|
Do I need to
register a domain name to have a website?
The simple
answer is NO. You do not need to have your own domain name. Your
website can be created and hosted without it. Your website address
will look something like this:
www.web4business.com.au/JBCleaning OR
www.ozemail.com.au/~JBCleaning
The only advantage of not registering a domain name is that you will
save yourself A$70 per year (it costs approx A$140 for 2 years to
register a '.com.au' domain name). The disadvantages of NOT having
your domain name include:
1. If you decide to change your Webhosting company or if that company
goes out of business, you will lose your website address. Your
website can be transferred to a new company, but your address will
change. And that means re-printing stationery and re-doing all your
advertising, notifying all your customers etc.
2. Website addresses that contain information other than your company
name are long and hard to remember and do not appear as professional.
Compare these two and see which one you are more likely to remember
www.ozemail.com.au/~JBCleaning OR
www.JBCleaning.com.au
So it is a good
idea to register a domain name, even if it is just to protect yourself
for the future. Say for example, your business name is JB Cleaning
and you decide not to register your domain name for now.
Along comes Joe Bloggs who opens his own cleaning business and
registers JBCleaning.com.au domain name. After a year you decide you
want to have your own domain name, but since Joe Bloggs already owns
it, you won't be able to register it. Not to mention your customers
who know your business as JB Cleaning may visit his website, thinking
it's your web address and instead hire Joe Bloggs Cleaning.
What does it all mean?
A domain name
normally consists of 2 parts - your company name and the organisation
type/region. For example with the domain web4business.com.au –
web4business is the company name or a name derived from it. The .com.au
indicates that Websites 4 Small Business is a commercial organisation
in Australia.
|
.com.au |
Commercial
Organisations in Australia |
|
.net.au |
For network
infrastructure and Internet Service Providers in Australia |
|
.gov.au |
Australian
government and semi-government departments |
|
.org.au |
For clubs
and various forms of affiliation groups in Australia |
|
.edu.au |
Australian
educational institutions |
|
.asn.au |
Australian
associations |
|
.com |
Commercial
organisations in the United States |
|
.net |
For network
infrastructure and Internet Service Providers in the United States |
|
.gov |
US
government and semi-government departments |
|
.edu |
Educational
institutions in the United States |
Choosing a domain name
Domain name
allocation is governed by a set of rules to ensure that no misuse of
domain names occurs. Domain names must be unique within .com.au and
should not contravene anyone else's right to the use of the name.
Domain names must be at least two characters long and contain only
alphanumeric characters. Traditionally, Australian commercial domain
names could not be common English dictionary words (e.g. lawyer.com.au
or phone.com.au) or place names (e.g. Sydney.com.au). However, this
system is under review and some such 'generic' names are becoming
available.
The domain name that you request must closely resemble your existing
registered company or business name (e.g. a company named Acme Oils
Pty Ltd could register one of the following domain names - acme.com.au,
acmeoils.com.au, ao.com.au, provided they are not already taken. Acme
Oils Pty Ltd would not be able to register impact.com.au, oil.com.au
or goodoil.com.au because they do not resemble the registered business
name closely and they are common English dictionary words.
When you register your business domain name, the registering authority
requires an ACN (for companies) or an ABN (for sole traders). Once the
domain name is registered through a national body, webhost's servers
must then be set up to identify the domain name as a unique address,
and to propagate it through the rest of the internet to ensure it can
be accessed all over the world.
Domain Name Checklist
The following
checklist will help ensure that your domain name is not rejected.
- You must supply the legal name of the organisation.
- You must supply your ABN, CAN or Business Number
- Domain name must be at least two characters long.
- Domain name must contain only alphanumeric characters (ie. A-Z, 0-9)
and hyphens (-).
- Domain name must not start or finish with a hyphen.
- Domain name must be directly derived from the legal name of the
commercial entity,
Once you have
decided on the domain name that you would like, you need to check if
it is available. To check, visit:
MelbourneIT
–
www.melbourneit.com.au
Final Tips for Your Domain Name
- Under NO circumstances should you use your domain name in
advertising material, office
stationery until it is officially approved.
- Try to keep the number of letters in your domain name to a minimum.
- Domain names are not case sensitive. But you can use upper and lower
case to improve the
readability of your domain name. eg. Web4Business.com.au.
|
