member of staff's, and not your web designer's. Renewal reminders go there.
  5. Turn on auto-renew and two-step login. Then keep the card on the account in date. That is most of the work of keeping a domain.

Cost

What it costs

Prices vary between registrars, so treat this as a rough market range rather than a quote: a .co.uk is usually somewhere around £5 to £15 a year, and a .com a little more. Two things push the real cost up. Cheap first-year offers that renew at a much higher price, and extras added to the basket by default.

A cheap first year can still mean an expensive domain. Check the renewal price before you pay.

Keeping it

Keeping it in your name

If you do not renew a .uk name, it is suspended about a month after it expires, and your website and email stop working. Leave it longer and it is cancelled, and anyone can register it.

Be wary of renewal letters and emails from companies you did not buy from. They are often trying to move your domain to themselves at a higher price. Only pay the registrar your domain is actually with.

Handover

What to send your web designer, and what never to share

Your web designer needs to point your domain at your new site. For that, send:

  • the domain name, and which registrar it is with;
  • access to its settings: many registrars let you add someone as a user without giving them your login, or they can send you the changes to make yourself.

Never share:

  • your registrar password or two-step login codes;
  • the card details on the account;
  • the transfer code (also called an auth code or EPP code), unless you are deliberately moving the domain to a new registrar. Whoever has it can move your domain.

On my website plan you buy the domain yourself and it stays in your name. I connect it to your site. If you ever leave, you point it at your new host and I send you the site files. That way the most important part of your website is never in someone else's account.

Your domain // Your name

Questions

Common questions

  1. Can my web designer buy it for me?

    They can, but then it often ends up in their name or on their account, and getting it back if you part ways can be slow. Buying it yourself takes about ten minutes.

  2. I think my old web designer registered my domain. What do I do?

    Ask them which registrar it is with and whose name it is registered in. If it is in theirs, ask them to move it into yours. For a .uk name, Nominet's WHOIS lookup shows which registrar it is with.

  3. Do I need a domain before I talk to a web designer?

    No, but buying it early saves time later; it is one of the things in how long a website takes to build. If you are still deciding whether you need a website at all, start with does a small business need a website?