How To Build A Website After Buying A Domain

Things To Do After Buying A Domain Name

Buying a domain name means youve registered your desired name so that no one can use it.

But its half of the battle. You need to do a few more things to build your site and secure the future of your business.

If you have a domain name but dont know what to do next, read on. In this post, I will be sharing 9 things to do once you have a domain name.

Now follow these simple steps to build your website.

Why Use WordPress And Not Website Builders

Unlike website builders or web design software, WordPress doesnt cost a dime to download, install or use. Its built by web developers and theres a large developer community who have designed beautiful free themes and templates, making it easy to get going fast.

• 2. Its highly customizable and user-friendly

If you know how to use Google Docs, you already know how to add your own content. WordPress can be easily expanded with free add-ons to handle just about any site you can imagine from small business websites to e-commerce sites. With WordPress plugins youll be able to add contact forms, subscription forms, image galleries, stores, and so on for your website. And its all pretty simple.

• 3. Your site will be responsive. Meaning itll work on smartphones & tablets, too

The website you build will instantly be responsive, looking great on every mobile device, smartphone, and tablet. No need to hire a web developer for that.

• 4. Help available from the community

With so many people using the platform , its easy to find fast help when you need it. You can get help from here for free or you can hire thousands of WordPress developers from here.

In fact, I built WebsiteSetup.org using WordPress, too. Below are samples of my homepage and blog page:

WebsiteSetup Homepage

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I Bought A Domain Now What Exact Things To Do Next

1. Get a hosting for your domain

The next thing to do after registering a domain is to buy hosting for it.

If you dont already know, let me explain you what a domain is and why you need hosting.

A domain is like your address to your offline retail store. And hosting is like the brick and mortar shop where you store your goods to sell . Got it?

Now for the hosting, there are dime a dozen hosting providers. Dont ever settle with a free hosting or something that is too good a deal to be true. These do more damage to you than good.

I recommend Bluehost hosting and easy to deal with. I am not a technical guy and when it comes to online business I want a resource/hosting I can turn to when I have a glitch. Bluehost never has let me down on this.

Their basic plan starts at $2.99/month.

2. Connect Your Domain to Bluehost Hosting & Install WordPress on It

Now that you have bought the hosting, but you have your domain name bought elsewhere, all you need is to direct the domain name to point visitors to your hosting. You can easily do so by updating the DNS of the domain.

Ill share the step by step way to do so with Godaddy registered domain .

Here is how to point your Godaddy domain to Bluehost:

3. Design Your Blog

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How To Get A Domain For Free

If you already have hosting services, you wont be able to use this method unless youre ready to upgrade to a better plan or switch to a new host. As such, timing is an important consideration if youre set on getting a domain name for free for the next year.

But if youre starting a website from scratch, you need web hosting services in addition to a domain name.

So, it makes sense to bundle them together. Its an easy and affordable way to get everything you need in one transaction while saving a bit of money.

The biggest consideration is choosing the right host for your website. So, lets talk about how to do that.

How To Buy A Domain Name And Build A Website

There are several steps to take when you are ready to build a website and market your brand or product. However, one of the very first things you need to do is register and buy a domain name for your website. Right after picking a web host, you will need to make this choice.

There can be no website if you dont have a domain name. There are thousands of domain names to choose from, to get the domain you want, you have to search and see if it is available. Different domain name extensions can be used.

What you choose will be entirely up to you and how you want to represent your brand.

Recommended Reading: How Do I Set Up A Domain Name

How Do I Create A Free Website With A Previously Purchased Domain

Assuming you have a web hosting account and a domain name already purchased, the process of creating a free website is fairly straightforward.1. Login to your web hosting account and access the control panel.2. Look for the Website section and click on Add New Site.3. Enter the domain name you wish to use for your website in the box provided and click Check Domain. If the domain is available, it will be added to your web hosting account automatically.4. Once the domain has been added, select it from the drop-down menu and click Next.5. On the next page, select None of these? Install WordPress manually and click Next again.6. Now, you will be asked to provide some information about your site such as its title, username, password, etc. Fill out all of the required fields and click Install WordPress when you are finished.7Thats it! Your WordPress site should now be up and running on your previously purchased domain name!

Over To You: I Have A Domain Name Now What

So, here are the 10 different ways to use your domain name.

You could either start a blog and earn money with it or flip the domain at sites like Dan or Godaddy to make some quick bucks. One more potential use of a domain lying around can be using it as a vanity URL and redirect it to your resume or social media channels. Redirection can be done at your domain provider.

Another important thing to do after buying a domain would be to register all other top-level domains related to your primary domain along with other domain name extensions so that your brand is secured.

I hope we gave tried to answer your burning question, I bought a domain now what?. If you have any other creative uses of domain names feel free to comment below.

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Why Register A Domain Name

Domain names have been around since the advent of the web. The first domain name in history was Symbolics.com, which was registered on March 15, 1985. Today, there are more than 300 million domain names, with millions more added each year.

Your domain name is an important part of establishing your brand. No two domain names can be exactly alike, although they can be similar. Ideally, your custom domain name will be unique and distinctive, so users don’t confuse it with other domain names or different businesses.

In addition, domain names allow users to easily connect to other computer IP addresses. For example, you can type in an address like “Google.com” instead of Google’s numerical IP address of “172.217.13.78.” In other words, domain names make our lives a lot easier.

You might be wondering isn’t a domain name, then, simply a website? Although they are similar, domain names and websites have important differences. Your domain name is the address for your website it is what people use to find your website, which consists of pages, images, and other files.

Choosing a domain name is often the first step when building a website. Read on to learn how to register and buy a domain name.

While a website domain can be an investment, you can also find one for free, especially if you purchase it with hosting.

Hostgator Best For Budget

HostGator is a web hosting company that guarantees uptime 99.9% of the time. It also offers 24/7 support an impressive 365 days a year via phone and live chat.

HostGator is also affordable. There are three hosting plans to choose from: the Hatchling Plan, the Baby Plan, and the Business Plan. If you go with the most affordable plan, youll pay just $2.75 a month for web hosting.

Keep in mind, however, that youll need to sign up for three years of web hosting to receive the lowest monthly price and your domain name is only free for the first year. After that, it renews at $17.99 per year.

But HostGators plans are incredibly affordable, to the point where they make it easy on your wallet if you dont want to settle for the most basic of hosting plans.

If you need shared hosting for more than one site, the Baby Plan allows you to host as many as you need for just 75 cents more per month.

What makes HostGator particularly scalable is their unmetered bandwidth and site storage on all shared hosting plans. That means you can accomodate as many site visits and use as much storage space as you need, within reason.

Most sites wont have to worry about using up too much of their servers resources. And youll never again have to count monthly visits to make sure you dont exceed your limit.

If you prefer a one-year term, the monthly fee increases to $3.95 for the Hatchling Plan and $5 for the Baby Plan, with a free domain for the entire one-year duration.

Recommended Reading: How To Choose A Domain Name

Two Methods For Buying A Domain Name

Fortunately, it doesnt really matter where you buy your domain. At the end of the day, a domain is a domain, and you wont find any variations in quality based on where you buy one.

The biggest difference from one domain registrar to the next is the pricesome offer domains for just a few dollars a year and others can go as high as $20 per year or more. There are two ways to get a domain name, one of which is free for the first year and the other is not.

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Sync Your Domain And Hosting

If you got your domain name registration and web hosting at the same place, you can skip this step. But if you bought your domain separately from your hosting account, you need to point your domain name to your web hosting by updating your nameservers and adding the domain name to your web hosting. This is usually a simple process involving logging into your domain name registrar and locating your nameservers. Once youve done this, you just copy and paste the nameservers your web host gave you into the box with your existing nameservers. Thats it!

If you want to transfer your domain to our hosting platform, nows the time to do it. This ensures that you get to keep all your domains in the same place.

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How To Register A Domain Name With Hostgator

Next, well explain how to get a domain name on HostGator . Part of the same group as Bluehost, it offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop website builder and feature-rich web hosting services.

The first step to buying a domain name on HostGator is to open the Domains page on their website. Insert a domain name and on the search field and press the Enterkey.

If the domain is unavailable, pick a recommended alternative with a different domain extension or name variation.

The cost for a .com domain at HostGator is similar to Bluehost, starting from $12.95/year. Bundling the item with a privacy and protection feature is also possible, costing $14.95/year. Pick between one, two, or a three-year registration period, then click Continue To Checkout.

Now, create a HostGator account and fill in your billing information. HostGator has two payment options credit card and PayPal.

Before finalizing the purchase, HostGator will preview the order. Here, you can set custom nameservers to point the domain name to a third-party hosting account if desired. Click Place Your Order once everything looks right.

Finally, HostGator will send a domain ownership validation request to your registered email address. Remember to click on the link within 15 days to prevent the domain from temporary suspension.

Besides the steps above, HostGator also offers a domain name registration service via their support team. However, this alternative method is only applicable to certain TLDs .

Site Speed And Tech Support

Your website loading speed is also important. You dont want to lose visitors just because your site takes a long time to load. Twenty-four-hour technical support is vital if youre creating a website yourself and need help when you get stuck, even if thats the middle of the night. Finally, although pricing shouldnt be the main yardstick you use to measure a good website builder, you dont want to pay too much for a mediocre website builder, so compare prices as well.

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How To Promote A Website

The final step in drawing visitors to your website is promotion and a good SEO content strategy. There are plenty of things you can do to promote your website including practicing good SEO with all of your content, using content marketing tools, banner ads, social media, and email marketing tactics.

Optimizing your SEO content is among the most important steps you can take and can address fairly quickly and also mostly free of charge. Thats because search engines rank websites in their search results based on SEO keywords. Usually, youll want to ensure that your keywords are relevant to your websites content and internally linked. You can also incorporate multimedia elements and images that are optimized for SEO.

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How To Choose A Domain Name

Since your domain name can have a major impact on your online presence, what you choose is a vital first step in building your brand. Finding the perfect domain name, however, can be challenging.

While its true that there are millions of domain names available, many of the popular domain names that are easy to remember are taken. Fortunately, you can still get what you need if you go through a simple process and use a bit of imagination.

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Start Building Your Social Media Presence

Your website is only a fraction of your online presence. To help establish your brand online, you also need to get social media handles that match your domain name. Even if you dont want to start your social media marketing plan right away, itll save you a lot of hassle if you register the username you want right now. That way, you wont end up finding that the username is taken by the time youre finally ready to market your website on social media.

Try to match your username across all your social media accounts, so your visitors can easily find you.

Here are some platforms you might want to start with:

What To Do After Purchasing Domain Name

As you have bought the domain name there are a lot of actions you have to do.

If you have already decided which kind of website you have to make than you can skip.

What to do after registering a domain Get organized.

First, take a notepad and write down all the related information such as your domain registrar, user details, login details, expiry date, coupon code used, Money spent.

Make sure you have bookmarked your domain registrar so that you dont have to navigate again and again.

For what purpose you bought the domain.

Generally, people buy a domain names for making their website. Do you know that you can purchase and sell the domain name and earn a profit?

Well if you are planning to make your own blog then you have to Host it online.

For hosting your website you need to purchase a webhosting plan.

If you are based on India, then you should check out this hostgator India review . Hostgator is a world-leading WebHost with a comparatively cheap price.

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Using A Website Builder To Create Your Website

Website builders are easy-to-use online tools that turn any web project into childs play. Theyre a great choice for beginners. Prices start at around $5 per month and that usually includes the hosting and access to various templates. You wont need any additional software or specialist knowledge to create your website. When selecting a website builder make sure it includes security features and predefined design templates. For example, with IONOS MyWebsite the process is really easy and goes like this:

The MyWebsite builder from IONOS is fully customizable, reliable, and secure. Choose from a huge range of templates to match your business needs and access over 17,000 high quality photos to finish off your design. Want a little more input from the pros? Then the MyWebsite Design Service is the right choice for you. Consult design experts and get your website built the way you envisioned it.