Do I need a domain name for my business?
What one is, why you should own yours, what it costs and the mistake that loses it.
See the templatesThe short answer: yes, and it should be registered in your name. A domain name is your web address, yourbusiness.co.uk. It costs under a tenner a year and it is the one part of a website that is worth owning outright, because everything else can be rebuilt but the address is what is on your van.
What it is
The name people type to find you. It also gives you an email address at your own name, hello@yourbusiness.co.uk, which looks better than a Gmail on an invoice.
What it costs
A .co.uk is about £6 to £10 a year from a registrar. A .com a little more. Website builders often give the first year free then charge more. With our plans the .co.uk is included and registered to you.
The mistake
Letting someone else register it. If your designer or a builder owns the address, you cannot leave without losing it, and if they vanish, so does your web address. We have helped businesses who found this out the hard way. Ask, before you pay anyone: whose name is on the registration?
Picking one
- Your business name if it is free. Short beats clever
- .co.uk for a UK business. .com if you have both, point one at the other
- No hyphens, no numbers. People get them wrong on the phone
Want to see yours? Pick a website template and fill it in for free. You only pay when you want it live. Already have a site? Bring it in and we fill a template from it.