The first thing people tend to think of when they need a website is their domain name. So when we are talking to a new customer one of the questions we get asked nearly every time is “can you register it on our behalf?” to which our answer is always the same. Yes but…
We always advise our customers to retain ownership and ultimately control of their own domain names wherever possible. The main reason for this is because the domain name itself controls a number of key business facilities. Namely your website and your emails.
Time and time again we have worked with businesses who have come to Quicklaunch after either falling out with their previous suppliers, they just wanted a change or overall they weren’t happy with the service they received. 9 times out of 10 if we’ve ever had to speak to their past suppliers it’s been fine. No issues. But every now and then we get that one supplier who simply won’t give up the domain name or they do something spiteful like redirect web traffic or interrupt/change the email services or even holding a business to ransom – the worst we’ve had was a past supplier demanding £500 to release a customers domain name. Bear in mind, it costs £12 and 2 minutes of your time to paste in a new IPS tag to transfer a domain name. They had registered it in their name so it was technically owned by their business (not the customers). This sort of stuff is probably a lot more common than you might think and every web designer or agency you speak with will have an experience or client story that is relatable.
Now this behaviour is extremely bad practice and very unprofessional and in some cases probably even illegal. But for the sake of £10 – £15 per year, do you really want to give that level of control to someone outside of your organisation?
So how do I register my new domain name?
It’s very simple. Just visit any domain registration service and search for the domain you want. We use 123-reg or GoDaddy. But there are plenty of others that are available and none of them are any better or worse than the others. GoDaddy does have a nice ‘delegate’ feature. Which means you can register your domain on your account but you can then invite and grant access to your web designer or IT supplier so they can make any required changes.
Once you have found your chosen domain name, you simply add it to your cart as you would do via Amazon or any other e-commerce website. Then you proceed to check out and fill out the account details and proceed to payment. You can untick any ‘upsells’ during this process – if you do need these elements, you can always add them at a later date.
It’s really as simple as that. It takes less than 60 seconds to buy your own domain name.
If you are thinking about a new website or would like assistance with regards your domain name or even transferring it over to another account you own then get in touch with us – it costs nothing to have a chat.