Your domain name is how your visitors find your site so it’s the most valuable part of the site.
If content vanishes it can be re-written or restored from a backup, but if you lose your domain you have no way telling site users where to find you.
So, even more important than picking a good host, it’s VITAL that you retain ownership of your domain name at all times.
Imagine you’re in dispute with your host and want to move away, if they control your domain this can be difficult.
Although the rules often disallow it, some hosts will either refuse to allow you to transfer your domain elsewhere or will try levying a huge fee for allowing you to do so.
In other cases, hosts can be slow to unlock or make changes to domains, slowing the move to your new host. You might also find that your host registered your domain in their name, nor yours.
Although such disputes can normally be resolved by bringing in the body responsible for overseeing the domain type (i.e. .com or .co.uk) in question, this takes time during which you’ll lose traffic to your site.
It’s far better to register your domain with a big, trusted company who isn’t also your host so that you can point the domain at a new host whenever you wish.
Established registrars such as 123-reg offer domains at lower costs than most hosts and provide easy to use tools to allow you to manage every part of it.
