What is a domain name?

A domain name is the address people use to reach your website, such as yourbakery.com or promino.co. Behind the scenes, every website lives on a server with a long string of numbers called an IP address. A domain name is the friendly label that stands in for those numbers, so visitors can type something they'll actually remember instead of a jumble of digits. When someone enters your domain, a lookup system called DNS translates it into the right address and delivers your site.

For a small business, your domain name is a big part of your first impression. A clear, professional address like janesflorist.com looks far more trustworthy than a generic free web address with someone else's brand in it. It reinforces your name, makes you easier to find, and gives your email a professional look too. You register a domain for a yearly fee and it's yours to use as long as you keep renewing it. Many businesses also set up a subdomain, like shop.yoursite.com, to organise different parts of their web presence under one name.

Promino makes connecting a domain name straightforward. You can build and preview your whole site on a free Promino address first, then point your own domain at it whenever you're ready to go live. Connecting is a guided, step-by-step process, and secure HTTPS is set up for you automatically so visitors see the padlock in their browser.

You bring a domain you already own (Promino doesn't register it for you), then follow the prompts to link it. Learn more about custom domains in Promino.