Come Up With New Ideas For Your Domain Name
If your negotiations dont bode well and you cant secure ownership for the domain name, youll have to brainstorm some new ideas. Try these tips to help you choose a domain name without having to completely start from scratch:
- Opt for a different top-level domain . Many websites use a .com TLD, but you can also see if your domain name is available at a .co, .org, .shop, .biz, or other TLD.
- Add a word to your domain name. Words like shop and buy make excellent additions to your domain name. If shoes.com isnt available, for example, you could do shopshoes.com or buyshoes.com.
- Get help from a domain name generator. Get ideas from Shopifys free domain name generator. Plug in your ideas and keywords and youll get popular and alternative domain names to use for your business.
Find your perfect domain name
Search for domain name ideas and instantly check domain availability.
Contacting The Domain Owner
Since the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation came into force on 15th May 2018, the personal contact details of domain owners in the EU can no longer be published. You can only find out who owns a domain by contacting the domain provider, who then forwards the request to the domain owner. Reasons for contacting the domain owner may include general and technical inquiries, domain sale inquiries, as well as information in the event of possible misuse of the domain or domain name.
With .uk domains, Nominet will ordinarily not release your personal data without your consent. The exception to this is in the case of a legitimate request from, for instance, a law enforcement agency or a trademark holder wishing to enforce their intellectual property rights.
Three: Contact The Domain Registrar
Many domain registrars now offer domain name privacy, which keeps the owners personal information from being listed in the WHOIS directory. Between that and GDPR legislation, the WHOIS directory is no longer a reliable way to find a domain owners personal contact information.
That means in many cases, you wont be able to learn directly who the owner is via the directory. But you will be able to find out who they registered the domain with.
This still isnt a dead end. Go to the website of the domain registrar , and look for their contact information. Give them a call or write them an email letting them know what domain youre interested in buying, and ask them to pass along your information to the owner. The registrar will have the owners contact details on file, and will be able to share your interest with them without violating any privacy concerns.
Read Also: Why Are Some Domains So Expensive
How To Find Out Who Owns A Domain
You can search the WHOIS database to find key information about a domain. Simply enter the URL for the domain name in question here:
Click the green Search button to find out information about the domain and who owns it. First, WHOIS will show basic information, like the domain name, ID, domain registrar server and URL, and creation date. You can see below that shopify.com was created on March 11, 2003, and is currently registered with .
You can also click View more information to expand the window and see more data about the domain name.
Now, you might notice that this information doesnt exactly take you directly to the domain owner. In fact, the domain name service acts as a go-between, essentially protecting the domain owners identity. That means youll need to do some extra research and sleuthing to find out who really owns the domain.
If the domain owners identity is hidden, look up information about the company that owns the domain. You might find a Contact Us or About Us page that talks about the companys leadership, founders, owners, etc.
You can also find out where the company is registered and seek out databases that list information about registered companies. Look for the secretary of state or department of revenue websites for the corresponding location. For a Florida-registered business, for example, you can look up business ownership by company name, employer identification number, address, or even registered agent name.
Free Methods For Finding A Domain Owner
The Website
First of all, theres the website itself, if active.
The three most obvious places on a site youd find info about the owner would be:
- Contact us page.
- Privacy policy.
- Terms & conditions.
Even where privacy policies & Ts & Cs pages dont directly reference the owner, there are sometimes clues: Company numbers, Ltd Company names, etc. And failing that copying & pasting a whole privacy policy or Ts & Cs page into google, or unique sentences from that, can show up other sites using the same policy. .
Less visible sources of info direct from websites include:
- Robots.txt file these occasionally contain info about the owner, usually visible at www.examplesite.com/robots.txt
In the case of the latter two, looking for the Google Analytics ID in the source code, and then pasting that into Google, occasionally shows up other sites using the same ID.
Off-site, there are also places where you can often find info. Most notably, Google itself. Some less obvious ways of using Google to find the owner of a site include:
- Do a site:examplesite.com email search, and a site:examplesite.com phone, and a site:examplesite.com contact search, which sometimes shows up email addresses or phone numbers on pages that arent obvious to find via the site itself, but have been picked up by google.
- www.examplesite.com as a search sometimes shows up other sites referencing it. In some cases these will contain contact details.
Whois Tools
Archive.org
Twitter Search
Also Check: How Much Does It Cost To Register A Domain
Tools To Use For Checking A Domain Names History
At this point, you should already understand that it is important to be aware of your domains history before you actually purchase and use it. The Internet leaves a trail that can easily be traced and you cannot hide anything online. The domain you may be interested in buying could have a history of its own, which may include sensitive content and malicious code. It may even have different owners before you.
Thankfully, it is possible for you to figure out the history of the domain you are using or any domain name that you may wish to buy. You can investigate whether it is worth your investment or not. Here are the best tools that will let you check the history of a domain:
If A Domain Is Registered To Be Sold For Profit
Some people register domain names speculatively, and often go after domains that include the names of big companies, popular products, media enterprises, you name it. Or maybe youre just a big fan and want to set up a fan site that the big media company that owns the popular product, franchise, etc. will want to pay you money for .
Making money this way is possible, but youre just as likely to get a legal notice. And if they own the trademark, which they very likely might, they have a much stronger case and can demand you hand over the domain for zero dollars.
Sometimes though, what looks like domain squatting can actually be a case of someone having a domain long before a company or product is created and wants its corresponding domain. In these cases, the new company may offer to buy the domain off of you, or they may lodge a UDRP complaint , which basically claims that you own a domain you dont really have rights to and arent using the best way, and the other company has a trademark or business case that is better suited to the domains ownership and use.
Once upon a time domain squatting and speculation were more common and easier to get away with, but those days are long past. Registering what you think is a hot domain in hopes of a big payday is not the likely windfall some people still think it is. Youre more likely to be threatened with legal action.
Recommended Reading: Cost To Buy A Domain
Contact The Domain Owner
First things firstyou need to reach out to the domain owner. You might find their contact information using the steps listed above, often in the form of a physical mailing address. But if you want to reach out in a different way, there are some steps you can take to find the appropriate contact.
The best place to start is with a Google search. Simply enter the persons name on Google to see what comes up. You might also search email address or contact information. If that doesnt yield any results, check out databases like Hunter.
Once you get in touch with the domain owner, be prepared to negotiate a deal for the domain. Have a number in mind and be prepared to hear a counter offer. When preparing your number, consider the domain authority, or how much search equity the existing site has. If its clearly out of date and doesnt show up high in search result pages, you can offer a lower number. But for updated sites with a robust digital presence across multiple channels, youll likely have to start higher.
Where Can I See Who Owns A Domain
In order to see who owns a domain you will need to do a whois search on the domain name you are interested in.
When you do a whois search it will display who is the owner of the domain name.
There are instances when the data of the owner will not display. This happens when the owner of the domain name does not want to make his contact details public and has purchased a domain whois privacy service.
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Why Is A Domain Name Important
While there is an infinite amount of domain names, they are not created equally. In fact, only a small number of them are actually profitable.
For example, lets examine sdgfgkaweufgsdjfu.com. This could certainly be the name of your new website, but good luck getting anyone to type this into Google. Unless they decide to mash their face into the keyboard, you will not get much traffic.
In reality, your domain name needs to reflect your business. It makes your business look professional and adds credibility to your name. Picking a domain name is often considered the first part of building a brand.
The more famous you become, the more expensive the process becomes. Thus, you need to buy the domain name while you are unknown.
What Whois Can Tell You
Using Whois domain lookup is a good way of obtaining information about a domain that has already been registered, such as its date of registration or expiration. You can use our Whois domain lookup tool to find out who owns a domain that uses the following extensions: .com, .net and .shop.
Since Nominet is responsible for all .uk domains, you should perform Whois lookups for .uk domains directly with them. They will also provide you with technical data such as the nameserver being used. In many cases, this makes it clear which provider the respective domain is registered with.
If you would like to request data about a domain directly at a particular registry, select the respective partner on our registrar page.
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Why Is Whois Data Important
Every time a domain name is registered, registrars need to verify the identity of a domains owner or registrant. This information is important because any domain name disputes and technical issues will need to be resolved by the domain name owner.
Beyond this, WHOIS information is used by different parties in many different ways. In some cases, domain names may be put up for sale and having WHOIS information is a way to determine and generate leads in the sale of a domain name. WHOIS information can also be used by network administrators to combat spam, fraud, identify trademark infringement and track down registrants that may be engaged in damaging or illegal activities.
How To Determine Who Owns A Domain Name
Naeem MobasharDecember 28, 2010 | Updated: December 9, 201570
The International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is the organization that authorizes registrars to issue or assign domain names to public. A registrant is the person or entity who is considered to be the domain name owner authorized to make or request for changes to be made in vital information related to domain name. It is, therefore, critically important to know the owner registrant of a domain name and also the person or entity having administrative, billing and technical rights related to domain.
Recommended Reading: Cost Of Purchasing A Domain Name
The Impact Of Your Domains History
An old domain may boost the efficiency of your SEO efforts. However, there is one crucial step that you should not neglect here, and it involves knowing the history of your domain name. Its background will tell you who owned that particular domain before you did, the type of website, and the activities that took place under it.
Imagine that you are all set with your site, and you are well-prepared to expand your online business, but Google will not rank you in its search engine results page. The very reason could be the bad history of the domain you are currently using.
If another person, group, or business has used the domain before you, it is essential to know if it has a good track record. If for some unknown reason your website finds it hard to be visible in the organic SERPs, it may have violated the guidelines of the search engine. Some domains may have been penalized by Google or had numerous drops, which would cause the problem.
Google sees domains as proof of the owners identity and what he or she does. Therefore, a decent track record is significant to your overall SEO ranking.
How To Find Out Who Actually Owns A Domain Name
Last updated on June 2nd, 2021 by Editorial Staff | Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported. This means if you click on some of our links, then we may earn a commission. See how WPBeginner is funded, why it matters, and how you can support us.
Do you want to find out who actually owns a domain name?
Looking up who owns a domain can help you find the owners contact information, so you can purchase the domain name.
In this article, well show you how you can find out who actually owns a domain name, step by step.
Why Find Out Who Owns a Domain Name?
Finding out who owns a domain name can tell you valuable information about the domain name owner.
Usually, this information will include an email address and other contact information, so you can get in touch to purchase the domain name.
It also shows you useful domain name information, like the last time it was registered, how many owners the domain has had, and more.
If you find that multiple people have owned a specific domain name, then this increases chances of the domain being used for spam.
When youre creating a WordPress website, one of the biggest decisions youll make is choosing the perfect business name and matching domain.
If youve found a great domain, but its already registered, then youll want to reach out to the owner to see if theyre willing to sell it to you.
Method 1: Search for a Domain With Domain.com WHOIS Lookup Tool
Then, the tool will display the available WHOIS results.
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