What to check beyond availability
A domain name availability check only tells you that a name has not been registered yet. For Australian businesses, that is the start of the check - not the end.
Trademark conflicts sit at the top of the risk list. An available domain can still be protected by an existing Australian trademark in your product category. IP Australia maintains a searchable trademark register at ipaustralia.gov.au - search it before you commit to any business name. If a competitor already holds a trademark for a similar name in your industry, registering the domain creates a dispute risk even if the registration goes through without issue.
WHOIS history affects both your email deliverability and your search rankings. Domains that previously hosted spam or low-quality link directories carry that reputation with them. Before you commit to a name, check web.archive.org to see what the domain was used for in previous years, and run a whois lookup alongside it to see who currently holds the registration. If there is a questionable history, move on.
Expiring domains create a backOrder opportunity. Some domains showing as “taken” are actually approaching their expiry date and can be queued through backOrder services. If a name you want is registered but the site looks dormant, check its expiry status at a registrar - you may be able to place a backOrder claim.
Typo variants and social handle availability need to be checked at the same time. Common misspellings of your name will send customers nowhere if you do not own them, and a business name that is already taken as a username on Instagram or LinkedIn creates a fragmented identity from launch.
.com.au eligibility is a hard check that many Australian founders skip. Not every business can register a .com.au domain - and discovering this after you have built a brand around a name is an expensive problem.
How to use the domain name checker
If you’re searching for a domain name in Australia, this is the place to start. NameCraftr checks .com, .com.au, and .au availability in real time for every name it generates. That means you get live availability across all three extensions in a single search, not cached results that may be days out of date. Starting from scratch rather than checking a specific name? The domain name generator and business name generator both feed into this same live-availability check, and the domain name search tool is built for comparing dozens of name-plus-domain combinations side by side.
To get the most out of the checker:
- Start with a detailed brief. Describe your business specifically - your market, your differentiator, and the tone you want. “Eco-friendly cleaning products for Australian households” will produce better results than “cleaning brand”.
- Check .com.au eligibility before you fall in love with a name. Under auDA policy, .com.au registrations require your domain name to be an exact match or close and obvious abbreviation of your registered Australian business name or trademark. If you have not yet registered a business name with ASIC, the domain you want may not be available to you under .com.au even if the domain itself shows as unregistered.
- Consider the .au shortcut. The .au extension (without .com.) was opened up in 2022 and is becoming increasingly adopted. If your preferred .com.au is taken, a matching .au may still be available. Both require eligibility under auDA rules.
- Always check the .com too. Even if your primary domain will be .com.au, find out who owns the .com. If it is a competitor or a business in an adjacent space, you will be sending them traffic every time an international customer defaults to .com.
- Keep your shortlist short and move fast. Domain availability changes. Once you have a name you want, register it in the same session.
After checking: securing the domain you want
Once a name passes your trademark check and has a clean history, register it before you announce anything publicly.
Register through an Australian-based registrar. Reputable options include VentraIP, Crazy Domains, NetRegistry, and GoDaddy AU. Prices for .com.au run roughly AUD $15-25/year depending on the registrar and term length. The .au extension is similarly priced.
Understand what WHOIS privacy means for Australian ccTLDs. For .com.au and .au domains, registrants are subject to auDA policy, which requires accurate and up-to-date registrant contact details in the WHOIS record. Privacy options vary by registrar - some offer proxy privacy services, others do not. Check what your chosen registrar provides at the point of registration.
Enable auto-renewal immediately. If your .com.au domain lapses, it goes back into the open pool. Given the eligibility restrictions on .com.au, you may not be able to re-register it if someone else gets there first and their business name matches the domain more closely.
Register your business name with ASIC if you have not already. Business name registration is a prerequisite for .com.au eligibility. ASIC registration costs AUD $42 for one year or $98 for three years. Do this before you try to register the domain, not after.
Check your trademark position with IP Australia. If you plan to grow the brand, filing a trademark application protects you from competitors who register similar names in your category after you have established market presence. Rights date from your application date.
Common domain checking mistakes
Skipping the .com.au eligibility check. Many founders generate a business name, fall in love with it, and then discover that their registered business name does not match the domain closely enough to qualify for .com.au under auDA rules. The fix - re-registering a business name just to match a domain - is avoidable. Verify eligibility before you build a brand around the name.
Ignoring who owns the .com. Australian businesses often focus only on .com.au and overlook the .com entirely. If the .com is owned by an overseas company in a similar space, you will share traffic and potentially confuse customers who default to typing .com after hearing your brand name.
Assuming WHOIS privacy works the same as .com. On a .com registered through Namecheap or Cloudflare, WHOIS privacy is a standard feature. For .com.au and .au, auDA policy governs what can be obscured and what cannot. Some registrars handle this differently. Check before assuming your personal details are hidden.
Neglecting the trademark check. The IP Australia register is publicly searchable and takes minutes to use. Registering a domain that conflicts with an existing Australian trademark creates dispute risk and can result in losing the domain and having to rebrand. Check ipaustralia.gov.au before registering anything.
Waiting to register the .com alongside the .com.au. Registering .com.au and planning to pick up the .com later is a common deferral that often ends badly. Register both in the same session on day one. The cost is minimal and the regret of losing the .com to a squatter is not.