What is a domain name?
A domain name is the address people type to reach your website, like sunnybakery.com. You rent it from a registrar, usually one year at a time, and while that registration is active nobody else in the world can use that exact name. It is only the name — the website itself lives elsewhere.
Why it matters to a shop
The name is the first decision you make and the one you think about least. Your domain goes on the shop sign, the business cards, the receipt, the Google listing and the Instagram bio. Change it a year later and every printed card points at nothing while every link a customer saved breaks. While the registration is live nobody else on earth can take that name — but miss a renewal and the site, plus any email running on the domain, stops the same day, sometimes into the hands of someone who resells it. Launching on the hosting address you get when you publish is a fine start, and in Naratake you attach your own domain later, since both cloud plans include one. Just settle the name early, and register it under your own account.
Choosing and registering one
- Say the name out loud, as if reading it to a customer over the phone. If you have to spell it letter by letter, explain the hyphen in the middle, or add "that's the number 4, not f-o-u-r", it is the wrong name. Short, sayable, shop name first.
- At the registrar, compare the renewal price, not the first-year offer. A discounted first year followed by a much higher yearly renewal is normal, and the renewal is the number you actually live with.
- Register it with your own email and your own card, never a designer's or an agency's account, then switch on auto-renew and two-step login. A domain belongs to whichever account holds it, not to whoever paid the invoice.
Common mistake: Buying a domain does not give you a website — it only reserves the name, and until a site is published and pointed at it, the address opens a blank parking page.