A name you can say aloud
If you have to spell it over the phone, people will mistype it. Short, plain and without hyphens holds up best.
Domain and email, set up together
Set up your business domain and email in one pass
A new business needs a name people can type, an address built on that name and an inbox behind it. Done in that order, with each cost checked first, you pay for every piece once.
Name Your domain
The part people type, held through a registrar for as long as you renew it.
Address you@yourbusiness
What goes on your invoices, built on the domain and not on a free mail service.
Inbox Your mailbox
Where the mail lands, run by an email host and joined to the domain through DNS records.
Step 1: the name
Register a domain the business can keep
A domain is registered rather than bought outright. You hold it through a registrar for as long as you keep renewing, and everything else in the setup is built on it.
The ending that fits
Most people type .com from habit. A country or industry ending can suit a local or specialist business, as long as customers will remember it.
The renewal price
The first term is often discounted. The figure that lasts is the renewal, so read that one before comparing registrars.
Ownership in the right name
The registrant is the legal holder of the domain. Use the business or its owner, never a designer or helper who happens to be setting it up.
Privacy on the public record
Domain privacy keeps your contact details out of public lookups. Some registrars include it and some charge, so check before adding it.
Automatic renewal
A lapsed domain takes the website and the email with it. Keep renewal on and the card on file current.
Step 2: the address
Decide what the address is and who it reaches
Every business address has two halves. The domain is settled in step 1, so the remaining choices are the name in front of the @ and what sits behind it.
you Who it reaches, a person or a role
@
yourbusiness The domain from step 1, with its ending
A full mailbox
Its own login and its own storage. Hosts usually charge per mailbox, so give one to each person who needs to send as themselves.
An alias
A second address that delivers into a mailbox you already have. Roles such as billing or support often need nothing more, and many hosts do not charge for them.
Forwarding only
Passes mail on to an inbox you already use. It is the cheapest route in, but replies can come from the old address unless sending is set up too.
Step 3: the inbox
Connect the domain to the inbox
The registrar and the email host may be two different companies. DNS records are what join them, and your email host tells you the exact values to enter.
| Record | What it does |
|---|---|
| MX | Tells other mail servers where to deliver mail for your domain. |
| SPF | Lists the servers allowed to send mail using your domain. |
| DKIM | Adds a signature to outgoing mail so receivers can check it was not altered. |
| DMARC | Tells receivers what to do with mail that fails those checks, and where to send reports. |
Find where DNS is managed
It is usually the registrar, unless the domain has been pointed at another provider. Records entered anywhere else do nothing.
Keep the records you already have
Changing MX moves your mail and nothing else. Leave the website's records alone, and keep to one SPF record, adding new senders to it.
Test in both directions
Send a message from an outside account, then reply to it. DNS changes take a while to spread, so a failed first test does not always mean a wrong record.
Before you pay
Where people end up paying twice
Most double payments come from buying each piece without checking what the last one already included.
- Email
Email that came with the domain
A registrar bundle may already include a mailbox. Check before signing up with a separate host, then decide which one you are keeping.
- Domain
A domain that came with the website
Website builders often include a domain for the first term. It then renews at its own price, and the email is frequently sold separately.
- Domain
Privacy and DNS extras at checkout
These are sometimes ticked by default and sometimes already included. Read the cart line by line.
- Email
Mailboxes that could be aliases
One person reading three addresses rarely needs three paid mailboxes. One mailbox with aliases does the same job.
- Both
Two renewal dates, two opening rates
The domain and the email renew separately, and each can jump from its opening rate. Compare the ongoing cost of the pair rather than the first bill.
- Both
A bundle you cannot leave cleanly
Before buying both from one company, check you can move either one on its own later. A forced move can mean paying for the same setup again.
Once it is running
What to keep hold of
Whoever controls the logins controls the business's name online, so these stay with the owner.
The registrar login
Hold it in an account the business owns, under an email address that is not on the domain itself, so you can still get in if mail stops.
A note of where each piece lives
Registrar, DNS provider and email host, written down in one place for whoever has to fix something later.
The renewal dates
Both renewals in a calendar someone actually reads, along with the card each one is charged to.