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Domains and business email

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Your domain is your address on the internet and the thing your email runs on. Getting it right is not complicated, but getting it wrong is a nuisance to undo later.

Choosing a domain name

• Shorter is better. People have to say it on the phone and type it without seeing it.
• Avoid hyphens and numbers. "Is that the number four or f-o-u-r?" is a conversation you will have forever.
• .co.uk or .com. If you trade mainly in the UK, .co.uk is completely normal and often more available. Buy both if you can.
• Say it out loud. Some perfectly good names become unfortunate when the words run together.
• Check it is not taken as a business name. Registering a domain does not give you rights to a name someone else has trademarked.

Why business email matters

Sending quotes from a free webmail address costs you work. It signals either that the business is very new or that nobody got round to sorting it out, and in trades where people are wary of being scammed, that hesitation is expensive. An address at your own domain costs a few pounds a month and removes the doubt entirely.

It also gives you continuity. Staff addresses belong to the business, not the individual, so when someone leaves you keep the mailbox and the history.

The technical bits we handle

Email has a set of settings that prove your messages genuinely came from you. Without them, mail you send is more likely to land in spam folders, and other people can more easily send mail pretending to be you. These are records attached to your domain, and they need to be configured correctly and left alone afterwards.

We set these up as part of getting you live, along with pointing the domain at your website and issuing the SSL certificate. It is half an hour of work that quietly prevents a lot of problems.

Common questions

I already have a domain somewhere else.

Fine. We can either point it at your new site or transfer it across — whichever you prefer.

How many email addresses do I need?

One per person, plus a general one like hello@ or info@ that more than one person can see. Avoid having a single shared login that everybody uses.

What happens if I stop paying for the domain?

It eventually becomes available for anyone to register, including competitors. We keep an eye on renewal dates for clients so this does not happen by accident.

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