Domains
Domain names, explained and looked after
Registered in your name, pointed where they should be, and renewed before they lapse. With somebody who will tell you what any of it actually means.
Almost nobody understands their own domain, and that is not their fault
A domain is one of the few things a small business genuinely owns, and it is administered through a system designed for engineers. So most people end up in one of these positions without ever choosing it.
- Somebody else is the registered owner. The web designer bought it on their account in 2014 and it is legally theirs. This is the common one and people find out at the worst moment.
- Nobody knows where it is. The renewal comes off a card belonging to a company that no longer trades, from a provider nobody can name.
- It nearly expired, or it did. Renewal notices went to an address that stopped being read three years ago.
- The DNS points somewhere nobody understands. Moving the website breaks the email, or moving the email breaks something else, so nobody touches it.
- It cannot be moved. The current provider will not release it, or wants a fee, or simply does not answer.
All of it is recoverable, and usually in less time than you would think. It is worth asking even if you think it has gone too far.
What I do with domains
- Register them in your name. Your name, your address, your details on the record, from the first day rather than after a conversation about it.
- Transfer them in from wherever they are now, including from providers who make it difficult.
- Set up DNS on Cloudflare, which is where I put everything I look after. It is fast, it is free at the level most businesses need, and it means your website and your email can be changed independently without one breaking the other.
- Get the email records right. SPF, DKIM and DMARC are the difference between your mail arriving and your mail going to junk, and they live in DNS.
- Renew them. On a schedule, with a reminder that reaches an address somebody actually reads.
- Untangle the mess when a domain, a website and an inbox have been pointing at three different suppliers for a decade.
- Hand them over, cleanly and at no charge, if you want to go elsewhere.
What it costs
The registration itself depends entirely on the ending. A .co.uk or a .uk is a few pounds a year. Some of the trade endings cost a great deal more, and one or two are eye-watering. Tell me the name you want and I'll tell you the price before you commit to anything.
DNS on Cloudflare, at the level a small business needs, is free. I am not going to invoice you for something that costs me nothing.
Setting one up, moving one in, or sorting out a tangle is quoted before it starts. Most of it is small.
The part worth knowing
You can take a .uk domain away from me without my help.
UK domains are run by Nominet, and their system separates two things: the registrant, which is who the domain belongs to, and the tag holder, which is whichever provider it currently sits with.
When I register a domain for you, you are the registrant. That matters because a registrant can ask Nominet to move their domain to a different provider directly, without the current one agreeing to it or even being involved.
So the promise that your domain is yours is not resting on my good character or on a clause you would have to enforce. If I stopped answering the phone tomorrow, you could move it anyway. Very few of the places a small business ends up can say that.
Questions
The things people ask
My web designer registered my domain and I can't get hold of them.
Very common, and usually fixable. The route depends on the ending and on whose name is actually on the record, so send me the domain and I'll look it up and tell you where you stand. That part costs nothing.
Can you move my domain without any downtime?
Yes. A transfer moves who administers the domain, not where it points, so the site and the email carry on through it. The risk is in changing the DNS, which is a separate step and one I do carefully rather than at five o'clock on a Friday.
Why Cloudflare?
It's fast, it's reliable, the level most businesses need is free, and it separates your DNS from whoever happens to host your website this year. That last one is the real reason: it means changing your website never has to put your email at risk.
Should I buy the .com as well as the .co.uk?
Usually not, and I'd rather say so than sell you two. If you trade only in the UK, a .co.uk is what people type and what they trust. Buy the second one when there's a reason, not in case.
What happens if I stop paying you?
The domain is still yours. I'd tell you what needs renewing and when, and help you take it somewhere else if that's what you want. Nobody loses a domain because they fell out with me.
I've been told my domain is about to expire. Is that real?
Sometimes, and sometimes it's a scam letter designed to look like a renewal invoice. Send it to me and I'll tell you which. These have been going round for twenty years and they still work.