Domain Guides | Everything About Domain Names

Domain guides

Everything people ask us before they register a name, answered properly. No jargon that is not explained, and no answer padded to fill a page.

01What is a domain name?A domain name is the address people type to find your website, like yourbusiness.com. It also gives you email on your own name. You rent it by the year through a registrar, and it points at the server where your site lives.
02Choosing a domain nameSay it out loud and ask somebody to type it. If they get it right first time it is a good name. Avoid hyphens, numbers and creative spelling, and if the one you want is taken, add what you do or where you are rather than a hyphen.
03Domain extensionsThe extension is the part after the dot. Country extensions like .com say where you are, .com says nothing but is what people type by default, and some — .ac.ke, .sc.ke — are restricted to organisations that can prove they qualify.
04What is DNS?DNS turns the name people type into the address their computer connects to. A handful of record types do the work — A for the website, MX for email, TXT for verification — and a change takes effect as fast as the TTL on the record allows.
05Domain vs hostingThe domain is the address; the hosting is the building. A website needs both. They can come from different suppliers — keeping them together just means one login, one renewal date and one team to ask when something is wrong.
06What is a subdomain?A subdomain is a division of a domain you already own, like shop.yourbusiness.com. They are free and unlimited, they are created in cPanel, and the free SSL certificate covers them. Use a folder instead when the content belongs to the main site.
07What is a URL?A URL is the whole address in the browser bar: the scheme, the domain, the path and anything after it. The domain is the part you register; the URL points at one page. The https at the front is the part that matters most.
08What are nameservers?Nameservers decide who answers questions about your domain. Change them and you change every answer at once, which is why you copy your records down first — the commonest way people break their email is moving nameservers without recreating the MX records.
09DNS propagationNothing actually propagates. Your change is live at your nameservers immediately; everywhere else is holding a cached answer until it expires. Lower the TTL to 300 seconds a day before a planned change and the switch takes minutes.
10Point a domain to hostingTwo ways: change the nameservers if the email is moving too, or change just the A record if it is staying where it is. Write down every existing record before you touch anything, and keep the old host running for a week afterwards.
11What is an EPP code?An EPP code is the password that proves a domain is yours when you move it between registrars. You get it from your current registrar, usually after unlocking the domain. If one refuses to give you it, the registry has a process for that.
12What is WHOIS?WHOIS is the public record of who registered a domain. Most registries now redact personal details by default. Domain privacy hides your details from the public record but is not anonymity — the registry still holds them.
13What is a registrar?The registry runs an extension, the registrar sells and manages registrations, and the registrant is you. The domain is yours, not the registrar's. Judge a registrar on its renewal price and whether it releases a domain without a fight.
14Renewal and expiryA domain does not vanish the day it expires. There is a grace period at the normal price, then a redemption period with a substantial fee, then it is released and anyone can take it. Register for several years and keep the contact email current.

Found what you needed?

If the answer you are after is not here, our team is on live chat and tickets around the clock.