Your domain name is like your telephone number or your address. It is where people contact you on the internet and where they find your web site.
Registering your own domain name means that you have the sole use of this internet address and your email address is your own. It is independent of the service provider that you choose to use which gives you the freedom to change providers without “changing your address”. Choosing a name that says who you are and what you do helps people to remember you and promotes your business every time you send an email or feature your web site address in advertising, on your vehicles or in writing.
How to choose a domain name?
Its a good idea to use your business name and/or a word or words that depict what you do. If you haven’t yet chosen your business name, choose one where the domain is available – AnnWebCom can help you to do this.
What type of domain should I choose?
We always recommend using a .co.uk for UK based businesses – some search engines use the domain type to home-in on UK businesses in the search results.
A .com can be regarded as having more “kudos” and this may have more sway for you in choosing the domain type.
It is sometimes a good idea to register both types to try to “protect” your on-line identity. However, we don’t recommend registering lots and lots of different types as this can be costly and for many businesses it is unnecessary.
There are many types to choose from, here are the main ones:
- .co.uk / .uk UK-based commercial organisation
- .com international commercial organisation
- .eu only for people / organisations with an EU postal address
- .net usually for computing / internet businesses
- .org international ‘not-for-profit’ organisation
- .org.uk UK-based ‘not-for-profit’ organisation
- .biz an alternative type for businesses
- .mobi strictly only for web sites that can be viewed on a mobile device
- .me.uk intended for UK individuals
- .ltd.uk only for UK limited companies – the domain name must exactly match the company name
Registering your domain with AnnWebCom is easy, just let us know the required domain name (or ask us to help you choose one) and the name / address of the registrant (usually you or the business) and we’ll do the rest.
We’ll deal with all the technical stuff and manage the renewals for you too.