Thread: Hosting/domain advice for a newbie to Ireland

Hi, I'm hoping to pick your brains about setting up a site for my wife. We've only been here a few months. She is teaching the Alexander Technique in Fingal, so only needs to reach folk North of Dublin.

I understand from the forums that to register a .ie domain name she needs to establish some right to the name. She has not registered a company, but she has joined the Irish chapter of her professional association. Is that sufficient to be able to register a name? A more general question, does she need to worry about it being .ie? I'm mainly concerned about her site being recognised as Irish by the search engines.

For hosting, I followed one of the recommendations to EZPZ in the UK- they were indeed very responsive. However, they can't transfer the domain; will I be making my life complicated if I go down this route?

Failing that, which Irish hosting would you recommend for a very simple site?

thanks, ...Stan

Hi Stan,

You can find a quick guide to registering .ie domains here: IE Domain Registry

If your target market is in Ireland then you would better suited by having a .ie domain and having your site hosted in Ireland.

Originally Posted by stan414

. She has not registered a company, but she has joined the Irish chapter of her professional association. Is that sufficient to be able to register a name?

To register a .ie? Doubtful.
She's need to get a registered business name from the CRO (CRO - Home)

Originally Posted by stan414

A more general question, does she need to worry about it being .ie? I'm mainly concerned about her site being recognised as Irish by the search engines.

Getting it hosted in Ireland is probably best for SEO

Originally Posted by stan414

For hosting, I followed one of the recommendations to EZPZ in the UK- they were indeed very responsive. However, they can't transfer the domain; will I be making my life complicated if I go down this route?

I'm not sure I follow. What or who is EZPZ? What can't they do exactly?

Originally Posted by stan414

Failing that, which Irish hosting would you recommend for a very simple site?

Shop around

Thanks for your responses. I've gone ahead and filed a business name registration. So now I have a paper form for signature. About how long does this take to process? Can I physically go into the CRO and have it processed there and then? Can I register the domain name while it is processing? Thanks, ...Stan

I *think* CRO take a week to two weeks to process RBNs

As for registering domains - you can request one, but you'd need the RBN application receipt from the CRO to get it accepted in the iterim, however you would have 30 days to finalise the registration request

Thanks Blackknight,

So to confirm my understanding, I can provisionally register a domain based on the details on the signature page from CRO, put up the web page, and have a (hopefully small) risk of having to change the name or take down the site, if there is a glitch in the 30 days?

Thanks, ...Stan

Originally Posted by stan414

Thanks Blackknight,

So to confirm my understanding, I can provisionally register a domain based on the details on the signature page from CRO, put up the web page, and have a (hopefully small) risk of having to change the name or take down the site, if there is a glitch in the 30 days?

Thanks, ...Stan

you probably won't be granted the domain until you have received your RBN.

You can register the domain ... this places a hold on the domain name in which time no one else can register it ... you should receive your RBN by that stage and finalise your registration. You won't be able to have yoursite.ie up and running until you have your rbn

OK, thanks for the clarification. ...Stan

Originally Posted by stan414

OK, thanks for the clarification. ...Stan

You would however be able to have tempname.yourhostingprovider.ie up and running more than likely if you just wanted to work on the site in the mean time. I believe most providers give you a temporary way of accessing your site before DNS has propaged over.

(though you'd want to check wiht your host)

OK, that could be a way forward.

Would that cause a problem with the search engines, if we were to be indexed during that time? I had an idea that moving the same content over to another name cost SEO brownie points?