How To Register A Domain Name For Free
Youve heard the rumor about free domain names. Is it true?
Yes! There are actually ways to get a free domain name for your website.
First, you can get a free domain name for a web hosting provider such as Bluehost.
They offer every new user a 1-year free domain with any of their hosting plans. You can either register a brand new domain name with them or transfer a domain name, registered with another company.
Some other hosting providers who also have a 1-year free domain policy:
- HostGator
- Dreamhost
- InMotion Hosting
Note: The downside of getting a domain name from a hosting provider is more expensive renewals. After a free year, most hosting providers will charge a higher renewal fee, compared to domain registrars.
How To Make A Website With Your Own Domain For Free
Author: Howard Steele
So, youve decided to create a website with own domain name for free. Someone may say that this is impossible as quality websites require deep web design expertise and application of professional web building tools. However, thats not quite so.
Creating a personal or a business website at no cost or using your own domain is possible, if you are aware of the most popular web design options and professional web building software you can use to complete the task.
When it comes to free website development, there are several things to consider. To start with, you should pick the right web building tool, many of which come with free subdomains or offer integrated free domain connection option.
If you already own a domain and wish to attach it to your website, you will have to take care of that during website setup. Mind that domain costs differ as well as the terms implied by their providers. Thus, the process of free website development is not that easy and it definitely requires certain web design background or awareness of coding nuances.
To simplify the task, we have singled out several must-have points that will help you cope with all the stages of the web design process successfully and with maximum benefit.
How To Register A Domain Name For Your Website
Your company needs a website, which means it needs a domain name. Your first step is registering a domain name, which can be daunting for first-timers. Don’t worry: Our guide walks you through it.
Once you’ve decided to build a website, you need to make an important decision, even before you consult our best web hosting services roundup: What’s your domain name going to be? You know, it’s the web address by which all your many customers find you. Your domain name is, in effect, the name of your website, so you want to make sure you get a good one. Purchasing a name is a relatively simple process, but finding one that isn’t already taken can be a challenge. In addition, you’ll also want to make sure you understand the contract between you and the domain name registrar. If this is starting to sound a bit complicated, don’t worry: This primer can help you get started.
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Make Sure Your Website Is Well
Think of your website as a library.
Your website structure will become increasingly important the more content you add to your website.
When learning how to create a website, you need to get expert at organizing your site in a way that makes sense to your visitors and easy for them to get around it.
A crucial part here is the navigation menu. Once youve created some pages, its time to make them available to your visitors on the site. You can do that under Appearance > Menus.
The first step here, is to give your new menu a name, then click Create Menu.
After that, you can choose which content to add to it on the left. For example, tick the boxes next to pages you want to appear in the menu, then click Add to Menu.
You can drag and drop menu items to your desired order and even turn them into sub-items by moving them underneath others like below. Once you are satisfied, choose the menu position where youd like for this menu to appear .
Click Save Menu again and go to your sites front end to see the new menu in action.
Ultimately, you want to reflect a structure that makes sense for your site and helps visitors get to where they need to go.
Can Someone Make A Website For Me
The Website.com website builder is easy to use, and is great for a DIY approach. If you would rather have someone create your websitefor you, we can take care of it! Our Website.com designers offer web design and marketing services so you can focus on your business.Your website will be published on the website builder, allowing you to easily make future tweaks to your design at no additional designcharge. Or, feel free to reach out to our team if you need design services after launch.
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Getting A Free Custom Domain For Your Website
A domain name is the address that you type into a web browser address bar to get a website. An example of a domain name is . A domain name is unique to a website and cannot be shared between different websites, and a custom domain name is one that is specifically for your website.
There are many reasons why you should get a custom domain name for your website, even if your website is just for fun. In this article, we will look at some of these reasons, as well as show you where and how to get a free custom domain name for your Website.com website.
Select A Web Hosting Plan
After selecting the appropriate type of hosting, you we need to choose the right plan.
Hostinger offers a few different options for shared hosting. If you want to get a free domain, dont select their cheapest plan.
Below, you can see the free domain offers circled in green, with the lack of a free domain circled in red:
The Single Shared Hosting plan is a steal, no doubt, but if you want a free domain, its the wrong way to go. That leaves you with the Premium and Business Shared Hosting plans.
Lets take a closer look at what each plan offers.
Premium Shared Hosting
- Create up to 100 websites
- 100 GB SSD storage
- Daily backups
- Free CDN
Either of these plans is a solid option. Id lean toward the Premium plan if you arent expecting to hit your resource limits in terms of storage or monthly traffic.
Id recommend the Business plan for folks that are constantly updating their site or expecting a significant amount of traffic. Business plans include the automatic daily backups for the last seven days and weekly backups of the last seven weeks.
The ability to restore your site is crucial, and handling backups on your own is a hassle you can avoid with Business plans.
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Importance Of A Domain Name
There are a number of good reasons for having a domain name:
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If you ever change your web host , your domain name goes with you.Your regular visitors or customers who knew your site name as www.thesitewizard.com will not needto be informed about a change of web address , since as far as they are concerned,the site is still at the same place. They can simply type your domain name, as before, andbe transparently brought to your new location.
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If you are a business, a domain name gives you credibility. Few people will be willing to dobusiness with a company that does not have its own domain name.
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If you get a domain name that describes your company’s business or name, people can rememberthe name easily and can return to your site without having to consult their documents. In fact,if you get a good name that describes your product or service, you might even get people who weretrying their luck by typing “www.yourproductname.com” in their browser.
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If you want good sponsors for your website, a domain name is usually helpful.It tends to give your website an aura of respectibility.
Purchase Your Domain Name And Complete Its Registration
Once you settle on a domain name, its time to purchase it. When you buy through Mailchimp, well let you know the annual cost of the domain name as well as any available discounts.
During the checkout process, youll be required to enter your contact information, including an email address, to register the domain.
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Avoid Numbers And Hyphens
Imagine asking your 10 friends to spell or pronounce a domain name filled with numbers and dashes. It wont work.
If you choose a domain name with these elements, youre likely going to lose traffic to people who cant remember your domain or effectively tell someone else how to find it. We probably wouldnt have Facebook today if you had to go to Face-Book.com to reach the site.
How To Register A Domain Name: 4 Options
To get a domain name, youll need to call dibs with ICANN. ICANN is a global non-profit authority that maintains records on which domain and IP address belongs to whom and manages access to them.
But ICANN doesnt provide registration services, it only maintains records. Thats where domain name registrars come into play.
The primary role of a register is to:
- Coordinate claims on different domain names.
- Match specific domain names with Domain Name System nameservers.
- Ensure that there are no duplicate domain names.
Technically speaking, you are not buying a domain name from a registrar company, but reserve its usage for a specified time. You can pay to reserve a domain for 1-10 years at a time, depending on the registrar. After your initial subscription expires, youll need to renew it and pay a fee again. You can re-purchase your domain name over and over again.
When registering a domain name, you sign a long-term lease of your domain . You can read more about the domain costs here.
In practice, all of the above is much simpler than you think as we will show below.
Also Check: Average Domain Name Price
How To Register A Domain Name With Namecheap
As the name suggests, this Namecheap offers great value for money. Its .com domains start from $8.88/year, which is a low price compared to the rest of the market.
To buy a domain name on Namecheap, head over to the homepage and insert a name on the search field. Alternatively, head to the Bulk Domain Name Search tool and enter up to 5,000 keywords and find multiple domains at once.
The site will redirect you to the search results page. Feel free to sort the available domains by cost, extension, or alphabetical order. Click Add to Cart on the name you want to register and the Checkout button on the bottom-right corner to continue with the payment process.
The page will preview the order and suggest several add-ons to add to the cart, including PremiumDNS for a performance and security boost. This domain registrar also provides a free privacy and protection feature.
Confirm the order to move on to the next step creating a Namecheap account. Insert your contact information, including your name, phone number, email, and physical address. Enter a company name and tick the Im registering on behalf of a company box if applicable.
Press Continue to go to the Setup page. Here, specify the contact information for the domains registrant, administrator, technical support, and billings. If youre responsible for all these things, select User default account contact. Otherwise, choose to Add new contact where appropriate.
What Do I Mean By Platform
Well, back in 2005 when I got started with web development, most sites were created using HTML , CSS, and PHP. Each of these took a lot of time to learn and were difficult to master.
Thats why most people still think setting up a website from scratch is difficult or requires a lot of coding and design skills but thats no longer true.
In 2021, content management systems like WordPress have made creating a website accessible to everyone.
To put it simply, a CMS is a user-friendly platform for building websites and managing your own online content, instead of creating a website from scratch using HTML, PHP, and other coding languages.
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Two Options Explained: Website Builder Vs Hosting
The range of web development tools is really extensive and versatile, but there are still two trusted web development options. You can either use a website builder or pick reliable hosting that provides free domain connection feature.
Lets have a look at two platforms, which are the most popular and credible representatives of both types of systems. These are Wix and Bluehost.
What If The Com Domain Name I Want Is Not Available
When it comes to domain extensions, people tend to prefer the more popular ones such as .com and .net. There is an undeniable familiarity with a .com that you will not find with any other domain extensions. But if your website targets local customers, you might want to consider using a country-specific domain extension.
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Choose A Domain Name Registrar
A registrar is a company that reserves and registers domain names on your behalf. When you purchase a domain name, either directly from a registrar or through a web-hosting service, its registered to the DNS for you.
Though there are more than a thousand accredited registrars, its best to stick with more well-known providers. Using a common provider will make it easier to find info on managing your domain and to troubleshoot issues you might have with syncing your domain to other services.
Domains can be purchased from a number of different types of businesses. You might choose to purchase one from a website-building platform , a web-hosting service , or directly from a domain registrar .
Launch Your WordPress Website
Once your site is ready, its time to officially launch it. Make sure to double-check your settings and proofread your posts and pages one more time. If everything looks good, click the link at the top of the dashboard that says Coming Soon Active.
After that, scroll down and hit the button that says Launch your site.
Now you can check your live website.
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Registering A Domain Name With Godaddy
GoDaddy is one of the oldest and best known domain providers, so its very easy to find information on integrating your domain with all kinds of third-party services. If youre looking to register your domain with GoDaddy, here are the steps youll need to take: