There is no question about it. If you want people to consider you as a “real business”, then you have to look like one. For online sellers, a huge part of your business’s look is your website and email address. Those are two things that your customers will often see and interact with so you want them to look professional. The good news is that it’s easy and relatively inexpensive to set up your own custom domain and email address for your business. There are a few different options out there to make this happen, but today I’m going to share with you what I use for my business.
Using a free Gmail address like coffeepluscandles@gmail.com or a free Shopify website coffeepluscandles.myshopify.com just doesn’t compare to having a custom domain and email like sarah@coffeepluscandles.com and www.coffeepluscandles.com.
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Get a Custom Domain for your Business
The first thing you’ll need to do is purchase a custom domain web address for your business. Even if you don’t have your own website yet and are just selling on Etsy or local markets, it’s still a great idea to grab your own domain as soon as possible. That way it’s yours to use later and you don’t risk it being unavailable when you’re ready to set up your website.
How to Choose a Domain Name
If you don’t already have a name for your business, you’ll need to come up with that first. Ideally you’ll want to use your business name as the domain (aka web address) so it’s easiest for your customers to find you. Avoid adding extra words like “shop”, “canada”, etc. to your web address if you can as your customers won’t automatically think of adding those when typing out your business name.
You’ll also need to consider the ending of your domain – what comes after the “dot” (ex. .com, .ca, .net, etc.). Here are a few tips to help you choose your domain name:
- Some domain endings are more popular for different countries. Ideally you will choose the ending that most of your customers would think of first so it’s easiest for them to type out your correct website.
- For the U.S. and many Canadians, .com is the most popular ending. Many Canadians also use .ca.
- Avoid misspelled words – both in your domain and actual business name. While it may seem fun or unique, it’s also hard for people to remember and spell correctly, especially if they’ve only heard the name and not seen it written down. This makes it hard for them to find your website, social media pages, etc. It can also deter search engines from showing your business in search results since not many people will be searching for your unique spelling.
- Some examples: Kayla’s Kreations or Coffee and Candlez
- Keep it short and sweet – The longer the domain name, the harder it is for the customer to remember and type out.
Once you’ve got a preferred website address picked out, it’s time to purchase the domain.
Purchase a Domain on Google Domains
I used Google Domains to purchase the domain for my business website. You’re likely already familiar with Google, but did you know that they offer domains and other web hosting abilities?
Head to the Google Domains home page and simply type your preferred domain name into the search bar. This will generate a list of domain endings that are available with that domain and their annual price. Most are around $17 CAD for one year. If any of the endings are unavailable, they will be marked as such.
Note: Make sure your country is displayed in the bottom left menu on the screen for proper currency and billing settings. If not, simply click on the country that’s showing and change it to your own country.
You can click on any of the domain endings to see Google’s insights on that particular domain.
If you scroll down, you’ll also see a list of similar phrasing for more domain options. If the domain you wanted wasn’t available, you may find a good alternate from this list.
Take a look at coffeeandcandles.com and you’ll see that it’s labelled as “aftermarket” with a much heftier price. That means the domain is owned by someone else and you’d be buying it from them for a large one-time fee plus Google’s annual fee.
Click on the heart icons to favourite any domains or click the cart icon to add your chosen domain to your cart. You can absolutely purchase multiple domains. This has a few benefits – you can redirect the back-up domains to your main website so if your customer is unsure of the proper domain ending, they’ll still end up on your website. It also stops other shops from using those domains and potentially causing some customer confusion if they end up on the wrong site.
Once you’re ready to purchase, click on your Shopping Cart icon in the very top menu (top-right of your screen).
Registration Details
There are a few options and settings to go through on the Cart page before completing your purchase.
Length of Time
From the drop-down menu, choose how many years you want to pay for upfront. There is no discounted rate for purchasing more years and your domain can automatically renew once the year is up, so I just pay for one year at a time. But choose whatever term works best for you.
Privacy Protection
By default, this will be turned on. I highly recommend leaving it this way.
The WHOIS directory contains public records of the name and contact information of domain owners. To protect your personal information and prevent spam, Google Domains will use a third party’s information for this record. Some domain registry sites charge extra for this feature, but it is included for free on Google Domains with the purchase of your domain.
Auto-Renew
This is also turned on by default and I recommend keeping it on. If you don’t auto-renew your domain, you’ll need to make sure to manually renew it before it expires. If you don’t, someone else can purchase your domain once it expires and that could be a huge issue for your business.
Custom Email
You can sign up for a custom email with your new domain from Google Workspace at the same time. They offer three different plans which you can select from the drop-down menu. I’m going to go over setting up a custom email address in much more detail below, so we’ll skip past this for now.
Pay for Your Domain
Click “Check Out” to proceed with payment. Enter your contact information in all of the required fields and proceed to the next page. There you’ll enter your payment information, double-check that everything was entered correctly, and then hit “Buy”.
Congratulations, you are now a proud domain owner!
Set Up a Custom Email Address for your Domain
Now that you have a custom domain, you can also set up a custom email address to match (or multiple addresses). To do this, I use Google Workspace.
Not only do you get to create a custom email address for your business with Gmail, you also get access to the entire Google Workspace lineup of tools which you can access from any device and for multiple users. I use Gmail, Google Sheets, and Google Drive on a daily basis! Plus I was already familiar with these tools from my personal Google account so it was quick and easy to get started. And you can switch easily between accounts on the same device.
You can sign up here for a free 14 Day trial of Google Workspace and see if it’s a good fit for you and your business before committing. PLUS fill out this form to get a promo code which will save you 10% off your first year on new Business Starter or Business Standard plans.
First, you must choose your plan: Business Starter, Business Standard, or Business Plus. They all come with a custom email address and access to the rest of the Google Workspace tools. The main differences are higher storage levels and enhanced security features.
Choose “Get Started” once you’re ready to sign up. Then simply follow the on-screen steps.
Choose your Custom Email Address
You will need to decide on a name/format for your new custom email address. The part that comes after the “@” will be your domain. So for the domain coffeepluscandles.com your custom email will be @coffeepluscandles.com. You just need to choose what to put before the @.
The most popular small business emails start with the owner’s first name or a simple word like “hello”, “info” etc. Write out a few options and see what you like the best.
Creating Multiple Email Addresses
If you have multiple business owners/employees who will each need their own email, you can add more users to your Google Workspace account. To do this, log into your account and go to the Admin console. Under “Users”, you will see the option to add new users.
Each user will get their own custom email with full access to the line-up of tools. Again, you can either use each employee’s first name or their role (i.e. shipping, marketing, sales, etc.) as the start of their email address.
Creating Email Aliases
If you only need one email address/account for yourself, but would like to have different variations of your email address to provide for various purposes, you can create aliases. These appear as different email addresses but they are all linked to your one Google Workspace account and all emails sent/received will be from your single Gmail account. When sending emails, you will choose which alias email to send the message from.
This can be useful if you want an easy to remember email for accepting email money transfers, for example. Or want to give the illusion of a larger team with aliases for customer service vs. wholesale emails, etc.
To create an alternate email/alias, log into your account and go to the Admin console. Click on “Users”. Select the user you want to add aliases for. On the left menu, scroll down and click on “Add Alternative Emails”. Now simply enter another email address for this user. They will still use their main email to sign into their account, but they can send and receive emails with this new address.
More Business Start-up Tips
Now that you’ve set up your custom domain and email address, your business is starting to really come together.
If you’re looking for more help in getting your small business up and running, be sure to check out the posts below. You can also subscribe to our free email newsletter for exclusive resources and more tips.
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