What is a custom domain?
Definition
A custom domain is a web address you own, like yourbusiness.com, used for your website instead of the free address a website builder gives you, which usually ends in the builder's own name. You buy it from a domain registrar, renew it each year, and connect it to your website by changing a few settings.
Why a custom domain matters to a small business
A free builder address tells customers you haven't quite set up shop. Your own domain is shorter, easier to say on the phone and to paint on a truck, and it belongs to you: if you ever change website platforms, the address on your signs, cards and Google profile stays exactly the same.
Choose something short and spellable. Your business name is best if it's free; the name plus your trade or town works too. Prefer .com where you can, avoid hyphens and numbers that need explaining, and put the registration under the business, with an email you'll still check in five years, so a former web designer never ends up holding it.
For auto repair shops, the domain goes on invoices, the shop sign and the oil-change sticker in the corner of the windshield, so it has to read at a glance. For landscaping companies, it's painted on trailers and yard signs, where short wins. For churches, a domain the church owns, rather than one a past volunteer registered personally, saves a painful handover later.
How to connect a custom domain
- Confirm the business is the domain's registered owner, and that you can log in.
- Sign in at your domain registrar, the company you bought it from.
- Open its DNS settings and add the records your website platform gives you.
- Leave your email records alone, so your inbox keeps working.
- Allow some time for the change to take effect, then try the address with and without www.
- Check that your site loads over https, with the padlock showing.
- Turn on auto-renew, so the domain never lapses by accident.
How Future handles it
Every Future plan lets you connect a domain you already own, and the secure https certificate on it is set up and renewed for you. Yearly plans will include a free first-year domain (Coming soon); until then, buy one from any registrar and connect it.
However you get it, the domain stays yours. Plans come with 15 days money back, minus a claimed domain's cost, and if you ask for that refund, the domain is still yours to keep.