108 answers on domains, DNS, email and getting online.
A domain name is the address people type to reach your website or send you email, such as example.co.uk. You rent it for a fixed period, usually a year at a time, and keep it for as long as you renew.
You hold the exclusive right to use it for the period you have paid for, and you are recorded at the registry as its registrant. Nobody sells domains outright; every domain is a renewable registration.
The top-level domain is the part after the final dot, such as .uk, .com or .org. Each one is run by its own registry, with its own rules and prices.
The registry runs the extension and holds the master database, such as Nominet for .uk. A registrar is accredited to sell registrations in it and submit them on your behalf.
There is no limit. Businesses commonly register several — the main name plus common misspellings and the other extensions they care about.
Letters, numbers and hyphens. It cannot start or end with a hyphen, and it cannot contain spaces or most punctuation.
Each part between dots can be up to 63 characters, and the whole name up to 253. In practice anything over about 20 characters is hard to use.
No. EXAMPLE.CO.UK and example.co.uk are the same domain. Addresses are usually written in lower case.
Some extensions support internationalised domain names, which are encoded behind the scenes in a format beginning xn--. Support varies by extension.
A prefix on a domain you already own, such as shop.example.co.uk. Subdomains are free and unlimited — you create them in your DNS, not by registering anything.
Yes, in practice. Without one your site is only reachable by its server address, which nobody will remember or trust.
No. Each domain name is unique to one registrant. The same word can exist under different extensions, which is why example.co.uk and example.com can have different owners.
The person or organisation recorded at the registry as the holder of the domain. That is the legal owner, and it should always be you or your company, never your web developer.
If they are recorded as registrant rather than you, they hold it. Always check the registry record, and have it transferred into your own name if it is not.
It varies enormously by extension. What matters more than the first-year price is the renewal price, which is what you will pay every year afterwards.
Nominet, the UK domain registry. It sets the rules for .uk, .co.uk, .org.uk and the other .uk variants.
Yes. There is no requirement to be a UK resident or company, though you must supply accurate registrant details.
Both are open to anyone. .co.uk is the long-established address for British businesses and carries the most recognition; .uk is the shorter form and is useful when the .co.uk is taken.
If the budget allows, yes. It stops someone else trading on your name at the near-identical address and costs little.
Clubs, community groups, charities and membership bodies. There is no restriction on who may register one, but it signals a non-trading organisation.
Personal use — individuals, personal blogs and portfolios. Anyone can register one.
It records what kind of person or organisation holds the domain, such as an individual, a UK limited company or a sole trader. Nominet requires it, and registrations without it are rejected.
The one that matches reality. A registered company should use the limited company type and give its company number; an individual not trading should use the individual type.
Yes. Nominet allows registrants who are individuals not trading to opt out of having their address published. Domains held for the purposes of a business have their details published.
Yes, and you should whenever they change. Nominet runs data-quality checks and can suspend a domain whose details do not stand up.
Up to ten years at a time, though one or two years is the most common choice.
Yes. Nominet operates a Dispute Resolution Service for complaints that a registration is an abusive registration of a name someone else has rights in.
Registering a name is not the same as having the right to use it. A registration that infringes someone's trade mark can be challenged and lost.
It stops working, then enters a suspension period during which it can still be renewed, and is eventually cancelled and released for anyone to register.
No. Nominet publishes the details of registrants who hold a domain for business purposes; the opt-out is available only to individuals not trading.
Short, easy to say, and hard to misspell. If you have to spell it out on the phone, it will cost you traffic for as long as you own it.
Avoid them where you can. People forget hyphens when typing and leave them out when saying the name aloud.
Only with care. "4" and "four" create two names people will confuse, and you would need both.
Far less than it used to be. Search engines rank on content and authority, so a memorable brand generally beats a keyword string.
Two or three of the most likely ones is sensible insurance. Twenty is a budget better spent elsewhere.
Length itself is not a ranking factor. Long names are simply harder to remember, share and type.
They suit technology and AI businesses and are widely recognised in those fields. For a local UK trade business, .co.uk will reassure more customers.
You can register a new one and redirect the old to it, but you keep paying for both and you lose some search authority in the move. It is worth getting right first.
Search for the word, check for an existing business trading under it, and check the UK trade mark register. Registering a name does not give you the right to use it.
A name the registry itself has priced above the standard rate, usually because it is short or a common word. Both its registration and renewal cost more.
Search for the name, check it is available, give the registrant details the registry requires, and pay. Registration is usually complete within minutes.
The registration itself usually completes within minutes. Making a website appear at the address depends on DNS, which can take longer to spread.
You can buy as a guest, but an account lets you manage DNS, renewals and transfers afterwards.
Most extensions allow multiple years, typically up to ten. Paying for several years protects you from price rises and from forgetting to renew.
A first-year offer is a discount; the renewal is the standing price. Always check the renewal figure before you buy — it is the one you pay every year afterwards.
Registrations are submitted to the registry immediately and generally cannot be reversed, so they are not refundable once registered. If an order fails and no domain was registered, that part is refunded.
Name, address, email address and phone number. Registries require these and will not accept a registration without them.
Yes. Inaccurate details can get a domain suspended. Registries including Nominet actively check them.
Yes, and you generally should if it is a business domain. Give the company as registrant and, for .uk, the matching registrant type and company number.
It depends on the seller's VAT status and where you are. Any VAT due is shown separately before you pay.
The system that turns a domain name into the address of a server. Think of it as a phone book: your domain is the name, and DNS records say where requests should go.
The server that answers DNS questions about your domain. Your domain points at nameservers, and those nameservers hold your records.
At least two. Registries require it, and a single nameserver means your domain stops resolving whenever that one server is unavailable.
It points a name at an IPv4 address — the numeric address of a server. It is what makes your domain load your website.
The same as an A record, but for an IPv6 address.
It points one name at another name rather than at an address, such as pointing www at your main domain.
The apex of a domain must carry records a CNAME is not allowed to sit beside. Use an A record there instead, and keep CNAMEs for subdomains.
No. A name with a CNAME cannot carry anything else. That restriction is the cause of a great many broken email set-ups.
It decides which server receives email for your domain. Each carries a priority number, and lower numbers are tried first.
A record holding plain text. It is how domains prove things — email authentication and the verification strings services ask you to add.
It delegates a domain or subdomain to a particular set of nameservers.
It advertises the host and port for a specific service, used by things like VoIP and chat systems.
It states which certificate authorities are allowed to issue SSL certificates for your domain.
Time to live — how long resolvers may remember a record before checking again. Lower it a day before a planned move and the switch will be far less painful.
Because of TTL: resolvers are still using the old answer until it expires. Changes typically spread within minutes to a few hours.
A domain by itself does not include mailboxes. You either add a mailbox service or point your MX records at an email provider you already use.
Yes. Both give you MX and TXT records to add to your DNS, and your domain then works with their mailboxes.
It sends mail arriving at an address on your domain on to another mailbox. It is not the same as a mailbox, and replies come from the original address unless you configure otherwise.
Most often because SPF, DKIM and DMARC are missing or wrong. Without them, receiving servers cannot verify your mail is genuinely from you.
A TXT record listing which servers are allowed to send email as your domain.
A signature added to your outgoing mail, with the matching public key published in your DNS, so receivers can verify the message was not altered.
A policy record telling receiving servers what to do when a message fails SPF and DKIM checks, and where to send reports.
Yes, and you usually should. Extra records with higher priority numbers act as backups when your main mail server is unreachable.
One per person who needs to send and receive individually. Shared addresses like info@ can usually be aliases rather than separate mailboxes.
It can. If you change nameservers without copying your MX records across, your email stops arriving. Copy the records first.
Yes. You can transfer a domain at any time, subject to the registry's rules.
A .uk transfer works by changing the domain's TAG, which identifies the registrar holding it. There is no authorisation code, and the change is made by the provider you are leaving.
Unlock the domain at your current provider, get its authorisation code, and give that code to the new provider.
A .uk TAG change can take effect quickly. Global extensions such as .com usually take around five days, because the losing registrar is given time to respond.
Not if your DNS records are unchanged. A transfer moves who manages the domain, not where it points.
No. Remaining time carries over, and most transfers add a further year on top.
Global extensions cannot be transferred within 60 days of being registered or previously transferred. That lock is set by ICANN, not by your provider.
A setting that prevents a domain being transferred until it is unlocked, which protects against hijacking. It applies to global extensions; .uk does not use one.
A password-like string proving you control the domain. It is required to transfer global extensions and should be treated as a credential.
A short identifier for the registrar that holds a .uk domain. Transferring a .uk means changing that TAG to the new registrar's.
We attempt to renew the domain before it expires using your saved payment method, so it cannot lapse through forgetfulness.
Your website and email stop working. There is then a grace period in which you can still renew, followed by a costlier redemption period, after which the name is released.
Usually, during the grace or redemption period, though redemption typically carries an extra registry fee. Once released, anyone may register it.
It varies by extension and is set by the registry, not by us. It is typically around 30 days for global extensions.
Yes. Reminders go out ahead of expiry and again if a domain has expired while it can still be recovered.
Yes. Early renewal adds to the existing expiry date rather than replacing it, so you do not lose the time you have already paid for.
Registries change their own wholesale prices, and those changes pass through. Any change is notified before it affects you.
We retry and tell you. If the payment cannot be taken before expiry, the domain lapses, so keep your payment details current.
Use a strong, unique password on your account, keep your contact email reachable, and leave transfer locks on where the extension supports them.
Someone gaining control of a domain they do not own, usually through a compromised account or a transfer they should not have been able to make.
No. Registrant details are passed to the registry because a registration cannot be completed without them, and to no one else for marketing.
Registries publish certain information. Nominet allows individuals not trading to opt out of address publication; business registrants have their details published.
The long-standing public lookup for who holds a domain. It is being replaced by RDAP, which returns structured data instead of free text.
Nominet has confirmed its .uk WHOIS service ends on 9 February 2027, with RDAP taking over.
Change your account password immediately, check your DNS records and nameservers for changes you did not make, and contact support straight away.
Only if you want a website to load at that address. A domain can be registered on its own, forwarded elsewhere, or used only for email.
Space on a server that stores your website's files and serves them to visitors.
Hosting gives you the space and you supply the site. A builder gives you the tools to create the site as well, without needing to code.
Hosting tuned for WordPress, where updates, backups and performance work are handled for you rather than left to you.
Yes. Browsers mark sites without HTTPS as not secure, and visitors notice. Any site taking personal details needs one.
Yes. Change the A record, or the nameservers, to point at your host. Your domain does not have to be with the same company as your hosting.
Copy the site to the new host first, check it works there, then change your DNS to point at it. Lower your TTL a day beforehand to shorten the switch-over.
It depends on the plan and the site. A small business site is rarely limited by traffic; database-heavy sites are the ones that outgrow shared hosting.