HOW TO: Buying A Domain Name

So you’ve got a great idea for a business and you are thinking about launching your website. But the very first thing you will need is your domain name – that’s the bit after https:// or www. – so in this example https://juicyburgers.com – the juicyburgers.com bit is the domain name.

What should your domain name be? Where do you buy it from? How much will it cost?

Photo by Corinne Kutz on Unsplash

A good domain name should be short, easy to spell and easy to remember. Your domain name will also need to be unique, which may not be easy in a crowded market.

It sounds obvious, but your domain name needs to relate to your business, so if your company is called Juicy Burgers, there’s no point giving your website an entirely different domain name because your preferred one has already been taken.

You can check whether a domain is already taken with Nominet ( https://www.nominet.uk ), which can also tell you who it is registered with and advise on alternative domains that are available.

There is a possibility that your chosen name might be taken, but not actually in use. In this case, you could offer to buy it from the owner. While some more high-profile domain names will sell for thousands of pounds, many owners will be willing to sell for a fraction of that.

In the case of a domain which is already in use, another way round it is to add the location of your business, so it could be https://juicyburgersuk.com or https://juicyburgerscheltenham.com If you see your business expanding beyond Cheltenham in the future, it would make sense to futureproof your domain name by choosing the ‘UK’ rather than the ‘Cheltenham’ option.

The ‘.com’ or ‘.co.uk’ bit of your domain name is called the Top Level Domain and there are a few to choose from.

‘Dot com’ is international, so is good for a business targeting international customers. If you are a manufacturing company with international customers, ‘.com’ would be the best option for you. It is sometimes seen as more trustworthy than ‘.co.uk’, which is another good reason to choose ‘.com’.

But if you are targeting UK customers, ‘co.uk’ makes a lot of sense. UK customers will often feel more at ease dealing with a company they know is UK-based at first glance. It makes particular sense to use ‘.co.uk’ if you are a local tradesperson, such as a plumber or electrician, or running a local restaurant.

There are other Top Level Domains available too. ‘Dot org’ is a good one for charities and not-for-profit organisations, which is seen as trustworthy.

Top Level Domains like ‘.co’, ‘.uk’, ‘.biz’ or ‘.website’ are far less popular and may appear untrustworthy to potential customers. On the whole, they are best avoided.

One final word on this, if you want full control of your domain name and don’t want to lose potential customers to a business masquerading as yours, it makes sense to buy both the ‘.com’ and ‘.co.uk’ variants of your domain name. Then choose which one you want to use for your site and get the other one to redirect to it, so you don’t lose traffic or customers.

There are a number of companies online selling domain names in the UK. These include GoDaddy ( www.godaddy.com ) and 123-reg ( www.123-reg.co.uk ). Buying your domain name with these companies is a simple and straightforward process.

Simply search for your desired name e.g. ‘Juicy Burgers’ and it will give you a variety of options and prices. The options will include a variety of Top Level Domains and variants of your chosen name, perhaps including hyphens or ‘the’ to make them unique.

The cost of domain names varies hugely, starting at around 99p for unpopular or niche names, usually when used with the less popular Top Level Domains. At the other end of the scale, carinsurance.com recently sold for over £38.5m (nearly $50m).

On the whole, for many businesses, you will probably only be looking at around £15 or £20 a year for a fairly niche domain name. But something which could be aimed at a much wider audience, like ‘Beautiful Gifts’ will cost several hundred pounds per year.

Don’t forget that your domain name isn’t automatically yours to keep forever. You are paying for it for a set period of time –maybe a year, two years or three years. If you want to keep it for longer, you must make sure you renew it in good time, or risk someone snapping it up.

Buying your own domain name isn’t difficult, but it is worth taking your time to think through all of these points carefully. 

That way you can be sure that you really have got the best domain name for your business and you will be able to benefit from all of the advantages that brings, from increased sales to better brand awareness and a great way to stay in touch with customers.

At Cotswold Web, Cheltenham, we’ve been designing and developing websites since 2008 and have over 50 years’ collective experience. We love what we do and would be only too happy to chat to you about ways to improve your ecommerce website. Visit www.cotswoldweb.co.uk/ to see for yourself.