Guide · Domains and hosting
The domain and hosting guide for Australian small businesses.
Which name to register, who should hold it, how DNS, email and hosting fit together, where to host, and what to check every year. General information, not legal advice; auDA’s rules change, so the page says what to check rather than quoting prices.
The name
Which domain to register
The ending says something about the business before anyone reads the site.
| Ending | Who can register it | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
| .com.au | An Australian presence: an ABN, ACN or Australian trade mark, with the name matching or closely connected to the registrant under auDA’s licensing rules | Any business whose customers are in Australia. Register it first. |
| .au (direct) | Same Australian presence rules; available to everyone since 2022 | Hold the one that matches your .com.au so nobody else can; point it at the same site. |
| .net.au / .org.au | Same presence rules; .org.au is for not-for-profits and similar | Rarely needed for a trading business; .org.au for charities and clubs. |
| .com | Anyone, anywhere | Trading overseas, or protecting the name. Not a substitute for .com.au at home. |
Ownership
Who holds what
Most domain disasters are not technical. They are a name registered by someone who is no longer around.
- The registrant is your businessThe registrant name and ABN or ACN are yours, and the registrant email is one your business will still read in five years, not a designer’s or a departed staff member’s.
- The registrar login is yoursYou hold the account at the registrar, with two-factor authentication on. Give a designer or developer delegated access or a separate DNS login, never your only credentials.
- Renewal is automatic and paid from your cardSet auto-renew, keep the card current and put the expiry in a calendar anyway. A lapsed .com.au goes through a drop process and can be registered by someone else.
- Write down where things liveOne page listing the registrar, the DNS host, the web host, the email provider and who has access to each. Most small businesses cannot answer this when they need to.
DNS, email and hosting
How the pieces fit together
Three services that are often sold as one, and are better kept apart.
| Piece | What it does | Keep it |
|---|---|---|
| Registrar | Holds the domain licence and the nameserver setting | In your name, your login, auto-renew on |
| DNS | The records that point the domain: A/CNAME for the website, MX for email, TXT for verification | Usually at the registrar or a dedicated DNS provider; change only the records you mean to |
| Web hosting | Runs the website itself | Wherever the site is built to run; changing host should touch only the website records |
| Mailboxes for the business | With a dedicated email provider, separate from web hosting, so a site move never breaks mail |
Where to host
Hosting location, speed and privacy
Three different questions that get asked as one.
- Speed: a server near your customers loads faster; a content delivery network closes most of the gap if the server is overseas. Test with a real phone on mobile data, not a desktop in the office.
- Search: Google does not reward Australian hosting as such; the domain, the content and Search Console settings tell it where you serve. See Google’s guidance on HTTPS for what it does expect.
- Privacy: if your business is covered by the Privacy Act, personal information stored or processed overseas is a cross-border disclosure under Australian Privacy Principle 8, with its own obligations. Clinics, NDIS providers and anyone holding health information should take this seriously.
- HTTPS: free certificates from Let’s Encrypt renew automatically on most hosts. Every page should load over https:// and http:// should redirect to it.
- Backups: know who takes them, how often, where they are kept and how long a restore takes. Ask before you need one.
Once a year
The annual domain and hosting check
Fifteen minutes, once a year, prevents most of the emergencies we get called about.
- Registrant details are currentBusiness name, ABN or ACN, and an email address someone reads. Update them when the entity or the staff change.
- Renewal dates and payment methodDomain, hosting, email and any SSL or app subscriptions, with the card that pays for them still valid.
- Logins and two-factor authenticationRegistrar, DNS, host and email admin: who has access, and remove anyone who has left.
- HTTPS works everywhereOpen the site on a phone over https://, and type the http:// address to check it redirects.
- Email records untouchedIf the site moved this year, send yourself a test email from an outside address and check SPF, DKIM and DMARC records are still in place.
- The .au you hold still points to the siteAnd any old domains redirect rather than sitting on a parking page.
Sources
Where this guide comes from
The domain administrator’s rules, the privacy regulator and the standards the web runs on.
Sources
- auDA — the .au domain administrator (eligibility, policies and complaints) · checked 13 October 2026
- auDA — .au Licensing Rules (current consolidated rules, PDF) · checked 13 October 2026
- OAIC — Australian Privacy Principles (APP 8, cross-border disclosure) · checked 13 October 2026
- Let’s Encrypt — free, automated HTTPS certificates · checked 13 October 2026
- Google Search Central — securing your site with HTTPS · checked 13 October 2026
Who should own the domain name: me or my web designer?
You. The domain should be registered in your business’s name, to an email address you control, at a registrar account whose login you hold. A designer or developer can be given access to manage DNS, but if the registrant contact is theirs, the business does not control its own name when the relationship ends. If a previous designer registered it for you, ask for the registrant and the registrar login to be transferred to you now, while things are friendly.
Should I register .com.au, .au or .com?
For a business that serves Australian customers, .com.au first: it signals an Australian business and needs an Australian presence to register. The matching direct .au name has been available since 2022 and is worth holding so nobody else can; point it at the same site. Add .com if you trade overseas or want to protect the name, and skip the rest. Ten domain variations protect nothing if the main one is set up well.
What happens to my .com.au if my ABN is cancelled or changes?
A .com.au licence depends on an Australian presence such as an ABN, ACN or Australian trade mark, and the name must match the registrant’s name or be closely connected to it under auDA’s rules. If the entity behind the domain changes, for example from sole trader to company, update the registrant through your registrar rather than leaving the old details, and keep the ABN active. Check auDA’s current rules, which were under review in 2026.
Can I move my website to a new host without breaking my email?
Yes. Website hosting and email run on different DNS records: the A or CNAME records point the website, the MX records point email. A new host only needs the website records changed. Ask whoever moves the site to list every DNS change before it happens and to leave the MX records alone, and keep email with a dedicated provider rather than bundled with web hosting where you can.
Does hosting in Australia matter for speed or for Google?
Hosting near your customers makes pages load faster, and a content delivery network can cover most of the gap if the server is overseas. Google does not rank a site higher for being hosted in Australia; it uses the domain, content and your Search Console settings to understand where you serve. Hosting location matters more for privacy: if your business is covered by the Privacy Act, sending personal information overseas is a cross-border disclosure under Australian Privacy Principle 8, which has its own obligations.
Do I still need to pay for an SSL certificate?
Usually not. Most hosts issue free certificates from Let’s Encrypt and renew them automatically, so a padlock and https:// should cost nothing. Paid certificates make sense only in specific cases, such as some older enterprise requirements. What matters is that every page loads over HTTPS and that http:// addresses redirect to it.
What does SIX9 Design include for domains and hosting?
Website packages (A$169, A$299 or A$449 once) do not include domain and hosting fees; you register the domain in your own name and we set the DNS up with you, or we recommend a host and you hold the account. Brand Launch (from A$599) includes standard domain registration and hosting for the first year, with renewals after that confirmed with you before anything renews. Either way the domain is registered to you, not to us.
Keep exploring
Related pages
Your name, your domain,
your website.
Tell us what your business does and the domain you hold or want. We confirm the pages, scope and total in writing before any work starts, and the domain stays registered to you.
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