Your domain is the one part of the website that customers type, remember and see on the side of your van. It is also the part most often chosen in a hurry. A few minutes of thought now saves years of explaining a spelling.
.com.au, .au or .com
For a business that serves Australian customers, .com.au is still the safest choice. It requires an ABN, which tells customers and search engines that you are a real, local operation. Since 2022 the shorter .au has been available too; it is fine as a secondary domain that redirects to your main one, but customers do not yet type it by habit. .com is worth owning if it is available so nobody else can use your name, but make .com.au the one you promote.
Choosing the name itself
- Say it out loud. If you have to spell it, it is too clever.
- Avoid hyphens and numbers; people forget them.
- Include the trade if the business name is generic: smithplumbing.com.au is clearer than smithgroup.com.au.
- Do not include a suburb unless you will only ever work there. Businesses grow out of their domains.
- Check the name is not already a registered business or trademark.
Who owns it
Register the domain in your own name or business name, with your own email and payment method. Far too many owners let a designer or a friend register it and then lose access years later. Whoever built the site can still manage it; ownership is separate.
Keep it renewed
Set the domain to auto-renew for as many years as you can, and keep the contact email current. Expired domains are picked up by resellers within hours and cost thousands to buy back, if they can be bought back at all.
Changing domains later
If you must change — a rebrand, a merger — keep the old domain for years and redirect every old page to its new equivalent. Search engines and printed material both take a long time to catch up. If you are planning a change alongside a new site, see website refresh for how redirects are handled.
