Picking a Business Domain Name (and Registering It So It Stays Yours)

You've picked a business name. Now you need the web address to go with it, and every name you try is taken, too long, or impossible to spell out over the phone.

Then there's the part almost nobody talks about: who the domain is actually registered to. A lot of small businesses find out years later that their web address sits in a designer's account, under the designer's name.

This post covers both. Picking a name that works for local customers, and registering it so it stays yours.

The quick answer

1. Pick something short you can say on the phone once without spelling it.
2. Get the .com if you can. If it's taken, change the words before you change the ending.
3. Search the name in the USPTO's trademark search before you buy it.
4. Register it yourself, in the business's legal name, in an account the business controls.
5. Turn on auto-renew, the registrar lock and two-step sign-in, and add a second person who can get in.

What a bad domain costs you

Your domain is more than a website address. It's your email address, the link on your Google listing, and the name printed on your truck and your invoices.

A name customers mishear means emails that never arrive and a site they can't find.

A name you don't control means you can't move your website, fix your email or renew on time without chasing someone else.

And a name that's someone's trademark can mean renaming everything after you've paid to print it.

All three are cheap to avoid now and expensive to fix later.

Choosing a name that works for local customers

Run every candidate through the phone test. Say it out loud to someone who hasn't seen it written down and ask them to type it. If they hesitate, misspell it or ask "with a dash?", keep looking.

What tends to pass:

• Short. Fewer words, fewer typos.
• Spelled the way it sounds. "Kwik" and "4U" fail the phone test every time.
• No hyphens. People forget them, and the version without the hyphen may belong to someone else.
• No double letters at the join (where one word ends with the letter the next one starts with). They're easy to mistype.

Local words: Augusta, Evans, CSRA

Adding a place name can help people see at a glance that you're local. "Augusta" is the obvious one, and town names like Evans, Martinez, Grovetown, North Augusta or Aiken make sense if that's really where you work.

Use one only when it fits:

• It fits if you'll always work in that area and the name still reads well with it: your trade plus "Augusta", for example.
• It doesn't fit if you plan to grow past that town. An Evans name can feel narrow once half your customers are in Aiken.
• "CSRA" (Central Savannah River Area) is familiar to people who live here but means nothing to someone who just moved in. It works best when your customers already use it.

A place name in the domain is no substitute for local search work. Your Google Business Profile and the pages on your site do far more for "near me" searches than the address does.

.com or something else?

Go for .com when you can. It's what most people type without thinking, so if someone else owns the .com of your name, some of your customers (and some of their emails) will end up there instead.

If the .com is taken, try a small change to the words (add your trade or your town) before settling for a different ending. Other endings like .net, .co or .us work fine technically. The risk is people typing .com out of habit.

Once you've chosen, consider registering the common misspelling too, and pointing it at your main site.

Check it isn't someone else's trademark

Before you buy anything, search the name in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Trademark Search. It covers registered trademarks and pending applications at the federal level. Look for the same or a similar name in a similar line of business.

Then check Georgia's business records through the Secretary of State's Corporations Division, where you'd register an LLC or corporation anyway.

A clean search isn't a guarantee. Neither one covers every business using a name locally, and we can't tell you whether a name is legally safe. For that, talk to a business attorney. The free advisers at the UGA Small Business Development Center's Augusta office and SCORE can help you think the name through and point you to the right next step.

Register it in the business's name and account

This is the step that causes the most trouble later.

ICANN, the nonprofit that sets the rules for domain registrars, puts it plainly in its registrant FAQ: if a developer registered your domain with their own details, they may be listed as the official registrant, even if you paid them to do it. Getting it back can mean proving to the registrar that you paid for it.

ICANN also points out that you don't buy a domain outright. You're really leasing it, one renewal at a time. Whoever holds the account holds the lease.

So:

1. Create the registrar account yourself, with a business email address that more than one person can read (admin@ or office@, not a personal Gmail).
2. Put the business's legal name in the organization field, spelled the way it's registered with the state, and a real contact person in the name field.
3. Pay with a business card, so the receipts are in the business's name.
4. If someone else is building your website, give them access, not ownership. Many registrars let you add a user or delegate access, including GoDaddy, Namecheap and Cloudflare, so your designer can change settings without holding the domain.

Keep the contact details current. ICANN's 2013 registrar agreement summary says registrants must verify their contact information when the registrar asks. If you don't verify within 15 days of the request, the registrar can suspend or cancel the domain. Watch for that verification email in the first few days after you register.

Already registered by someone else?

Look your domain up at ICANN Lookup, ICANN's free tool for checking a domain's current registration data. If the registrar or the account isn't yours, ask whoever set it up to move it into an account you control while you're still on good terms.

One thing to know before you change the owner details: ICANN's change of registrant rules require registrars to lock the domain against transfers to another registrar for 60 days after the registrant changes. A registrar may let you opt out before you make the change, but it doesn't have to. If you plan to switch registrars too, read the warning on the screen before you confirm.

The settings to turn on the day you register

These four settings, plus one extra person, keep the domain from slipping away by accident or being taken on purpose. Here's what each one should say once you're done.

The registrar lock is there to stop unwanted transfers. ICANN's guide to domain status codes calls it "clientTransferProhibited" and says asking your registrar for restrictions like it helps prevent unauthorized transfers. You unlock it only when you mean to move the domain, then lock it again.

Renewing for several years at a time also helps: fewer renewal dates, fewer chances to miss one.

What WHOIS privacy does (and doesn't)

WHOIS is the public record of who registered a domain. It used to show the owner's name, address, phone and email to anyone who looked, which is why new domain owners got piles of spam and scam "renewal" letters.

That's changed. Under ICANN's Registration Data Policy, in effect since August 21, 2025, registrars still collect your full details. The policy only requires them to hide personal details where privacy law calls for it, so how much of yours shows up in public depends on the registrar and where you are. A privacy or proxy service, often free with the domain, goes further and puts the provider's contact details in the public record instead of yours.

What privacy doesn't do:

• It doesn't change who holds the domain. The registrar still has your real details on file, and they still need to be accurate.
• It doesn't stop renewal scams by post or email. If a "domain renewal" notice comes from a company that isn't your registrar, ignore it and log in to your registrar directly.

What happens if a domain expires

Under ICANN's Expired Registration Recovery Policy, registrars must send at least two renewal reminders before a generic domain like a .com expires, about a month and a week ahead. If you miss them, your website and email stop working. There's usually a short window to renew, and once the domain is deleted, every generic domain registry has to offer a 30-day redemption period, usually with an extra fee. After that, anyone can register the name.

Our post on what to do when a domain has expired covers the recovery steps. Auto-renew and a shared contact email mean you'll probably never need it.

Keep a one-line record

Add a row to a simple sheet for every domain the business holds:

• Domain
• Registrar
• Account login owner (and the second admin)
• Expiry date
• Auto-renew (yes/no)
• Used for (website, email, redirect)

Ten minutes now saves a frantic search for "who set up our domain?" later.

When to get help

• Your domain is in someone else's account and they're slow to hand it over.
• You're switching registrars and your email and website need to keep working through the move.
• You're not sure what your DNS records (the settings that point your domain at your website and email) should say.

If you'd like someone to register the domain in your business's name and set up the DNS for you, that's one of the setup jobs we do. Get in touch.

Related reading

• Domain expired? How to get it back and protect your SEO
• Email, domain settings and SEO: what's connected
• Competitor ads on your business name? How to protect it

Starting a business in Augusta

A Saturday series for people starting a business in the Augusta area. Live so far:

• Starting a Business in Augusta, GA: The Tech Checklist for Your First 30 Days
• Picking a Business Domain Name (and Registering It So It Stays Yours) (this post)

New posts in the series come out on Saturdays.