A domain name is the one part of your online presence you cannot easily change later. Hosting can be migrated in an afternoon; a domain carries your search rankings, your email addresses, and every link anyone has ever shared. This guide covers how to pick one, where to register it, and the settings that matter after you own it.
A domain is a readable label that points to an address. Nothing more. When someone types your name into a browser, a chain of lookups translates that label into the numeric address of the server holding your site. Understanding that separation explains why you can keep a domain while changing everything behind it.
The parts of a domain
Read a domain from right to left, because that is the order the lookup happens in.
The extension
The rightmost part is the top-level domain. It comes in three broad flavours: generic extensions like .com and .org, country extensions like .nl and .de, and newer descriptive ones like .shop or .dev. The extension carries expectations, and visitors will mistype an unusual one as .com more often than you expect.
The name
The middle part is what you actually choose and what you actually pay for. It is unique within its extension, which is why the same name can exist separately under .com and .nl, owned by different people.
The subdomain
Anything to the left, such as the familiar www or a shop prefix, is a subdomain. These are free, you create as many as you like, and each can point somewhere completely different.
What makes a name work
The practical test for a domain name is whether someone can hear it once in a noisy room and type it correctly afterwards. That rules out most clever spellings, hyphens, and numbers, because all three need explaining every time you say them aloud. Shorter is better, but a longer name that reads cleanly beats a short one made of abbreviations.
Check the name in adjacent places before you buy: social handles, an existing trademark register for your country, and a plain search to see who already ranks for it. A name that collides with an established business in the same sector is a legal problem waiting rather than a bargain.
Worth knowing: registrations are leases, not purchases. You hold the name for one to ten years and keep it by renewing. Expiry does not delete it instantly, but the grace period is short and redemption fees are far higher than a renewal.
Where to register
Any accredited registrar can sell you the same name, so the differences are in price transparency, transfer policy, and whether basics are included or sold back to you. Look for free WHOIS privacy, a published renewal price rather than a first-year offer, two-factor authentication on the account, and no fee to unlock a transfer out.
Watch out: a domain bundled free with a hosting plan is often registered in the host’s name rather than yours, which makes leaving that host considerably harder. Keep the domain at an independent registrar and point it at whatever hosting you use.
Register the name you want for ten years and forget about it. The annual saving from a shorter term is smaller than the cost of one lapsed renewal.
Mark de Vries, domain consultant
The records you will need
Once you own a name, you point it somewhere using DNS records. Four types cover almost every situation: A for an address, CNAME for an alias, MX for mail, and TXT for verification. A minimal zone for a site with external email looks like the example below.
Changes take time to spread, governed by each record’s TTL. Lower the TTL a day before a planned migration and raise it again afterwards, and the switch will be close to invisible to visitors.
Registering, in order
- Shortlist three names you can say out loud without spelling them.
- Check each one for conflicts:
- Trademark registers in the countries you operate in.
- Social handles and existing search results.
- Register at an independent registrar, in your own name.
- Enable two-factor authentication and auto-renew immediately.
- Set the contact email to an address that does not depend on the domain itself.
What to do the day you buy it
- Turn on auto-renew and confirm the card on file will still be valid next year
- Enable WHOIS privacy if your registrar offers it
- Lock the domain against transfers
- Registrar lock stops unauthorised transfers out
- Unlock only when you intend to move
- Add a redirect so both the bare name and the www version resolve
- Register obvious misspellings only if your name invites them
Frequently asked questions
Can I transfer a domain to another registrar?
Yes. Unlock it at the current registrar, request the authorisation code, and submit it at the new one. The name keeps working throughout, and the transfer adds a year to the registration rather than resetting it. Most registrars block transfers in the first sixty days after registration.
Do I need the www version?
Technically no, but you should make both forms work and pick one as canonical. Serving the same site at two addresses without a redirect splits your search signals for no benefit.
What happens if someone already owns the name I want?
Check whether it resolves to a real site or a parked page. Parked names are often for sale, sometimes reasonably. If it belongs to an active business, choose a different name rather than a near-identical variation.
Is a country extension bad for international reach?
Not inherently, though search engines treat some of them as geographically targeted. If most of your customers are in one country, the local extension is usually an advantage rather than a limitation.
