If you’ve got a website, you’ve got a domain name.

Well, not necessarily, but in the same way as you have a phone, it has a phone number – stop paying someone somewhere for your phone number service, and you’ve got a piece of equipment that isn’t able to live up to its purpose. Likewise if you have a website, if you aren’t paying someone somewhere for the associated domain name, then people can’t visit your website.

So the domain name is your unique name out there in internet-land. Just like a phone number, nobody else can have the same thing. Every domain name has to be registered and then occasionally renewed (how often depends, we’ll get to that). While you can register the domain name through 1,001 different resellers or providers, ultimately all domains are managed by a country’s Registrar.

For .com.au type domains (eg. winchwebsites.com.au), the country is Australia (hence the “.au”) and our Registrar is auDA (.au Domain Administration Ltd) who is the “policy authority and industry self-regulatory body for the .au domain space”. In other words, the top dog. They make the rules, and have final say in who can or cannot have a domain name.

If you’d like to register a domain name, you can’t go to auDA. You need to go to an official licenced Registry Operator or more likely a reseller who has a wholesale account with a Registry Operator. I’d recommend Netregistry as the place to go – their prices are good, their service and reputation are good. You’ll need to provide the required information (eg. ABN, Business Name) through an online application, submit your payment, and usually within an hour or two the domain is yours unless there’s a hiccup of some sort. Of course, Winch Websites would be happy to do it for you and make sure it’s done properly, just get in touch.

Many small businesses, however, outsource the domain registration, often as  part of a package deal to get a website. But here’s the thing – the domain MUST be registered in YOUR name. Not the name of the business registering it on your behalf. If your own details, including email address, are not used as the “Registrant” (ie. owner), then the domain does not belong to you!

A domain name will have contact info for;

• Registrant
• Admin
• Tech
• Billing

Each has name, email, address and phone (for domains ending in .au). It is quite normal, safe and even recommended to have Admin, Tech and Billing all show the contact details for your webby person. But the Registrant must be you and your business. I have seen several cases where a business owner and the web people have gone separate ways (eg. the web business closed up/disappeared, or there was an argument) and it is a painful bureaucratic process to wrestle back control of a domain name. In some cases, it’s a case of “Too bad, you can’t have it”.

So to close off this first blog post all about domain names, remember this – it’s easy to register a domain name, and quite cheap to do. Just make sure that you are listed as the Registrant. And don’t forget, the email you give will be the one used to send you renewal reminders.

In Part 2, we talk about what happens after a domain name is registered. To use the phone analogy again – you have a phone number, now you have to associate it with a device so you can tell people to use it.