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Establishing your business online is a vital step in expanding your customer base by informing people of the goods and services you provide and giving them an easy way to contact you. Registering a domain name and creating a website is a huge component in getting this online presence established for your business in Nigeria. A domain name is used to identify a particular web page or URL, registering a domain name gives you access to use that URL for your website. Either an organization or individual can register domain names. But, before you go ahead and register your domain name, there are a few common questions you will want to ask. 1. Do I need a domain name? Only you can make the decision whether or not a domain name is an important component of your business plan. However, you will want to consider the potential for growth that registering a domain name and creating your website will have on your business. When people are looking for a particular product or service, almost all will begin that search online. If you haven’t created your website, you could be missing out on these potential customers. You may have a presence on social media platforms, which is an important component in creating your online presence, but there are limitations to what you may be able to provide on those platforms. Having a website lets you give detailed information about what you offer and, if you have an online store, customers can order directly from there. 2. Can a domain name help my business grow? Essentially, the vision you have for your business and its future should be reflected in the chosen domain name. A domain name like ‘www.weddingplanner.com’ is great if you only ever plan to keep your business focus on planning weddings. However, in the future if your plan is to broaden your scope to include a variety of event planning services, this may not be the most effective domain name to help facilitate that growth, and a more general ‘www.eventplanner.com’ might be a better choice. Setting out your business plan before you register your domain name can help you decide the best option for choosing the perfect domain name to help your business grow in the direction you envision. 3. Can someone take my domain name? If you pay for domain registrations, you become the domain name registrant and no one else can have that domain name unless you, as the domain holder, transfer domain ownership or sell the domain name to them. However, you will have to keep paying annually to ensure the domain registration stays in your name. If you don’t keep up with paying your renewal registration fee and renew your domain, your expiry date will pass and anyone else will be able to get that domain name registered in their name. If you’ve established a recognizable domain name, you will want to ensure that you’re renewing your domain registrations on time. Otherwise, someone else can take it, build their website on it and use all of the hard work you’ve put into building and establishing a recognizable domain name along with all the advertising and marketing tools you have invested in. Protection is available through domain locking, to prevent transferring your domain mistakenly. 4. What is the difference between a domain name and a website? The domain is the URL that users will enter to find your website. The website content still needs to be built once that domain is registered. Essentially, the domain name is like a notebook, and your website are the words and images you create to fill the notebook. The domain name, website name and business name can each be different or can all be the same, depending on how you want to set it up. ZBSS can search and register your .com or .ng domain name, so your website content can be plugged in. Creating your website content can be done using a web design professional, or on your own using an easy to use site builder. You can search for a free site builder or look for a paid plan with more advanced features. Your website content can easily be altered without impacting the domain name. If your customers are providing personal information or making purchases on your website, you will want to seriously consider using an SSL Certificate. This digital security feature encrypts data entered on your website, providing a layer of protection for a fairly nominal fee. Your website will still be operational without an SSL Certificate, however Google will warn your customers that the website is not secure, and you leave yourself and your customers open to being hacked. Google will also give a higher ranking to those websites that include an SSL Certificate over those who do not. 5. What is the importance of having a domain name? There are a few reasons why it’s important for your business to register a chosen domain. Perhaps the most important reason is that your domain name won’t have to change if you decide to change website hosting services, which is essentially where your website is parked and stored online. It is important to have consistency with your domain, especially if you have an ecommerce website, so that customers can easily find you and return using the same website name. If you think of your car as the website hosting company, the licence plate on your car is the unique domain name that identifies your car. Regardless of whether you buy a new car down the road, the licence plate always remains the same. So, if you decide to sign up for hosting using a different website hosting plan, your domain name would remain the same and would simply be transferred to the new hosting company. Another important factor in having a domain name is that it lends credibility to your business, where it is seen as more established and legitimate. When a business neglects to register a domain name, customers