Domain Registration 101

If you’re a new business owner or new to website planning, you’ll wanna listen up because we are about to dive into your first step… domain registration.

Domain registration is simply a required step for putting up a website on the Internet. In the world of websites, selecting a domain name and registering that domain name is one of the first steps in building a website.

Web design and development can feel like a whole other world if you’re unfamiliar with all that goes into it, but we’re here to shed some light on some of these foreign topics, starting with domain registration.

What is a domain name?

First things first, what even is a domain name? A domain name is the address people type into their browser to find your website.

For example, our domain name is themugcreative.com, meaning that in order to get to our website, a visitor must type themugcreative.com in order to get to our website. 

To maintain a domain that is connected to your website, you must first purchase the domain name from a domain registrar.

Where to purchase and register a domain name?

When it comes to purchasing a domain name and choosing a registrar, it’s important to first consider what your plans are for your website. 

Will you be utilizing third-party hosting for a WordPress website or will hosting be included with your website, with a design platform like Showit, Shopify, Squarespace, or Wix?

Our recommendations for WordPress:

If you’re building your small business or personal website on WordPress, you’ll likely need a third-party host. While hosting and domain registration are different services, they do correlate. 

We recommend that if you’ll be using third-party hosting anyway, it’s a good idea to register your domain with the same company that you use to host your website to keep things all in one place.

Sites like BlueHost, HostGator, and GoDaddy all offer packages or deals for website hosting and domain registration.

Read More: Best Practices for Website Security

Our recommendation for ShowIt and Shopify:

While there may be a few more constraints, building websites with software like ShowIt comes with many amenities. 

Hosting is included with a ShowIt and Shopify subscription, so with a ShowIt website, third-party hosting is not necessary. 

So in this scenario, If you are going to have your website built on a platform that provides hosting, you will only need to set up the domain registration.

This can be done through sites we’ve already mentioned (i.e. GoDaddy), however, there are more simple options that we prefer to recommend like Google Domains, which makes the domain registration and custom email setup a breeze.

How to choose a domain name

Now that we’ve discussed what a domain name is and where to get one, the final step is to figure out what you want as a domain name. 

Since your domain name is the link to your website, it should make sense in relation to your business name. For example, our domain name is our business name, The Mug Creative, and themugcreative.com.

Since this is what visitors will type into their web browser, it should be easy to remember and as close to your business name as possible. 

We understand that all of the factors that go into creating a website can be overwhelming and confusing. If you have any additional questions about domain names and registration, please reach out to us! 

We love helping business owners with getting their business online through branding, web design, and development.