Domain Registrations Information - Website Hosting Canada

A domain name is the address that your website will reside at. Its what you'll tell everyone when they ask you if you have a website, its what you print on all your business cards, letterheads and advertisements. With this in mind you want to make sure your domain name is easy to remember, and is close to your business name.

We recommend that you first check to see if you can register a domain in the dot com domain, for example www.yourcompanyname.com, if this is available, use this for your website. If not, you should check the dot ca domain. Domain names ending in .ca must be derived from a Canadian Based business, so it's a fairly safe bet that you will be able to register it, in which case your website address would be in the form www.yourcompanyname.ca

You can register multiple domains to point at the one website, so just to be safe you can register both the dot ca and dot com versions as well as many other extensions.

Even if you don't want to setup a website straight away, it is a good idea to register your domain name NOW, as it is a matter of first in first served.

Every country uses an abbreviation on the end of their domain names. In Canada we use .ca, in Australia they use .ca in Great Britain they use .uk and in New Zealand they use .nz etc.

Everything before the country abbreviation is controlled by a governing body in that country, and what you can and can't put in a domain name in a given country is governed by local rules. Dot com addresses are global domains and are not associated with a country. The benefit is they're shorter and easier to remember. The downside is that there is no restriction on who can register a dot com domain or which names can be registered, and there's a good chance that yourcompanyname.com is already taken.

dot ca suggests that the website and the company behind it are Canadian, in many cases it is important to emphasize that your business is local, the dot ca domain does this for you.

.com	The most popular domain extension. 'com' stands for commercial. There are no restrictions on who can register what.

.net	Typically used by companies running networks, such as telecommunications companies, Internet service providers, or it is used as an alternative if the .com version of a name is already taken.
.org	Supposed to be used by non profit organizations, or sites that aren't directly related to a business, although there is no restriction on what type of business can register a .org domain name.
.ca	The Canadian domain name. The domain must be a registered Canadian business name.
.biz	Must be a registered business.
.info	Is fully operational and accepting live registrations. More info on .info registration is available at the website of the .info registry operator, Afilias Limited, at <http://www.nic.info/>.
.coop	.coop is operational. The .coop TLD is sponsored by the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA). An informational site for .coop is available at <http://www.nic.coop/>.
.pro	The .pro registry agreement is still under negotiation. More information on .pro is available at the website of the registry operator, RegistryPro Ltd., at <http://www.registrypro.com>.

Domain Names FAQ

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