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If you’re planning on getting your website available for the general public then you have to get it over the internet. However, to have your website on the internet, you will need to buy a domain name.
Registering a domain can be quite difficult if you haven’t done it before however, after finishing this article, you will be able to register domains like a pro user.
In summary, the steps to buy a domain name is as follows:
- Choose a domain registrar
- Run a domain name search
- Check if the domain is available or not [Domain provider] by using a domain checker
- Pick your preferred domain
- Complete the domain order process
- Verify the ownership of the domain
- Set the DNS on the domain
Once you go through these steps, you will have the domain name ready to be deployed on the internet. Throughout this article, we will go in-depth through the steps mentioned above.
How to Buy a Domain Name? [Complete Guide]
If you are going to start your online business or launching a website then you must have a domain name. A domain name will help in recognizing your brand and website. So you can start with the first step of registering the domain name in the process of making your website live. Having a right and strong enough domain name will be able to attract more customers making them willing to try out your new website. However, registering for a domain name is not very technical but many points need to be considered before you think of a name but is a very simple process to start.
This article will help you to understand the domain name basics, how you can register, what points need to be considered before naming your domain, and what are steps in buying a domain name. Let’s get started with an understanding of the basic concept of the domain name and its extensions.
What do you mean by domain name?
Though every website is recognized by its IP address on the internet. But it is difficult to remember and understand the complex IP address for every website out there on the internet. Thus there is a need for having a specific name that is easily understandable and memorable. So that people can easily type the domain name of the website to access it from anywhere and anytime.
The domain name system is a structure that helps in translating the IP address of a website into names that are easy to remember, called domain names. IP address works as the GPS coordinates for your website while the domain name is used by the users in the browser to search for the website.
Every time a user uses the domain name in the browser, it will get routed by the DNS server that points to a specific website on the network. Then the website will send the request to the webserver to load the website’s data from the server and display it on the browser. This process of loading the data to the website will take a few seconds, otherwise, users will face downtime.
A domain name comes in two parts that are separated by a dot. The first part is the name for your website and the second part is the domain extension. You need to make sure you choose the right, meaningful, and unique domain name. You can take the help of various online platforms to create and register your domain name.
What are the types of domain names?
It is estimated that over 360 million websites have been registered by 2019, which is a huge number. As having an online business is gaining popularity thus people are buying domain names for their online business to grow and to reach a wider audience. There are various types of domain name extensions you can go for as per your business requirement. Before going for any domain extension, first, we need to understand for what purpose they are used.
Second-level domains
Most people go for the second level of the domain name as it provides you with more possibilities of having a unique name for your website and brand. Because for any website a domain name is the most important part that needs to be attractive enough to cater a wider audience. Considering the domain name or the web address, the SLD is the left part of the extension. It consists of several letters, numbers, and special characters.
Top-level domains
You can also refer to the top-level domain as the domain extensions. They are a series of several letters that are specific for every website as per the business requirement. We have mentioned some of the most popularly used top-level domains below.
- .com: it is used for commercial purposes and was the first TLD launched in the industry. Earlier it was used for business and commercial purposes.
- .net: it stands for the network which is usually used by technology organizations. But now it is widely used by large business owners from various fields.
- .edu: it stands for education and is widely used by educational universities and institutes to be more specific.
- .org: it stands for organization and is usually used by non-profit organizations but it is commonly popular among schools, communities, and other non-profit enterprises.
- .gov: it stands for government and is basically used by the U.S. government agency.
Apart from the above-mentioned extensions, you will get other extensions that are customizable and you can name them accordingly. For example- .coffee, .cheap, and many others. Such domain extensions are used for making an impact on the users.
Considerable Points Before You Buy A domain name
Since the domain name is the key factor that helps in creating an online presence for your website. So it should be attractive, memorable, easy, and effective for getting as much attention as it can. Looking for the right domain name can be challenging as you have to come up with a unique name that differs you from your competitor in the market.
There are thousands of domain names available in the market and most of them are already taken, so you need to be smart in creating and choosing the domain name.
- First, understand your niche and your brand, then go for a particular domain name that will suit you best and describe your brand.
- Make sure you choose a simple but effective domain name that is easy to remember making a huge impact on the customer’s mind. So that the users will visit your website and make a definite purchase to increase your leads.
- Try to go with the generic domain name extension so that there will be no regional or geographical restriction for accessing the website worldwide. It helps to reach out to a wider audience beating your competitor on that.
- Make sure that you register your domain name with top brands for avoiding legal actions. For this, you can choose any of the online tools for avoiding such issues.
- Make sure you keep the domain name simple without any special characters and letters, so the user will be able to carry out searches for your website without any issues and mistakes.
- If you already have a domain name in mind, make sure that you look for all close alternatives for getting the maximum traffic to your website.
- Every website owner invests in the domain name at the start, so it must be worthy of all expenditure. Make sure you register it with the top brands and have a unique name that will keep your website out of the box.
- Make sure you discuss the domain name with your team and look for many other solutions. Keep the domain name length short, making it easy to understand and remember along with maintaining the concept of your website brand. Try to keep the name between 6 and 14 characters.
- You can use domain name generators for creating and providing you with millions of domain name suggestions. You can simply type the keyword and you will get various options for the relevant domain names.
How to Buy a Domain Name [Step by Step Buying Guide]
If you have covered all the prerequisites then you are ready to buy the domain name. So we have mentioned some of the necessary steps that must be followed in order to buy a domain name. Once you decide on a domain name, now you can buy it and register it with top brands.
Step 1: Go for a reliable domain registrar
If you have your domain name ready and have given second thoughts of making it official, then you need to look for an accredited registrar. It is one of the non-profit organizations that helps in coordinating the numerical spaces that is the IP address on the internet. There are various registrars available online, where you can easily register your domain name.
Step 2: Use a domain availability checker tool
The next step is to use the domain availability check tool that helps in finding a perfect domain name for your website. All you need is to provide a keyword related to your website and will get thousands of possible domain names that will fit your brand. Not only this, it will tell you if your domain name has already been taken or not. You will have different suggestions that you can opt for as per your brand specifications.
Step 3: Find the right domain name
But the question is what domain name to choose from the big list of suggestions. Below are some approaches that you can follow to find the perfect domain name.
- It is the part where you need to believe in your creativity and select what domain name is looking better and creative enough to describe your brand name.
- You can go for another innovative and customized extension that will blend well with your domain name.
Step 4: Purchase the domain name
After settling down with a single domain name, you can purchase it. Make sure you fill in the correct details while proceeding with the payment.
Step 5: Verify the domain name ownership
Paying for your domain may be the last step in owning your domain name. Apart from this, you need to verify your ownership for the domain with this payment. After making the purchase, you will be sent an email with credentials.
Why are domain names important?
This is a question that even I stumbled upon during the initial stages of my career. The answer is that your business or brand cannot live without having a website. In order to get a website, you need to register a domain name.
Most small-scale businesses will start out from Facebook or other platforms. However, to build a business and scale it further, you should definitely consider having a website.
This provides credibility and a place for the brand to live on the web. In order to do that, you should buy a domain name. Alright, now you’re ready to have your website on the internet.
But before even choosing the web host, you need to consider what your domain name is going to be? This is what your potential clients/visitors will use to come and find you.
How to choose the perfect domain name?
There’s no golden rule that can define what a perfect domain name is. There are so many factors to consider before registering a domain.
Even though registering a domain is a relatively easy process, finding a domain name that hasn’t been already used is going to be quite challenging.
That being said, let’s get to the steps on how to choose a domain name:
Step 1. Have keywords in your domain
Keywords play an extremely important role in ranking higher on Google. Including keywords on your domain name tells the search engine what your site is all about.
The combination of the domain name, quality content, and good user experience can help you rank better in Google.
The reality is that finding a good domain with your target keyword is extremely difficult (too many registered domain names already). However, some of your creative juices mixed with your target keyword can result in a domain that will stand out.
Step 2. Try to stick to .com or other famous domains
No matter how much the internet has grown, .com is still the best. According to research, more than 22% of the whole internet comprises the .com extension.
While it can be tempting to come up with clever blog names using new extensions, .com is still the most established and credible domain name extension.
Many users, especially those who aren’t as tech-savvy, will automatically type “.com” at the end of every domain without thinking about it.
Step 3. Shorter is better
When it comes to domain names, shorter is always better. It’s easier to remember and easy to type.
Try to aim for 6-14 characters long domain names. You might come to a halt as most of the short domains are already taken or sold for thousands of dollars.
However don’t give up, if you can’t find something short, pick a name that can be brandable.
Step 4. Brandable over generic
Your website should be unique, which will make you stand out in your audience. Before rushing to pick a domain name, do some research in your niche and find out what kind of domain names your competitors are using.
Brandable names are unique, catchy, and memorable. For example “Facebook” is a brandable name when compared to “postpictures.com”.
Do your research before registering your domain name. Without the research, you can accidentally use a trademark name or get accused of copying another business out there.
Step 5. Easy to type and easy to pronounce
The most popular websites in the world are really easy to pronounce and have simple spellings (Google, Yahoo, and Facebook). You want your visitors to be able to type your domain without a problem.
It should also roll off the tip of your tongue quite easily. This makes it easier for visitors to share your domain and for you to share the site.
Make it easy to spell and easy to pronounce. You don’t want people mistyping your domain and ending up on a different website.
To test your domain name: ask 10 people to spell and say your domain name. If people are having difficulties in doing either of them, make it simpler.
Step 6. Long-term over short-term
Choose a domain mane that is related to your industry because it gives your customers an idea of what your service/site is all about.
For example, if you register a domain as comicbooksale.com, your audience will know you as a store that sells comic books. However in the future, if you plan to sell other books, it will be difficult to attract people interested in other types of books due to your domain name.
You can always move your site to a new domain, however, this is a frustrating process and if not done right, you will lose your search rankings. Therefore it’s better to pick a flexible domain name from the start.
Step 7. Avoid numbers and hyphens
Never create domains with hyphens as they are closely associated with spam websites. Hyphenated domains are also prone to typo errors.
If you choose a domain name with hyphens due to your preferred domain being already taken, then most likely your visitors will be at your competitor'ss site if they forget to type the hyphen.
Avoid numbers as it will confuse your visitors. Imagine you have a website named “2sided.com”. This can result in your potential visitors going to “twosided.com” due to the typo.
The bottom line is: stick to letters.
Step 8. Make use of domain name generators
Currently, there are over 370 million registered domain names on the internet. This means that a lot of good domain names are already taken.
Searching individually for domain names will most likely take a lot of your time. Therefore use any kind of domain name generators from the internet which will find hundreds of unique domain name ideas for free.
Now since you’re ready with your domain, let’s go ahead and buy the domain:
6 Easy Steps on How to buy a Domain With MonoVM
Step 1. Choose a domain registrar
To register a domain name for your website you will need an ICANN accredited registrar like Monovm. We provide multiple TLDs that you can choose from.
Check out our complete list of TLDs from here.
Step 2. Run a domain name search
Check for your domain name by entering it on the search bar. This will display all the possible domain names that you can choose for your dream site.
If the domain name you’re looking for is taken, you can try the following:
- Try another extension. If .com is already taken you can try .net, .org, .biz, .info and many more.
- Try a slightly longer domain name. For example, adding “a”, “my”, “the” to the search query can result in acquiring the domain name
- Reach out to the current owner of the domain. In most cases, this is an expensive choice due to the fact that you will have to offer a lot of money to get it.
Step 3. Select your preferred domain
Once you did the research, you will come here with your preferred domain name. Click on “Add to cart” and press click on Continue.
On the opened page you can customize the necessary parts for your domain.
Let me quickly explain what each of these add-ons is and why you should take them:
- SSL certificate: Provides security and encrypts all the data going to and from the website.
- Whois Protection: This replaces your personal data with Monovm contact information. This helps in preventing identity and information theft
- Business emails: With an added fee, you can get business emails. [***]@monovm.com is a business email that comes with the purchase of a domain.
- Recommended web hosting plans: You need to have a place to host your domain. Get the hosting together with the domain which will be much easier to manage in the future.
Once the necessities are added, click on Continue.
Step 4. Complete the domain order process
In order to proceed further, you will have to sign in or log in to your account. If you don’t have an account, you can log in using Google, Facebook, or Twitter.
Now double-check your order, and head to the payment part. Select the payment method and click on continue. This will take you to a third-party site to complete the payment depending on your choice of payment.
If you have a Monovm discount coupon don’t forget to enter it ;)
Step 5. Verify the ownership of the domain
Once the order is placed and the payment is successful, our team will check it and send you an email with the confirmation. Congratulations! You’re now officially the owner of the domain. You can check this information by going to whois.net. This website shows the details of the owner of the domain.
Note that: Sometimes there can be some errors with the information in the registrar. In this case, we will ask for additional information in order to resolve the issues. These errors can happen when registering some specific TLDs or other reasons.
Step 6. Set the hosting DNS on the domain
Before getting to set up your domain, you will have to connect to our special Domain control panel. This control panel can be used to set the hosting DNS on the domain and to manage all advanced settings like but not limited to:
- Setting privacy protection rules
- Setting up theft protection
- Creating child name servers
- Managing records
- Managing the DNS
To access this control panel, you can follow the link from the email (as seen above).
Once you have successfully acquired the domain there’s one final step to take into consideration. You need to set the DNS of the web host in the domain through our client area.
Login to our client area > select “view all domains” under Domains
Now on the appeared page, go ahead and click on the settings button that is in front of your domain.
You will be redirected to a page where you will be able to manage the domain name. In order to set the DNS of the hosting provider, click on Nameservers
Once you click on that, remember to select “Use custom nameservers (enter below)”. Now enter the domain name servers you got from the web hosting package. Usually, it’s between 2 to 4 DNS server names.
Conclusion
In this article, we went through a Guide about How to Buy a Domain Name from Monovm. Note that for some TLDs there is a substantial waiting time involved due to the verification process set by the registrars. So if it takes some time to be approved don’t worry.
Usually, most TLDs are provisioned within 48 hours and your domain name will be up and running on the web. As you see, buying a domain is pretty straight forward but to come up with the right name is the tricky part.
For any online website, having a domain name is important and crucial for getting more traffic. If you are writing a blog, or own a commercial website, then purchasing a domain name is a simple task but crucial one. If you have an amazing website but with a complex domain name, there is a possibility that you get less traffic than others. So choosing the right domain name will help you get more leads.
We have mentioned what is a domain name and how you can choose the right extensions for your domain name. Also, you can keep the above-mentioned points in mind before you buy the domain name for your website.
Once you cross that hurdle, the other parts relating to the growth of your website await. Let us know in the comments below how this helped you and if you have questions, let us know.
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I'm fascinated by the IT world and how the 1's and 0's work. While I venture into the world of Technology, I try to share what I know in the simplest way with you. Not a fan of coffee, a travel addict, and a self-accredited 'master chef'.