A domain is the one part of your online presence that is genuinely permanent. Websites get rebuilt, platforms change, agencies come and go — the domain carries whatever reputation you build.
This matters most in the mistakes: domains registered in an agency’s name, or chosen so narrowly they have to be abandoned when the business grows.
- 1
Choose for a decade, not for today
Avoid naming a single service or town you may outgrow. "EastbourneResin.co.uk" is a problem the day you expand to Hastings or add a second service. Your business name is almost always the safer choice, because it can absorb changes of direction.
- 2
Prefer short, spellable and sayable
The real test is reading it over the phone. Hyphens, deliberate misspellings and numbers all cause trouble aloud. If you have to spell it out twice, it will be typed wrongly for as long as you own it.
- 3
Pick the right extension for your market
For a UK business trading with UK customers, .co.uk carries local credibility and is what people default to typing. .com suits international ambitions. Buy both if the budget allows and redirect one — it costs a few pounds a year and prevents a competitor taking the other.
- 4
Register it in your own name
The registrant must be your business, with your email address, on an account you control. Domains registered under an agency account are a genuine hostage situation when the relationship ends. If yours is, transfer it now while everyone is on good terms.
- 5
Lock it and secure the account
Turn on registrar lock to prevent unauthorised transfers, enable two-factor authentication on the account, and set auto-renew. Expired domains are bought within minutes by squatters, and the cost of recovery is many times the renewal fee.
- 6
Configure DNS deliberately
Point A or CNAME records at your host, and MX records at your email provider. Changes propagate over minutes to a few hours. Note down every record before changing anything — reconstructing DNS from memory during an outage is miserable.
- 7
Add the email authentication records
SPF, DKIM and DMARC records tell receiving servers which systems may send email as your domain. Without them your email is more likely to land in spam, and anyone can spoof your address. Most providers document the exact values to add.
Choosing between www and no-www
Pick one as canonical and redirect the other permanently. It does not matter which, but serving both without a redirect splits your search signals and creates duplicate URLs for every page.
What to avoid
Do not register a domain deliberately close to a competitor’s or containing a trademark — passing off and trademark disputes are expensive. Avoid registrars whose renewal price is many times the first-year offer.
Frequently asked questions
If affordable, yes — redirect one to the other. It protects the brand cheaply and prevents someone else trading on your name.
Would rather we did it?
These guides are here so you can do it yourself. If you would rather hand it over, that is what we do.
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