Domain names are important part of your business. But where’s the best place to buy your domain name and make sure it will be there foryou?

There’s always a big debate whenever this subject comes up in internet marketing forums – and it crops up with regularity.

What should you look for in your domain name registrar?

The thing that most people focus on is the headline price for the domain – often the first year price is discounted.

And, like a lot of services, there’s a reason for that…

Much like changing banks and insurance companies, people rarely move from their initial choice once they’ve made the decision.

The trouble is that prices in subsequent years can increase a lot.

You may see a crossed through price when you initially purchase your domain name but we’re so used to seeing those that most people tune them out and ignore them.

That’s dangerous as the crossed through price will apply in the second and subsequent years and the extra amount mounts up.

For instance, GoDaddy currently quote their first year .com price as £6.99 but the crossed through price is £9.99. So in the second and subsequent years you’ll be paying an extra 42% on the first year price.

In contrast, Namecheap quote the price as £7.30. Slightly more than GoDaddy in year one but a lot less in years two onwards.

Then there are the optional extras

This is where things get really complicated.

When I first bought a domain name, that was it. Nothing else to worry about (apart from the price, which was considerably more than the current price).

Now there are optional extras.

The first optional extra is privacy protection.

What this does is ensure that your personal details aren’t shown when someone does a Whois check on your domain.

Instead, they get an accommodation address like this:

The idea of this is to stop spammers from getting your email address from the Whois details and bombarding you with emails.

That kind-of works but spammers have found easier ways than scraping Whois data – they just use the most common email names such as info@ and sales@ and ignore any bounces. It’s one less step in their process, so they’re happy.

But it does help and a lot of people go for the option.

Namecheap offer it free for the first year which obviously encourages take-up. In subsequent years it costs £1.97.

GoDaddy charge a lot more for their privacy protection: it’s £5.99 per year.

Suddenly the 31p reduction on the first year price doesn’t seem like quite so much of a bargain.

Then there are other things…

Most domain name registrars nowadays offer website hosting.

Generally I advise that you don’t use your registrar for hosting – it’s not their specialty and if something goes wrong (always a possibility since computers are involved) it means all your eggs are in one basket.

Hosting is a complicated subject and there’s no “one size fits all” option. As a general rule, you get what you pay for so as the price goes up, you’ll usually get more for your money. You need to beware of “unlimited” offers as they will have limits buried in the small print that make no sense to you when you initially purchase the hosting service but get quoted at you when you exceed the limits that are actually there.

Just ask yourself whether your personal computer has got unlimited disk space, unlimited memory and unlimited access to the internet. If the answer is no then why should your hostin company be any different?

Of couse, if your site doesn’t generate too much traffic and doesn’t have thousands of MP4 files on it, chances are that you won’t run into the hidden limits of your hosting company. But if you’re lucky enough to do so, upgrading can be painful. Sometimes your site could even show as “suspended” rather than any other message.

After that digression, let’s get back to where to buy a domain name.

My personal recommendation is Namecheap.

They’re reasonably priced (you can usually find a coupon to bring their first year price down a bit – just search for Namecheap coupon) and they’re reliable. Their support is good and their control panel is reasonably straightforward so you should be able to do everything you need to do there without having to ask for support.

The only exception I’d make is for UK domain names.

In that instance, I’d suggest using a UK domain name registrar. They’re typically cheaper than Namecheap. Privacy protection on UK domains is different – there’s no charge but it’s only available if you are a private, non-trading, individual. It’s much easier to add this with a UK domain name registrar (there’s usually a tick box) rather than request it via support.

Auto renewal can be useful

Auto renewing your domain names means that when the time comes for renewal, your credit card or Paypal account is automatically charged.

That’s good as it’s a pain in the neck to get a domain back that you’ve inadvertently let lapse and it’s something that’s happened to lots of people, including some very large companies.

It’s your choice but I’d certainly suggest that it’s something you strongly consider.