Register The Web Address
If your preferred web address is available, you can register it at any one of over a dozen accredited registration organisations or their resellers. For a list of accredited domain name registrars, visit the Australian Domain Name Administrator’s website. These are organisations authorised by auDA to provide services to people who want to:
- register a new web address
- renew their existing address
- make changes to their record.
Have An Authoritative Email Address
Buying a domain isn’t just about websitesyou can also use them for email addresses. This means, instead of an address that ends with gmail.com or outlook.com, email addresses can end with a domain owned by your company.
You can read about , but it boils down to a few key points.
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Branding. Emails look like they’re coming from your company, not from a free email service. This looks more professional.
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Control. You can give employees an address ending with @companyname.com, which you can take control of should they leave the company.
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Flexibility. You can point your domain to any email service, meaning you can switch email providers without having to inform all of your customers about a new email address.
Need an email host? Check out our list of .
Tips When Making Your Ca Purchase
Always register the domain name yourself
Never let third parties, such as a marketing agency, complete a registration on your behalf. This can become a problem if you part ways and no longer have access to the account managing your domain name.
Register common variations of your name
If your company or product is commonly misspelled, register the alternate domain names and forward them to your primary website. This helps protect your brand identity and ensures no one else can register these domain names.
Provide accurate contact information
CIRA and your registrar will use the contact information provided during the registration process to communicate important information about your domain name.
Register a .CA with French-accented characters
The .CA domain registry supports French accented characters within domain names: é, ë, ê, è, â, à, æ, ô, , ù, û, ü, ç, î, ï, ÿ. When a .CA domain name is registered, all variations with accented characters are reserved for the original registrant exclusively.
Choose a registration term length that works for you
You can register a domain name from one to 10 years at a time. A longer registration period, combined with setting up auto-renewal with your registrar, can help you ensure your .CA domain name remains registered and active.
Protect your domain
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How To Set Up An Email Account That Uses Your Domain Name
This guest post is written by Kashish Jain.
Most of the people who are new to web design and just exploring how to start a blog dont understand the capabilities that come free with their domain, so they dont take advantage of them.
How many times have you visited a site for www.something.com and on the Contact Us page, you find that the sales or customer service personnel have email addresses like ? It certainly is not the main measure of business quality, but the average person usually thinks, Geez, what is that, their personal email address?
I, too, began using my personal email address for my website, but very soon I started to realize the importance and need of something more professional.
Why not use the domain email which is free with your hosting account? Using email addresses like will look much more professional than the personal emailand the best part is, its free!
The bottom line is that if you have paid money to own a domain then you should, at the least, buy from a domain registrar that offers email forwarding for their accounts . You can also create a domain email address from the cpanel given to you by your hosting providerstheyll also provide at least one free email address for your account.
How Do I Choose A Domain Name
Domains are used to identify and locate a website, so its essential to choose a domain name that represents your business and is easy for customers to remember. In an ideal world, your domain name would be the same as your business name. However, it can be a challenge to find an available domain. It often becomes a process of trial and error, which means choosing alternatives that are still recognizable by doing things such as adding your location.
Here are five tips for choosing a domain name:
- Keep it short and recognizable
- Choose the right domain extension for your business
- Consider how it will affect your sites ranking in search engines
- Include your location or keywords if your desired name is not available
- Reduce spam with a private domain registration
If youre still struggling to find a domain name that suits your business and is available, then visit our guide to choosing a domain name. Or, more specifically, if youre in the field of real estate, check out these real estate domain name ideas and examples.
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How Do I Find The Best Available Domain Name
If you have an idea for the name you want, start by searching for that. If the name isnt available, well show you our best recommendations for similar, available domain names. Or, if you dont have a specific domain name in mind, just type in keywords that describe your website or project, hit search, and check out the suggestions.
Complete The Domain Registration
As soon as you have completed the payment, youll be redirected to the control panel. Inside, there will be a setup box that youll need to fill out to complete the domain name registration.
Youll need to fill in all the fields with the correct details, such as your name, address, andcontact information. This data will be stored on WHOIS, the official domain ownership database.
After submitting your details, the domain registration will be processed.
Its possible to modify the domain ownership details using the domain management section within the control panel. Once the changes are made, you will have to confirm them via email.
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Coming Up With A Domain Name
Its time to choose your domain name once youve decided on a domain registrar. But dont just select one at random there are numerous factors to consider before making your decision. You should pay special attention to branding, simplicity, and accessibility.
Branding
Before you register a domain, think about how it will fit in with your existing identity. Every time someone visits your site, the domain name you choose will appear in the address box, so it should reflect your company.
The most obvious approach to take is to use the name of your company. Walmart, for instance, uses the domain name walmart.com. Variations on your company name work too, though â Houghton Mifflin Harcourtâs site is hmhco.com.
Simplicity
Your domain name should be straightforward and easy to remember in addition to expressing your brand. You should pick a short and concise domain name if you want visitors to remember your URL when they wish to visit your site.
In some cases, that may mean shortening your brand name. To return to the above example of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the company used âhmhco.comâ because âhoughtonmifflinharcourtcompany.comâ would be too long and difficult to remember.
Availability
The final factor in choosing your domain name is availability.
Top Domain Registration Tips From Cira’s Support Team
Our support team is really nice, but you can save yourself the trouble of having to call them by following these tips to avoid common domain name issues.
Always register the domain name yourself.
Don’t let a third party register it for you. As the business owner, create your registrar account yourself and using your contact information. This gives you full control over managing the domain.
Provide accurate contact information.
When you register a domain, you have to provide information like a phone number and email address. Make sure you provide accurate information so your registrar can contact you for important domain name updates. And if your info changes, update it in your profile.
Use a separate email address.
That is, don’t use as the contact email for the domain moose.ca. Avoid a potential black hole of domain despair: if you unwittingly let your domain expire, your email will stop working so you won’t be able to use that email for validation to get your site back up and running.
Choose a strong password.
It should go without saying, but choose a strong, unique password for your account with your registrar. You can also refer to our ultimate domain name security checklist for more tips like setting up two-factor authentication.
Don’t let your domain name expire.
Contact your registrar if you run into issues.
If you have questions, it’s usually best to contact your registrar first, because theres only so much CIRA is able to help you with.
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Get A Brandable Domain Name
What exactly is a brandable domain name? Domains that are brandable tend to have an interesting letter combination, have a nice pronunciation or simply a visual appeal. Sometimes, these are not descriptive but work just as efficiently.
Domains that are brandable help your visitors relate your website and content to your name. For example, the popular gaming website Kotaku may not mean anything, but is so catchy, it is what comes to gamers minds when they think of their favorite website.
Good domain names need to be easy to recall. In the age of information overload these days, the amount of facts and figures that need to be recalled is tremendous. Having a short, easy to remember domain name will put you to an advantage.
Keep in mind that many users of the internet do not exactly use a bookmark to help them remember their favorite websites. All they do is keep the names in their memory and re-type they when they want to get online.
For this reason, having long domain names that are hard to recall is going to cause you to lose customers along the way sooner or later.
How To Choose A Registrar
When you find your perfect .CA domain name, you will need to choose a certified .CA registrar to purchase it from. Here are some things to consider for evaluating which company will best meet your needs.
Prices and promotions
Compare prices to determine how much your domain name will cost and what is included in your purchase. Find out if they bill monthly or annually, and in Canadian dollars. Cheapest isnt always best – you are investing in an important part of your business.
Customer service
If you’re new to this whole website thing, chances are you’ll have a few questions and run into a few issues along the way. See if your registrar offers 24/7 support, live chat, and other helpful services.
Additional services
You may need email, hosting, and/or e-commerce to make use of your domain name. You can mix and match services with different companies or keep things simple and use a one-stop shop. See what registrars have deals with web builders, such as a free one-page website or a free trial.
Recommendations
Contact your favourite tech-savvy friend and see which companies they think highly of. If you don’t have any friends, seek out customer reviews and testimonials online.
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How Much Does A Domain Name Cost
The exact cost of your new domain name will vary based on the registrar, the specific top-level domain you’ve chosen, and the quality of the domain name. Domain.com is proud to offer more than 300 unique TLDs to help your new website stand out. Some domains may be pricier due to their intrinsic benefits, like being short and memorable, or the use of very competitive keywords such as cars.com. Browse our premium domains to jumpstart your website performance.
Verify Ownership Of Your New Domain
Paying for your domain might seem like the last step in the process, but you also need to verify your ownership. This step lets you send email using the domain and keeps other people from using it without your permission.
If you purchase your domain through Mailchimp, this process is simple. Youll receive a verification email after you complete your purchase. Simply click on the Verify Domain button in the email and follow the instructions on the next page, and you can start using your domain to build your brand. Youll only ever have to complete this step once.
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The Four Components Of A Url
Just like a mailing address, which is made up of multiple parts , a URL, or web address, also involves different components. In this case, think of the domain name as the recipients name in a mailing address. In addition to the domain, a URL also consists of a prefix , a subdomain , and the domain extension .
What Is A Business Domain Name
A business domain name is the web address of your business website it’s what you type into your web browser to reach a website. Instead of entering the address of your physical address, you enter the domain name to access your business website.
A domain name stands in for an IP address, which is an unwieldy, hard-to-memorize string of digits unique to a website. A business domain name includes both the portion that’s unique to your business and the extension , such as .com, .net or .org. These suffixes are known as top-level domains .
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Do You Have To Buy The Same Domain Name As Your Registered Business Name
In short, no. However, there are a few things to consider. Ideally, your domain name should be similar to your business name. So, if your registered business name is High Street Plumbing Ltd., you wouldn’t want to pick the domain name tomsplumbing.com.
Keep your business brand or personal brand, if you’re self-employed consistent across all of your content, platforms and marketing items when choosing a domain name. Make sure your domain name is consistent with the branding you use for your business on social media as well.
In the case of High Street Plumbing, these would be a couple of domain names to consider:
- highstreetplumbing
- highstreetplumbers
Even if the domain name isn’t exactly the same as your registered business name, it still gives your customers something similar to search for online.
Make It Brandable Not Generic
Creative, memorable domain names are always better than generic ones. After all, your domain name is how people will find, remember, and spread the word about your business on the internet. Its much better to have something that aligns with your brand instead of a domain name thats made up of a bunch of general keywords.
For example, can you tell the difference between cheapcarinsurance.com and affordableautoinsurance.com? Which one would you trust when it comes to buying insurance? Probably neither. Both sound a little spammy, and theyre terribly generic.
On the other hand, youll probably know where the domain names progressive.com or geico.com are going to point you to. Those companies have invested in their brands, and theyve used them in their domain names. You can trust that these sites are legitimate.
Even if you havent built up trust and loyalty yet, you can start by choosing a strong domain name that fits your brand.
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