What a domain is for
Your domain is the address people type to reach your site and, usually, the part after the @ in your email address. It goes on your van, your business cards and your invoices, and people will say it out loud to each other. That last point matters more than most: a good domain is one you can say over the phone once and have the other person get right.
Start from your business name
The simplest choice is your business name, exactly as people know it. If customers call you "Harper Electrical", then those two words, run together, make the natural address. People who already know you will guess it, and it matches what is on your signage.
If that is taken, try adding your town or your trade - Harper Electrical York, say, or Harper Electrician, each run together as one word. Adding the town also helps people who do not know your name yet see at a glance that you are local.
Make it easy to say and spell
Before you register anything, test the name against a few simple rules:
- Shorter is better, but clear beats short - do not abbreviate into something cryptic
- Avoid numbers, unless they are part of your name, because people will ask "the digit or the word?"
- Avoid hyphens where you can; they are easy to forget when the address is spoken
- Avoid words that are commonly misspelled, or spellings that differ between countries
- Read it aloud as one word and check it does not accidentally spell something else
Then say it to a friend on the phone and ask them to type it. If they get it wrong, so will customers.
Choose the ending
The ending - .com, .co.uk, .ca and so on - is part of the address. For a local business, the two sensible choices are usually .com or your own country's ending. A country ending tells people you are based there, and the shorter local names are often still available.
Newer endings such as .plumbing or .studio exist and can be fun, but people are less used to them and sometimes add .com out of habit. If you choose one, consider registering the .com or country version as well and pointing it at the same site.
Register it in your own name
This is the step that causes the most trouble later. Register the domain yourself, with an account in your own name or your business's name, using an email address you will always have access to. If a web designer or a relative registers it for you, make sure the account is yours and you have the login.
Domains are rented, usually by the year. Turn on automatic renewal and keep the payment card on the account up to date. A domain that lapses can be registered by someone else, and getting it back is hard or impossible.
- Keep a note of which company the domain is registered with and how to log in
- Turn on auto-renew, and check the renewal date once a year
- Use the registrar's privacy option if it offers one, to keep your home address out of public records
- Turn on two-step sign-in for the registrar account if it is available
Check before you buy
Search for the name you want, both as a web search and on the social platforms your customers use. You are checking that no other business nearby is using something confusingly similar, which can lead to mixed-up customers or, in some cases, a dispute over the name. If your business name is a registered trademark of someone else, choose a different one.
Be wary of domains offered at a premium price by resellers. A slightly different, ordinary name that you can register normally is almost always the better choice.
Connect it to your site
Once you own the domain, you point it at your website by changing a few settings at the company you registered it with. Your website provider tells you exactly which settings to add. Make sure the site works with a secure https:// address - most providers set this up for you.
Every Buildly site gets a free address so it can go live before you buy anything, and you can connect a domain you own in four steps - see Connecting a custom domain.