How to Register a Domain Name for Your Trade Business

Your domain name is your address on the internet: the yourbusiness.co.uk part. It takes ten minutes to register and costs about the same as a pub lunch for the year. It is also the one thing you should always own yourself.

Why it must be in your name

Your domain is tied to your website, your email addresses and everything printed on your van. If a web designer registers it in their own account, they control it. If you fall out, or they stop trading, getting it back can be slow and painful. Register it yourself, in your own account, and that can never happen.

Choosing a name

• Use your business name if you can: smithroofing.co.uk.
• Keep it short and easy to say. You will be reading it out over the phone for years.
• Avoid hyphens and numbers. People forget them.
• Adding your trade or town is fine if the plain name is taken: smithroofingbolton.co.uk.
• Do not obsess over keywords. Having "plumber" in the domain makes very little difference to ranking these days. A name people remember matters more.

.co.uk or .com?

For a UK trade, .co.uk is the natural choice. It tells customers you are local and is usually cheaper. If the .com is also available and cheap, some people buy both and point one at the other, but it is not essential.

How to register it

• Step 1. Go to a domain registrar. There are many, including Namecheap, GoDaddy, 123 Reg, IONOS and Cloudflare. They all sell the same thing.
• Step 2. Type the name you want into the search box to see if it is available.
• Step 3. Add it to your basket. You will be offered extras such as hosting, email and website builders. You can say no to all of them.
• Step 4. Create an account using your own email address, one you will still have in five years.
• Step 5. Enter your real name and address as the owner, and pay.
• Step 6. Turn on auto-renew and keep your card details up to date.

What it should cost

A .co.uk is typically around £10 a year. Watch for cheap first-year offers that jump up at renewal, and check the renewal price before you buy.

Things to watch

• Do not let it lapse. If a domain expires, your website and email stop working, and someone else can buy it. Auto-renew prevents this.
• Keep the login safe. Write down which registrar you used and how to get in.
• Ignore official-looking renewal letters and emails from companies you did not register with. They are a common scam.

Already have one that someone else controls?

Ask them to transfer it to an account in your name. For .uk domains this is a standard process and a reasonable supplier will do it without fuss.

What happens next

Once you own the domain, whoever builds your website connects it for you. With FOUND, you register the domain in your own name and we do the technical bit. If you get stuck at any step, we will talk you through it. See how it works.