Your domain is the address customers recognise. If it is printed on your van, used in your email signature or linked from other websites, keeping it is usually worth discussing before a rebuild. A new design does not, by itself, require a new domain.
Separate the domain, website and email
These services may come from the same supplier, but they are different things. The domain registration maintains the address. Hosting serves the website. Your email provider handles the mailbox. Moving the website should be planned around the other two, not treated as permission to cancel everything.
Start by listing who provides each service and who controls the accounts. Find the renewal date, the account owner's email and the route for recovering access. Do not paste passwords into a quote request or a public document.
What we need before changing anything
- The domain you want to keep and the person authorised to approve changes.
- The current website and email providers.
- Any existing pages that customers use or that appear in search results.
- Other services attached to the domain, such as booking systems or subdomains.
You do not need to understand every technical setting before making an enquiry. The important starting point is knowing whether you have access and whether another provider manages changes for you. If access is unclear, resolve that before setting a launch date.
Protect existing links and email
A rebuild can change the paths after your domain, even when the domain itself stays the same. Record useful old URLs and agree their replacements. A visitor opening an old services link should reach a relevant new page, not an unrelated homepage or an error screen.
Also make email continuity part of the launch checklist. Ask the person performing the switch to review the existing DNS configuration and confirm what will remain unchanged. Domain transfer, hosting migration and email migration should be separate decisions with an agreed scope.
Agree the launch and handover
Review the new website before the switch, decide who authorises launch and test the public site afterwards. Check contact forms, telephone links and your normal email workflow. Keep the old service available until the agreed transition checks are complete rather than cancelling it early.
Our fixed-scope package includes a domain option, but an existing domain or migration needs to be discussed. See the current inclusions and ongoing costs. Send us your website address through Ask a question and tell us whether you already control the domain. We can then explain the appropriate next step without asking you to pay first.