Get your web address

MiguelSeptember 28, 2026 · 2 min read

A phone showing yourbusiness.com in the browser address bar, next to a brass key

Your web address, or domain, is how people find you, like yourbusiness.com. It’s worth a little thought, because changing it later is a hassle.

Choosing a good name

Keep it short. Easy to say, spell and remember.
Use your business name if you can. If it’s taken, add your town or what you do, like smithplumbingsurrey.com.
Avoid hyphens and numbers. They’re hard to say out loud.
Pick the right ending. A .com is the most familiar. In Canada, a .ca shows you’re local and is often easier to get.
Say it out loud. If you have to spell it every time, try again.

Where to register it

You rent a domain by the year from a company called a registrar. Most website builders can register one for you, and some include it free for the first year.

That’s convenient. Just check two things first:

The renewal price. What will it cost in year two and beyond?
That it’s in your name. The domain should belong to you, not to a designer or a friend who set it up.

Settings to turn on

Once your domain is registered, look for these settings:

Auto-renew. So it never expires by accident. Losing a domain is painful.
WHOIS privacy. Hides your personal details from the public record. Many registrars include it free.
Two-factor login. Protects your account with a code on your phone.

Connecting it to your site

If you registered the domain through your website builder, it usually connects on its own. If you registered it somewhere else, your builder will have a guide called something like “connect a domain”. It walks you through changing a couple of settings called DNS records.

It can take a few hours for changes to work everywhere. That’s normal.

A word on email

A matching email address, like hello@yourbusiness.com, looks more professional than a free email account. Most builders and registrars offer email for a small extra fee. It’s worth it.