The domain guide
Choosing, buying and setting up a domain
Everything worth knowing, in one place — no fluff, no upsell at the bottom.
I wrote this guide from the same questions I get asked every week running Dab Hand Domains. If you take one thing from it: register the name before you overthink it — a good domain sitting unregistered while you deliberate is the one way to actually lose it.
Best of luck with it.
Founder, Dab Hand DomainsGo find yours
Search it right here, see what's available.
Choosing a name
Keep it short
Shorter names are easier to say over the phone, easier to type, and harder to mistype into a competitor's site.
Make it easy to spell
If you have to explain the spelling out loud, it's costing you customers who mistype and land elsewhere.
Avoid hyphens and numbers
"get-my-stuff-4-u.com" reads worse than it sounds. Numbers and hyphens are easy to mishear and mistype.
Match your business name where you can
Consistency between your business name and domain builds trust and makes you easier to find.
Picking a TLD
.com
Still the global default. If you're targeting an international audience, it's the safest choice.
Country-specific (.com.au, .co.uk)
Builds local trust and can help with local search — worth it if your customers are in one country.
.io / .co / .dev
Popular with tech and SaaS businesses. Modern, but less universally recognised than .com.
Grab more than one
If your name is available on multiple relevant TLDs, registering a couple protects your brand from lookalikes.
After you register
Point your DNS
Connect your domain to your hosting or site builder — takes minutes with our DNS editor.
Set up email forwarding
Get hello@yourdomain.com forwarding to your existing inbox, free, in a couple of clicks.
Turn on auto-renewal
The single most common way businesses lose a domain is letting it lapse by accident.
Check WHOIS privacy is on
It's on by default with us, but worth confirming if you've transferred in from elsewhere.
Renewing, and not losing it
Domains expire — they don't renew themselves without auto-renew on
If auto-renew is off and you miss the date, the domain lapses and becomes available for anyone else to register.
There's usually a grace period, but don't rely on it
Most TLDs give a short window after expiry before the domain releases, sometimes at a higher "redemption" fee. It's a safety net, not a plan.
Renewal pricing can differ from the first-year price
Registration is sometimes discounted to attract new customers; check the renewal rate before you commit long-term.
Multi-year registration removes the risk entirely
Registering for 5 or 10 years up front means one less thing to think about.
Domain security basics
Registrar lock stops unauthorised transfers
With locking on, nobody can move your domain away without you unlocking it first — standard protection, on by default.
Keep your account email secure
Whoever controls the email on your registrar account can usually reset access to the domain itself — treat it like a bank login.
Watch for renewal scam letters
Third parties sometimes mail domain owners fake "renewal notices" at inflated prices. Your real renewal only ever comes from your actual registrar.
SSL is included, use it
Every domain here gets a free SSL certificate automatically — there's no reason a live site should serve over plain HTTP.
Common questions
How much does a domain actually cost?
Wholesale prices vary by TLD — a .com is different to a .io or a .com.au. Search your name to see the exact price before you commit to anything.
Can I change my domain name later?
Not the domain itself — but you can register a new one and set up a redirect from the old one, or run both if you want to keep the old traffic.
What happens if I don't renew?
It lapses, usually with a short grace window, then becomes available for anyone to register. If it's got real traffic or brand value, that's a real risk — auto-renewal exists for exactly this.
Do I need a trademark to register a domain?
No — anyone can register any available name. A trademark protects your right to use a name commercially, which is a separate, legal question from whether the domain is available.
One more thing
You'll also need a website
A domain on its own doesn't do much. Our other business, Dab Hand Marketing, is our recommendation for the site itself — same straight-talking approach, no fluff. Fill in this form and we'll pass your brief over to them directly.