Why Buy A Domain Name?
Easy to Find / Credibility
A domain name is the name by which an organisation's presence is identified on the internet. The idea is to make it as easy as possible for clients to find you.
For example, our domain name is “cadzow.com.au”.
All major businesses have domain names. The Internet is now a part of everyday commercial life and your domain name is your online identity. A business web site without a domain name is difficult to find and looks unprofessional.
Domain Names are Portable
Having a domain name means you have the freedom to change hosting providers without confusing/losing visitors. Your new web hosting service will use the same web address.
This way, you can to change hosting services to find a better deal, or receive better service without losing viewers or breaking links.
Without a domain name, your web site name and email addresses change each time you move, which is confusing to customers.
Buying a Domain Name
You can't own a domain name; essentially you are leasing it. Each country has a domain authority (http://www.auda.org.au) who oversees the domain naming system but the domains are issued and managed by domain registrars. The domain registrars charge different fees but the end result is the same, so there are sometimes reasons to move your domain from one registrar to another.
Purchasing a domain name does not immediately get you any services like email or a web site. For these you must purchase a hosting plan from a web hosting provider, and this is different from the plan you use to connect to the Internet. So your domain name comes from a domain registrar, your web site and emails are hosted by a hosting provider and your connection to the internet is provided by an Internet service provider (ISP). Some providers can do all these services for you, or you may wish to use different providers.
- A domain name address must begin and end with a letter or a number.
- Domain names are NOT case sensitive, so most just use lower case letters.
- No spaces or other characters are allowed.
- Using a zero is obviously allowed although it may get confused with the letter O.
- When registering a domain, look it up via OpenDNS and Wayback Machine to see if it previously existed and what the content was.
Approach hosting providers for details. Call Cadzow for our recommendation and further discussion.
As a rough guide, an Australian domain name (eg. ending in .com.au) is around $20/year; web/email hosting can be less than $100/year or much higher.
Not ready yet?
Even if you don't plan using your domain name immediately, you might want to consider purchasing it so that someone else doesn't beat you to it. If you are too late with your registration the chance to choose the name you want may possibly be lost forever!