Setting Up a Domain Name and Business Email for a New Business
A domain and a matching email address are two of the cheapest things a new business buys, and two of the most annoying to untangle if they're set up in the wrong name. Here's the order to do it in, what each choice means, and the records that decide whether your emails arrive.
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The four pieces, and the order to set them up
People talk about 'getting a domain' as if it were one thing. In practice there are four separate pieces, and they're often with four different companies:
- The domain licence. The right to use a name such as yourbusiness.com.au for a set period, held by you as the registrant.
- The registrar account. The provider you registered the name through, where renewals are paid and settings live.
- DNS. The address book for the name. It tells the internet which server shows your website and which service receives your email.
- The mailbox service. Whoever actually stores and sends your email, which doesn't have to be the company that hosts your website.
The sensible order is: settle the business name, register the domain in your own details, choose a mailbox service, then point the DNS at the website and the mailboxes. Doing it the other way round, for example ordering business cards with an email address before the domain is registered, is how people end up with a second-choice name printed on 500 cards.
Choosing the name itself
business.gov.au's advice is to pick something short that represents the business and is easy to remember, pronounce and spell, and that won't be confused with another business. It also points out that registering a domain gives you no intellectual property protection, so it suggests registering your business name first and considering a trade mark. Using a name someone else has trade marked could end in legal action.
Two practical tests help. First, say the address out loud as if you were on the phone to a customer. If you find yourself adding 'that's with a hyphen' or 'the number four, not the word', pick again. Second, type it on your phone with one thumb. Long names get mistyped, and a mistyped email address means a quote request that never reaches you.
Your domain and your trading name should match as closely as you can manage, because the same name will appear on your website, your Google Business Profile, your invoices and your van. If the exact name is taken, adding your town or your trade is usually clearer than an abbreviation nobody will guess.
.com.au, .au or .com?
business.gov.au notes that most Australian businesses use .com.au, which tells customers you're located here. Each ending comes with its own rules:
| Ending | Who can register it | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| .com.au | A commercial entity with a connection to Australia, usually through an active ABN or ACN | The name has to relate to your business, such as your business or personal name, an acronym, or a product or service you offer |
| .au | Anyone meeting auDA's Australian presence requirement; an ABN or ACN isn't needed | Shorter, and newer, so some customers will still type .com.au out of habit |
| .com | Anyone, anywhere | Not tied to Australia, so it says nothing about where you trade |
auDA says a .com.au licence can run for one to five years at a time, although not every provider offers five-year terms. You have to stay eligible for as long as you hold it, not only on the day you register. Our guide for new ABN holders and sole traders covers the eligibility rules, including what happens to a domain when an ABN is cancelled.
Some businesses also register the .au version of their .com.au name so nobody else can take it, and point it at the same site. That's optional, and costs another yearly fee.
Make sure the domain is in your name
This is the step that causes the most trouble later. auDA says a developer can register a .com.au name for you with your written permission, but should enter your details, including your name, contact details and ABN. If they use their own, you can run into eligibility problems and the renewal notices may never reach you. A domain held in someone else's details, such as a former web designer's or business partner's, can also be hard to get back when that relationship ends.
Three things to check, whoever sets it up:
- the registrant name and ABN on the licence are yours or your company's;
- you have a login to the registrar account, or at least know which provider holds it;
- the contact email on the account is one you'll still read in five years, not a personal address you might abandon.
auDA also gives a three-day cooling-off period after registration in which you can ask for the name to be deleted. auDA refunds its own wholesale fee; whether your provider refunds anything depends on its policy. If a business changes hands later, the domain doesn't move automatically: auDA requires a registrant transfer to the new owner.
Renewals: what happens if one slips
auDA lets you renew a .au domain up to 90 days before it expires. If the date passes, there's a 30-day grace period in which you can still renew, but the name can't be used during that time, so your website and your email both stop working. Some providers charge a fee to restore a name in that window. After 30 days the name is removed and becomes available to anyone on a first-come, first-served basis.
For a new business, losing email for a few days in a busy month is the real cost, more than the renewal fee. Turning on auto-renew with your registrar, and keeping the card on file current, covers most of the risk. auDA also runs a password recovery tool at pw.auda.org.au that shows a domain's expiry date.
auDA notes that renewal reminders come from your own domain provider, which is another reason to keep the contact email on the account current. If a renewal notice arrives from a company you don't recognise, don't follow its link or pay it; log in to your own registrar account, or use auDA's tool, and check the date there.
Business email: the main options
Once the domain is yours, you can have addresses like hello@ or bookings@ on it. How the mail is stored and sent is a separate choice:
| Option | How it works | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Forwarding only | Mail to your domain is passed on to an existing inbox, such as a personal Gmail | Receiving enquiries while you're starting out; replies may still come from the personal address |
| Mailbox from a web or domain host | A basic mailbox on the same company's servers, read in a mail app or webmail | One or two people who mainly need email |
| Google Workspace | Gmail on your own domain, with calendar and file storage; Business Starter is listed at A$9.90 per user per month before tax, with 30 GB of pooled storage per user | Businesses already comfortable with Gmail and Google Calendar |
| Microsoft 365 Business | Outlook on your own domain, with Microsoft's office apps on the higher plans | Businesses that live in Word, Excel and Outlook |
A free webmail address works, and plenty of tradespeople run a business from one for years. The case for your own domain is consistency: the address matches the website, it stays the same if you change providers, and you can add a mailbox for a new staff member without everyone learning a new address. Prices for Google and Microsoft plans change from time to time, so check the provider's Australian pricing page on the day you sign up, and remember the mailbox plan is a subscription of its own, separate from the domain.
The records that decide whether your email arrives
Setting up a mailbox isn't finished until a few DNS records are in place. Without them, your emails, including the copies your website's contact form sends you, are more likely to be marked as spam or rejected.
- MX records tell other mail servers where to deliver mail for your domain.
- SPF lists the servers allowed to send mail as your domain.
- DKIM adds a signature to each message so the receiver can check it wasn't altered and really came from your domain.
- DMARC tells receivers what to do with mail that fails those checks, and where to send reports about it.
Gmail's sender guidelines, in force since February 2024, require everyone sending to Gmail accounts to set up SPF or DKIM. Bulk senders, those sending more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail, need SPF, DKIM and DMARC, with a DMARC policy that can start at 'none'. A new business won't be anywhere near that volume, but setting up all three from the start costs nothing and saves a confusing hunt later when quotes go missing.
The contact form on your website matters here too. If it sends enquiries 'from' your domain through a service that isn't listed in your SPF record or signing with DKIM, those messages can end up in your own junk folder. Check your spam folder in the first week after launch, and send a test enquiry from your phone.
Moving a domain or email you already have
If you registered a name years ago, or you're switching from one mailbox provider to another, the order matters more than the method:
- Find out where the domain is registered and get a working login before changing anything.
- Set up the new mailboxes first, and copy across any old mail you want to keep.
- Only then change the MX records, so mail starts arriving at the new service.
- Keep the old mailbox running for a few weeks in case anything arrives there while the change spreads.
- Update SPF and DKIM for the new provider, and remove the old provider's entries.
Changing the website and the email on the same afternoon is possible, but if something goes wrong it's harder to tell which change caused it. Doing them a day or two apart keeps things simple.
What we set up for you, and what we need
For sites we build, we register the domain in your name, about $20 a year, connect it to your site and set up your business email, including the records above. If you already own a domain, we connect the one you have rather than starting again.
To do that we need your ABN or ACN, the exact name you'll trade under, the domain you'd like (and a second choice), and the addresses you want, such as one for enquiries and one per person. If you want Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, tell us before we start so the records are set up for that service.
The domain and email can be sorted while we build your draft, so they're ready on launch day. You pay for the website once you've approved the draft, and hosting is $30 a month from launch, with no contract. For the full picture of first-year costs, see our website cost guide for new businesses.
Domain and email setup: common questions
Do you need an ABN to register a .com.au domain?
Usually, yes. auDA says .com.au holders need a commercial connection to Australia, most commonly an active ABN or ACN, though an Australian trade mark or an ARBN for a foreign company can also qualify. The shorter .au names don't need an ABN or ACN.
Can the domain be used for email before the website is ready?
Yes. The website and the email are set up through separate DNS records, so mailboxes can be working weeks before the site goes live. Many new businesses do it that way so the address can go on cards and quotes early.
Who should own the domain if a web designer registers it?
You should. auDA says a developer registering a name for you should enter your details and ABN, not their own, otherwise renewal notices may not reach you and eligibility problems can follow. We register every domain we set up in the client's name.
What happens to my email if the domain expires?
It stops. auDA allows a 30-day grace period after expiry in which you can renew, but the domain can't be used during that time, so both the website and email go down. After 30 days the name is released to the public.
Why do emails from my website's contact form go to spam?
Often because the form sends mail as your domain through a server your SPF and DKIM records don't cover. Gmail requires all senders to use SPF or DKIM. Fixing the records, or sending form mail through your proper mail service, usually solves it.
Is a Gmail or Outlook.com address fine for a new business?
It works, and costs nothing. A domain address matches your website, stays the same if you change providers, and lets you add staff mailboxes later. Many businesses start with forwarding to an existing inbox and move to full mailboxes as they grow.
More for new businesses
Get your domain, email and website sorted together
Tell us the name you'll trade under and how many pages you need. We'll send a fixed quote, register the domain in your name and have email working by launch.
We reply within 24 hours. Prefer email? info@webcraftstudio.com.au