Check Domain Name Availability
After you choose a domain name, check its availability. You can type a domain into your navigation bar, a search engine, or use a dedicated domain name search database to make sure its available to purchase.
Its best practice to have a few domain name options ready in case your first choice is taken. If your preferred domain name is unavailable, take a moment to think about what the replacement should be ideally, once you get your domain, you wont want or need to change it anytime soon. Try simple variations like including the or my at the front of your domain name, or changing the TLD. If youre set on a specific domain, you can also reach out to the owner and see if theyre willing to sell, and at what price.
If youre launching a business, consider buying multiple domains including common alternate spellings of your brand name, and international domains if you plan to scale so visitors have more ways to find you. You can move, forward, or point domains to ensure people land exactly where you want them to, no matter which domain they use.
How Much Does A Domain Name Cost
The exact cost of your new domain name will vary based on the registrar, the specific top-level domain you’ve chosen, and the quality of the domain name. Domain.com is proud to offer more than 300 unique TLDs to help your new website stand out. Some domains may be pricier due to their intrinsic benefits, like being short and memorable, or the use of very competitive keywords such as cars.com. Browse our premium domains to jumpstart your website performance.
Two: Check The Whois Directory
Every time someone registers a domain name, the domain registrar that processes the sale is required to collect basic contact information. In some cases, that information then gets submitted to the WHOIS directory, so that theres a record of who runs each website online.
The WHOIS directory is therefore our next stop for seeking out a domain name owner.
Put in the name of the domain youre looking for and scroll down to find all the data the WHOIS directory lists for it. In a few cases, that may contain the owners contact information. If so, you can skip the next step.
Even if not though, it will always include at least their domain registrar and domain expiration date. That lets you know if the domain will be coming up for renewal soon. If so, you may be able to snap it up for cheaper when it expires than if you buy it from them directly. But that only works if they dont renew, so youre taking a chance.
Either way, knowing the domain registrar enables you to take the next step.
Also Check: Vistaprint Domain Transfer
How To Get A Free Domain From Namecom
This is the only way we’ve found to get a totally free domain name with a premium TLD like .com, .net or .org, but it’s not very reliable. Name.com is just a domain registrar that specializes in cheap domain registrations, and they don’t always have free domains available.
To get a free domain from Name.com, you have to follow them on social media and then wait for them to run special promotions. These promotions sometimes include access to free domains, so remain vigilant and you might score.
Choose Your Billing Terms
After you select the appropriate plan, Hostinger asks you to choose a period for your plan: monthly, 12-month, 24-month, or 48-month.
If you want the free domain, do not select the month-to-month payment option. Hostinger only includes the free domain with terms of one year or more.
The longer your commitment, the greater the discount. You also stretch out that discount for as long as possible, because renewal pricing is never as good. This is not a Hostinger thing, this is just the way every host does it.
And if you sign up for longer, Hostinger will actually lower the renewal rate. This is not common. As you can see in the image above, the renewal price for a single month of service is $10.29/month, whereas the renewal price for a 48-month term drops to $5.99/month.
The downside to signing up for a longer period is that you have to pay upfront. Again, this is typical of every host, and the reason I like signing up for Hostinger is that it is a really great deal.
Do the math out: Hostinger Premium Shared Hosting costs $95.52 for four years of hosting. Pay a hundred dollars today and dont worry about your website until current high school freshmen have graduated.
When you factor in the savings of a free domain name, the price only looks better.
Also Check: How To Determine Who Owns A Domain
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.
Is My Domain Name Available
I don’t know, is it? Let’s check together! To do a domain name search, go to the top of this page, enter your desired domain name in the search box and click “Register domain” to find out its availability and the amount it’ll cost to register the domain.
Our domain search tool also helps you check out other available domain name extensions or variations that are available, such as yourwebsite.net or yourwebsite.org.
Read Also: Average Domain Name Cost
When Do You Need To Buy A Domain Name
According to Verisign, there were over 367 million domain registrations close to the second quarter of 2021, a 0.7% decrease from last year.
While domain name buying is slowing down, this shouldnt placate you. Its much harder to buy a domain from its owner than register it yourself. So, you should buy your desired domain name as soon as you know it, as you dont want someone else to take it.
If you have an idea for your domain, you are already on the right path to choosing a domain name.
When buying your domain name, consider purchasing any other names you want. That includes domains for your:
- Product lines
- Customer support program
- Customer loyalty program
If you want to use a domain in the future but not immediately, you can install a coming soon page on your domain with a WordPress extension like SeedProd. You can also park your domain. Domain parking is widespread, as ICANN estimates 52.95% of domains are currently parked.
How To Register A Domain Name With Hostinger
Known for its fast and user-friendly web hosting, Hostinger also provides affordable domain registration services. This European company has .com domains starting from $8.99/year, which is one of the lowest prices offered on the market.
Hostinger offers alternative TLDs such as .online, .xyz, .tech, and .store, so there are more options to experiment with if the .com domain names are unavailable.
To buy a domain name with Hostinger, navigate to their domain checker page. Then enter your desired name on the field and press Search.
Below, the page will show whether the domain name is available, along with some alternative suggestions.
You can also use the Filter button on the search bar to customize the domain search results. Select which extensions to use and specify the maximum budget youre willing to spend.
After finding the right domain name, click Add to cart.
Hostinger offers to bundle the item with a shared web hosting plan, ranging from $1.39/month to $3.99/month. Purchasing the higher-tier subscriptions will make the first year of domain name registration free of charge.
Click Continue to cart or the shopping cart icon on the top right corner to proceed with payment. Here, its also possible to change the domain registration period to up to three years.
Press the Checkout Now button to finalize the payment and create a Hostinger account. Once thats done, the system will redirect you to the domain control panel to complete the domain registration process.
Also Check: How To Figure Out Who Owns A Domain
Do I Need A Domain For A Website
It is possible to create a website without registering a domain name, but you wont be able to properly brand your site. For example, if you choose a free website plan from a web host, youll be given a subdomain of the hosts domain . Its more professional than an actual domainplus, it helps with your brand equity and ranking in search engines. Learn how to make a website for your business.
What’s The Difference Between Buying A Domain And A Hosting Package
As said above, a domain name is like your website’s street address, whereas web hosting is like your website’s actual home â where all the files, images, and other info actually lives. Your site needs both an address and home to be up and running, but they are definitely two different things. Learn more about the difference between domains and hosting.
Also Check: Do I Need Private Domain Registration
How To Register A Domain With Domaincom
Domain.com is one of the reputable platforms for getting the domain name without website hosting. We already recommend that beginners register their domain before someone can register their idea. So domain.com is a reputable platform.
If you want to register the domain name without creating your website, domain.com makes the process easy.
Many beginners don’t know about domain.com, so it’s essential to know about it before moving forward.
Get A Ton More Out Of Your Domain
Domain locking
Prevent unauthorized transfers of your domain names, & retain control to unlock domains if you so please.
Auto-renewal
If you forget to renew your domain, you could lose it . That’s why we set up auto renew, so you don’t gotta worry.
Easy management
Our control panel is designed for ease of use. Manage your online awesomeness from one single dashboard.
Privacy protection
For a small fee, you can protect your personal information from being publicly available on the WHOIS database.
DNS management
Route your DNS to us, another host, dedicated IPs, the moon â wherever you’d like .
Email forwarding
If you’d like, automatically forward any of your domain’s email addresses to any other valid email address.
Also Check: What To Do After Buying Domain
Finding A Suitable Domain Name Including Top
As mentioned, the name plays an important role in the success of your web presence. A catchy and suitable combination of the domain extension and domain name is important so that visitors access your site not only by clicking on links, but also through search engine results. Google also takes the domain name into account when evaluating the sites ranking for search results, which is why a suitable name can help you to achieve a better ranking.
As far as second-level domains are concerned, you basically have free rein in terms of design options. Names with up to 63 characters made up of letters and numbers as well as hyphens can be used. The big challenge is to match the name with the desired top-level domain. The most popular domain extensions are often already taken or reserved in all kinds of variations. For more information and assistance when it comes to finding a suitable domain name, our detailed guide on top tips for registering your domain should be helpful.
Add Domain Id Protection
When you register a domain name with ICANN, you must provide your contact information including your name, phone number, physical address, and email address.
As soon as your domain name is registered, this contact information becomes available to the public unless you pay for domain privacy through your domain registrar. This domain privacy will shield your information from view keeping your personal information safe from spammers or worse, identity thieves.
Once you’ve got the domain name in hand, you’re ready to find hosting and build your website. Consider a free CMS, like HubSpot, to design your website, strategize for SEO, and create a blog.
Read Also: How Much To Purchase A Domain Name
How To Get A Domain Name From Namecheapcom
Namecheap is another popular website for buying domain names and getting website hosting. As their domain name prompts, they often have a lot of good deals and somewhat lower annular prices than GoDaddy, for example.
So if you love a good bargain, heres how to buy a domain name via Namecheap.
Step 1: Run your desired domain name search first and review available options. Namecheap has a really huge collection of new TLDs such as .art .digital, .luxury among 400+ other options.
Also, if your name isnt available or youd like to get some more ideas, switch to their advanced search view aka the Beast Mode:
As you can see from above, you have a lot more features to play with such as price range, suffix/prefix, and so on. This can help you drill down to that perfect domain name that is short, memorable, available, and yet cheap!
Step 2: After youve chosen the best contenders, proceed to your cart to start the checkout process. At this point, you can also add some extras and customize your order:
With Namecheap, you get a lifetime free WHOIS protection for every domain name, plus they recently added a bonus premium DNS offer . When you enable it, your domain gets yearly protection against DNS/DDoS attacks , plus ultra-fast global DNS response. This gives you some extra leverage in terms of your website speed.
On top of that, you can select some affordable up-sells such as:
Also, you can play around with your renewal. Namecheap provides a small discount for 2+ years.
Buying An Existing Domain Name: Benefits But Also Baggage
In some cases, buying an existing domain name can be a better option than creating a new one. A domain name thats been in circulation for some time can have more traction with search engines than a brand new one serving a website with no content or backlinks from other sites. Some domains that are up for purchase may already have content such as a complete homepage or an established blog, which saves the buyer the time and expense of building a new site from the ground up. These sites may also be making money or getting traffic, which gives the new owner an immediate boost.
Domain names become available for sale for a variety of reasons. Some may have been purchased as original names but never used, while others may represent websites that were developed but abandoned when a business closed, or a user stopped maintaining the site and renewing the domain name. Some become available because of a practice called cybersquatting, in which marketers buy up large numbers of available domain names to take them out of circulation and then resell them for higher prices.
Buying an existing domain name brings benefits, but these domains may also come with baggage. Potential buyers need to do their due diligence to make sure that theyre buying a name thats not associated with a website that has a dubious reputation, or one thats infected with malware or filled with backlinks to bad sites.
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