A domain name is the web address people type in to find you. yourbusiness.co.uk. That's it. That's the whole concept.
It's also the single most important thing you own online, it's cheap, and a surprising number of business owners have never logged into the account it lives in. This guide fixes that.
Prefer to watch? Here's the same thing in about seven minutes.
Domain, hosting, website: three different things
These get muddled constantly, so here's the distinction in one table.
| Thing | What it is | A rough analogy |
|---|---|---|
| Domain | Your web address | The address of your shop |
| Hosting | The server your files live on | The building itself |
| Website | The design, pages and content | The fit-out and the stock |
You can change your hosting without changing your address. You can rebuild your website entirely and keep the same address. But change your domain and you've effectively moved premises, and everyone who knew where to find you has to be told again.
That's why the domain outlives everything else, and why it's the part worth protecting.
You don't buy a domain, you rent it
Small point, but it clears up a lot of confusion.
Domains are registered rather than purchased outright. You register one for a period, normally a year, and it stays yours for as long as you keep renewing. Miss the renewal and it eventually goes back on the market for anyone to take.
Practically, this means two things. Turn auto-renew on. And make sure the card and the email address on that registrar account are ones you still use, because a renewal reminder sent to an old address is how businesses lose domains they've had for a decade.
Registrant, registrar, registry: who's who
Three words that sound the same and mean very different things. Worth thirty seconds, because the difference is what decides who controls your domain.
| Word | Who it is | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|---|
| Registrant | You. The person or business the domain is registered to | This is the one that counts. It should be your business, not your web designer |
| Registrar | The company you register it through, like GoDaddy or IONOS | Where you log in, where you pay, where you renew |
| Registry | The organisation that runs the whole ending. Nominet runs .uk | You'll never deal with them directly |
Your web designer or your host is none of the above. They're a supplier. A supplier managing your domain is completely normal. A supplier being listed as the registrant is not, and ICANN say so outright: don't list your designer or your hosting provider as the registrant.
What it costs
A .co.uk is around £12.99 a year. A .com is usually a bit more. That's the registrar's price, not ours.
Whatever registrar you use, look at the renewal rather than the headline offer. The renewal is what you'll pay every year for as long as you own it.
Prices move, so treat that as an example rather than a quote. Check it yourself on the day you buy.
We don't add anything on top
That money goes to the registrar. It doesn't come to us, and we don't put a margin on it.
We'd genuinely rather you bought it yourself, in your own name, on your own card. It takes about five minutes, it costs you the same as it would through anyone else, and at the end of it you're holding your own address instead of borrowing it.
If you'd rather we handled the setup, we can. We use GoDaddy for client domains because of a feature called delegate access: the account stays in your name with your login, and you grant us permission to work on it. We can do the job without ever holding your keys, and you switch the permission off whenever you want. We're not affiliated with GoDaddy and nobody pays us to say that. Any registrar you like is fine.
Picking a good one
The rules are boring and they work.
- Use your business name if you can get it. People search for you by name.
- Keep it short and sayable. You'll be reading it out over the phone more than you expect.
- Avoid hyphens and numbers.
j-s-plumbing-24.co.ukis a nightmare to say out loud and easy to mistype. - Don't stuff keywords.
cheapest-emergency-plumber-nottingham.co.uklooks like spam to customers and does nothing for SEO that a proper site wouldn't do better. - Check it doesn't read badly. Run the letters together and read it fresh. This has gone wrong for real companies more than once.
If your exact business name is taken, adding your trade or your town is the usual fix. smithelectrical.co.uk taken? smithelectricalnottingham.co.uk is fine and tells people where you work.
Buy it in your own name
This is the part we're firm about, and it's why our free starter website asks you to buy the domain before we build anything.
Whoever holds the domain controls the website. If it's registered in your account, you can move hosting, change provider, or take the whole thing elsewhere whenever you like. If it's in someone else's account, every one of those decisions needs their cooperation.
It costs the same either way. There's no version of this where letting a third party hold it works out better for you. We'll point you at where to buy it and walk you through it, but it goes in your name, on your card, in your account.
Do I need email on it too?
You don't need it, but it's worth doing. dave@daveselectrical.co.uk reads as a business. daveselectrical1987@hotmail.com reads as a bloke with a van, even when the work is excellent.
Business email is a separate service from the domain itself, usually a few pounds per mailbox per month through Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. You can set it up later without touching the website.
A quick health check
Five minutes, worth doing today:
- Log in to your registrar. If you can't remember which one it is, look up your domain on a WHOIS service and it'll usually tell you.
- Confirm the domain is listed in your account.
- Check auto-renew is on.
- Check the payment card hasn't expired.
- Check the contact email is one you actually read.
If step one is where you get stuck, that's the thing to sort out this week. Everything else can wait.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a domain name?
A domain name is the web address people type in to reach your website, such as yourbusiness.co.uk. You don't buy it outright. You register it for a period, usually a year at a time, and it stays yours for as long as you keep renewing it. It's separate from your website and separate from your hosting, which is why you can change either without changing your address.
How much does a domain name cost in the UK?
A .co.uk is around £12.99 a year from a registrar, and .com is usually a little more. That's the registrar's price, not a web company's. Look at the renewal rather than the headline offer, because the renewal is what you'll pay every year for as long as you own it. Prices move, so check on the day you buy.
Should I use .co.uk or .com?
For a business serving UK customers, .co.uk is the natural choice and it signals straight away that you're a UK business. Use .com if you trade internationally or if the .co.uk is taken. If both are available and affordable, registering both and pointing one at the other stops a competitor picking up the near-identical address later.
What is the difference between a registrant, a registrar and a registry?
The registrant is the person or business the domain is registered to, which should be you. The registrar is the company you register it through and where you log in to renew, such as GoDaddy. The registry is the organisation that runs the whole ending, so Nominet runs .uk, and you'll never deal with them directly. Your web designer or host is a supplier, not the registrant.
Why do I have to buy the domain myself rather than my web designer buying it?
Because whoever holds the domain controls the website. If it's registered in your own name in your own account, you can move hosting, change provider or take the site elsewhere whenever you want. If it sits in someone else's account, you need their cooperation to do any of that. It costs the same either way, so there's no upside to letting anyone else hold it.
What happens if I forget to renew my domain?
Your website and any email addresses on that domain stop working. There's normally a grace period where you can renew late, followed by a more expensive redemption window, and after that the domain can be registered by anyone. Turn auto-renew on and make sure the card and email address on the registrar account are ones you still use.
