Should your business use a .es or a .com domain?

What a domain is, and why it isn't a detail

The domain is your website's address: yourbusiness.es or yourbusiness.com. It's what goes on your business card, your shop awning, your van and your Google profile. It's also the second half of your professional email: [email protected].

That's why changing it a few years down the line is expensive. Not because of the new domain, which costs little, but because of everything already printed with the old one and the customers who have that address saved. It's worth ten minutes of thought now.

.es or .com: when each one makes sense

• Choose .es if you sell mainly in Spain, and even more so if your business is local: a hairdresser, a garage, a clinic, a neighbourhood shop. It feels close to home, and Google understands your audience is here.
• Choose .com if you sell to other countries, if your brand wants to sound international, or if the .es you want is already registered by someone else.
• If you can, register both and have one redirect to the other. That way nobody else gets the version you don't use, and anyone who types the wrong one still reaches your site.

How .es works

.es domains are managed by Red.es, a public body under the Spanish government, through dominios.es. You don't buy them there directly: you register them through an accredited registrar, which is the company you contract the domain with and which handles the paperwork.

A domain isn't bought forever: it's registered for a period, usually one or several years, and has to be renewed before it expires. If the date passes, there's a short window to recover it and, after that, it becomes free for anyone to register. Some people watch for exactly that: expiring domains of businesses that have customers.

The important part: the domain must be yours

This is the mistake that causes the most grief, and it's rarely noticed until too late. Many people commission a website and the provider registers the domain in its own name. Everything works for years, until you want to switch provider, or the provider closes, or stops answering. Then you discover that the address printed everywhere isn't legally yours.

1. Holder: you, with your tax ID

   If you're self-employed, your name and your NIF. If you have a company, its registered name and company NIF. The holder is whoever has the right to the domain, and this is the one detail that must be in your name, no exceptions.

2. A contact email you actually read

   Renewal reminders and confirmations of any change go to that address. If you use the provider's email or one you never check, you'll find out about the expiry when the website stops working.

3. Access to the registrar's dashboard

   Ask for the username and password of the account holding the domain, or for access from your own account. Even if you never plan to touch anything, you need to be able to log in.

4. Auto-renewal switched on

   With a card that won't expire soon. It's the simplest way to avoid losing the domain through an oversight.

Email on your own domain

A quote arriving from [email protected] comes across as more serious than one from a free email address with numbers in it. To have one you need the domain plus an email service: Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or the email included by many registrars and hosting providers.

Then some records have to be set up on the domain (MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC) so your mail reaches the inbox and not the spam folder. The big email providers increasingly require domains to be properly authenticated, so this isn't optional: get it wrong and your quotes disappear without anyone telling you.

How to choose the name

• Short and easy to read out over the phone. If you have to spell it every time, it's too long.
• No hyphens or numbers unless they're part of your brand. Nobody remembers where the hyphen went.
• Be careful with ñ and accents. The .es accepts them, but many people type them without. If your name has an ñ, also register the version with n.
• If the exact name is taken, adding your city usually works better than inventing an odd variant: peluqueriamaria.es taken, peluqueriamariasevilla.es free.