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.
Find An Available Domain
Once youve decided on a registrar, youll want to brainstorm some name ideas. Your domain name will be used in your websites URL as an identifying marker, so it needs to be memorable and distinctive. It can be practically anything as long as it is not already taken, although simpler names tend to be more memorable.
Choosing a domain name can be a challenge, given that its a first impression as well as a branding opportunity. A shorter name may be more memorable, but you can also consider incorporating keywords to improve your search engine optimization .
Domain Wheel is a handy tool to help you generate domain name ideas:
To use it, just type in a few words that relate to your desired domain name and the tool will spit back a huge list of creative suggestions.
Best of all, it only shows you results that are currently available, and not ones already registered by others. Our Blog Name Generator tool is also a good way to automatically search for available domains.
Weve briefly mentioned it already, but your TLD can also become key to your choice of domain. This is the ending to your website, such as .com, .biz, .org, .io, and hundreds more.
Many people choose .com because its the most popular. However, you may be more likely to find the exact domain name youre looking for using one of the other options.
This also provides an opportunity to create clever domain names, such as National Public Radio leveraging the TLD for Puerto Rico in their n.pr domain.
Do Domain Registrars Matter
The price you pay for your domain can vary greatly between registrars. When comparing prices, take into account the other services included by the registrar, their customer support, testimonies, etc. Your chosen registrar should be ICANN accredited. ICANN maintains a list of accredited domain registrars.
Recommended Reading: How Much Is Your Domain Worth
What Does It Mean To Have Your Own Domain
It means that you have bought the right to use a certain string of characters for your website URL or/and email address. For example for my website, the domain name is buycompanyname.com. No one else can use this exact combination of characters for his website. He can use some other combination like ibuycompanyname.com.
You cant own a domain name forever and you need to renew per certain terms .In reality, you can keep having the domain name for decades if you are careful with the expiration date or set your domain in auto-renewal mode.
Why Does It Matter Where You Register Your Domain
Written by: Michael Levanduski, Web Hosting Industry Expert
Disclosure: Your support helps keep the site running! We earn a referral fee for some of the services we recommend on this page. Learn more
If you want to have a website, one of the first things you need to do is register your domain name. The domain name is the address of your site. For example, the domain name for the site you are reading this article is Digital.com.
Registering a domain gives you the exclusive ability to use it for your website for a set amount of time. After that time, you have to either renew the domain name so you can keep it, or it expires and someone else can register it for themselves.
There are thousands of different places where you can register your domain name, and its important that you choose the right one. Learn more about where you can register your domain, and why it matters, such as:
- Why do you need to register your domain?
- Do you have to register your domain with a web hosting provider?
- Does it matter where you get your domain name from?
- Can you change where your domain name is registered?
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If The Domain Is Taken Input The Url In Your Browser And Access The Website
What do you do if the domain isnt available? We have good news. You still have a chance at buying it.
First up, access the URL on your browser. Its possible its a parked domain, which means that someone bought it for the purpose of reselling it. Usually, in these cases, you can easily submit a request for purchase. Heres one example of a parked domain at greatstore.com:
When you click on the top banner, youll be taken to a form where you can reach out to a sales team to buy the domain.
Once there, it may or may not be easy to tell who the domain parking authority is. In this case, its GoDaddy. If you head to the GoDaddy website and search for the domain, you can easily find pricing information and then immediately add it to your cart if its within your budget.
Complete the domain buying process just as you would for any other domain.
How To Register Your Website’s Domain Name
When you register a domain name for your site, you make it a lot easier for people to find you, ensuring that you reap the branding and marketing benefits of having an online presence.
A domain name is the address that visitors type into their browser address bar to arrive at your website. It replaces an IP address: a random, unique string of numbers that specifies where your sites files are located. While a website domain can be an investment, you can also find one for free, especially if you purchase it with hosting.
In this post, youll learn everything you need to know about registering your websites domain name either for free or for a low cost.
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A Strong Domain Name:
- Adds professional credibility to your business and separates you from the millions of get-rich-quick-scheme websites out there.
- Provides visibility for your brand. Much like a storefront window, a good domain will create awareness and attract customers.
- Establishes your business as tech-savvy and forward-thinking. Whether you actually sell products online or not, it is crucial to your reputation to claim your territory online.
- Creates mobility for your internet presence. If you decide to change web hosting services, relocate to a different country, or shift to using your own in-house server, your domain name stays with you, allowing you to continue to build your brand without having to start all over.
- Increases your search engine ranking. As you build your business and develop your website with quality content, your domain name will become more and more recognizable in search engines like Google, which draws more customers in your direction.
- Will provide your brand with marketability around the world, or you can choose to focus specifically in a local region.
- As opposed to traditional marketingas long as you keep current with the low annual feesyour domain name will not expire.
Key Advantages Of Domain Name Registration:
1. Adds credibility to your business
Having a domain name allows your business to appear professionally to its customers. Basic free web-hosting services will provide you with generic URLs such as www.yoursip.com/-yourbusiness, appearing to your customers like you arent putting effort into creating valuable products and services. If you register a domain name on the other hand, your business turns into yourbusiness.com.au which presents an organised, professional and reputable look.
2. Builds your brand
Perhaps most importantly, a domain name helps to increase the awareness of your brand. Providing visibility for your brand through a domain name, much like a storefront window, will create awareness and attract customers. If your domain name matches your company name, it reinforces your presence, makes it easier for customers to remember you, and potentially pass your name onto friends via word of mouth.
3. Allows mobility in your web presence
Owning your own domain name creates mobility for internet presence when changing web hosting services, relocating to a different country or shifting to using your own in-house server. A domain name stays with you, allowing you to continue building your brand without having to start all over. If you do not own your own domain name, transferring web hosts will require you to take a new URL, destroying any branding and search engine ranking that you built up with your first address.
Also Check: Where Is My Website Domain Registered
Domain Name Registration Faqs
- What are domain name extensions?Domain name extensions are the text that comes after the dot in a website or email address, such as *.com and *.net. Domain extensions are also commonly known as top-level domains or TLDs.
- How to change domain name servers?If you need to change your name servers, which affects where your DNS is hosted and mapped, you will need to go through either your registrar or the company you registered your domain name through,
- Do I need a website to register a domain name?No.
- How do I connect to domain hosting?If you need to access domain hosting, you will need to go through the company you registered your domain name through.
- How do I search for available domain names?You can search for domain names here.
How Do I Own My Domain Name
You cant own a domain name for life.
In the event you can make a one-time payment for a domain name, your domain names life will be dependent on the existence of the domain registrar.
Thus, if your domain registrar shuts down, your domain name goes with it.
However, you can consider enabling auto-renewal of your domain name. This means you need to have your email and payment information regularly updated to ensure that your domain name lease does not lapse.
Should you consider auto-renewal, dont go for one-time renewal payments for the long term. If the domain registrar you paid closes for good, not only do you lose your domain name, you may even lose the prepaid payments that were not used.
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What Is The Dns
In answering the question, what is a domain name, we thought we should also address the DNS. Domain names are part of a large network called the Domain Name System and it is managed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers . The ICANN is a non-profit organization responsible for management and maintenance of the DNS, as well as regulating domain registrars.
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.
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If You Are Unhappy With Your Hosting Company You Can Easily Switch
For a website, you need 2 things a domain name and a place to host the files of the website . If you own the domain and you are unhappy with your hosting provider you can easily switch to another. If you are using a free subdomain you dont have the freedom to choose where you are hosting your files, text, videos, etc. and if you start receiving a lot of traffic your website in a free subdomain will become very slow.
What Is A Domain Name
In simple terms, a domain name can be described as an address on the internet. Every website on the internet has an IP address which is a unique number identifier, but with so many of these numbers in existence and seemingly random, its much easier to remember a domain name.
A domain name turns an IP address into yourbusiness.com.au, making it easier for you and your clients to reach your website or allow you to set up a personalised business email address.
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Why Having A Domain Name Is Important
Whether you own an existing business or have an idea for a startup, you need a strong online presence. Usually, the first thing your potential customer will do when searching out your product or service is to conduct a web search, and if your website is relatively easy to find and navigate, youll greatly increase your chances of a sale.
With the majority of shopping happening on the internet, the dynamic of marketing has changed significantly, and one of the most effective and lasting methods of reaching potential customers is through a well-developed and maintained website. From a marketing standpoint, you can create a lasting brand image with the right domain name.
Online success starts with a great domain. Get yours today at Domain.com.
How Do Domain Registrars Make Money
For the registrar, they get a predictable, recurring revenue stream. TLDs used to be limited to a few generic ones like .com, . net, . … It all changed in 2011 when ICANN, the nonprofit organization that does the governing when it comes to domain names, decided to allow a dramatic increase in the number of generic TLDs.
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How Domain Names Are Registered: A Helpful Guide
Computers on the world wide web communicate with one another using a digital language consisting solely of numerical digits and periods. These strings of numbers are a computers virtual address through which other computers may locate that computer and communicate with it. Commonly, they are known as the IP addresses. While IP registrations did simplify and categorize this process of communication, computer scientists in the 80s agreed that it would be much easier if we could simply type in the name that served as a stand-in for the number, but was directly tied to that IP address thus, the website domain was born.
Without a website domain name system, we would need a massive internet phone book or have to memorize our favorite IP addresses. Now, if you are looking to create a business selling rare Nike Sneakers, the first step would be to build a website around this service. You would begin this by registering some name like, Sneakerheads.com. Now, if someone had not already registered that domain name, you would have the option to buy it. However, if it were taken, you would either have to go back to the drawing board and think of a new name or find the owner of Sneakerheads.com and try to purchase it from them.
We hope this step-by-step guide will help you as you register your domain name. But first, lets dive into some of the benefits of having a domain name and the types of domains you can choose from.
Subdomains And Parked Domains
Besides the above mentioned classification, domain names are categorized in another fashion.
One common type of domain you often hear about is a subdomain, which is exactly what it sounds like, a domain within a domain. A subdomain is usually prefixed to the name of the original domain, for instance, blog.puppylinux.com.
Subdomains are useful as they help you effectively host a different website without purchasing an additional domain name. The subdomains are usually employed to host content that is somehow different from the main domain. For instance, Google uses the support.google.com subdomain to provide help and support for all the services offered by the search engine.
Another popular type of domain is a parked domain. This is usually used as an alias for the main domain and redirects requests to the primary domain. Companies usually use parked domains to secure common misspellings of their primary domain name, such as microsft.com or gooogle.com. Many also use parked domains to register the primary domain with other TLDs, for instance yahoo.net.
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Benefits Of A Strong Domain Name
Deciding and registering a domain name should not be done in haste. It is a valuable marketing and search tool that should successfully lead customers to your site. Careful deliberation and research should be applied, as it might be the most important decision you make when carving out your slice of the online market.