The first thing you need to consider when building your own website is getting a domain name (and in fact, you should buy it, even if you’re not going to build your own website straightaway, because it will never, ever, not be useful).
Let’s start with a technical definition; it’s purely an address, and is designed to be a way of remembering an IP address. An IP address is the series of numbers, which is the point on the network where you are.
Getting a domain name
There are now over 280 extensions of a domain name. What we mean by extensions, are the words that come between the dots at the end, such as .co.uk, .com and .info for example. The extension appears after your chosen domain name.
Once you have bought your domain name from a registrar, you will need to renew or re-register it every year or two years, usually for just a small charge. So make sure you keep your domain registrar details and login information in a safe place!
It is worth considering what you actually do when buying a domain name, as sometimes it’s beneficial to combine that with your company name (and if someone is looking for a particular product or service or needs to guess what your website is, they’ve got a much better chance of finding you).
If you buy your domain name and hosting from the same people, the two will automatically see each other, because you’re buying from the same company. If you buy the domain from one company and hosting from another company, you will have to make the domain name, look at the hosting and that’s called a DNS record change. It’s not complicated, but you do need to know what you’re doing and it can become a little bit more technical when connecting emails.
Once you’ve bought your domain name, like warm.co.uk, you can then apply this to your email addresses to make your business look really professional
Sense check your domain name before you buy it – make sure that the words together don’t spell something else, and if so, use a hyphen if you need to. Beware also of trademarks, and make sure that you are not using a registered trademark in your domain name (it’s easily done without realising!).
Domain names typically cost around £15-£20 per year.
Our next 30 second read looks at who your users are, how they access your site and why it’s important.
If we can help with any aspect of your website, or just for an informal chat or advice, get in touch.
