How to Purchase a Domain Name for Your Website

Before you start

Step 1: Create a shortlist of options

Domain names are an important part of a business’s brand identity and have now become one of the first things to check when deciding a business name.

If you have not named your business yet, make sure the domain exists for your business before doing so. All popular domain names are already taken, so you’ll likely have to accept a different top-level domain (TLD) or choose a very unique name.

When purchasing a domain name, key things to consider are:

• Research similar company names — if there’s another well-established company using the same or similar name that you are considering, and they are in the same geography, you might want to choose another name to avoid confusion for potential customers
• Your company or brand name and domain name should be the same (or very close)
• If the domain name is NOT available, consider including a hyphen (for multi-word brands)
• If the .com or other desired TLD is NOT available, consider:
  • adding a prefix or suffix that makes sense, like try, meet, get, use etc. TIP: Beast mode on NameCheap allows you to explore these options easily; or
  • other TLDs like .ca, .net, .org etc. Note that certain TLDs such as those for country codes have certain restrictions.
• Make the name as short as possible without losing the meaning

Step 2: Search registrars and compare pricing

You need to purchase your domain name through a registrar. Popular Domain Name Registrars include:

What factors affect the domain name price?

• WhoIs Privacy. Most registrars offer to protect your personal information from being displayed on WhoIs (an online registry of domain name owners) by replacing it with their information. Some registrars offer this for free while others charge a small fee.
• SSL Certificates. These enhance your site’s security by allowing for secure data transfers through your site (the ‘s’ in https://). This is important as some search engines will penalize websites without SSL certificates in their search results.
• Extensions. Not all registrars offer all possible extension options. If you don’t find the extension you’re looking for, then try another registrar.
• Pricing after your first year. Beware of $0.99 domain names that will jump much higher after the first year.
• Currency. Ensure you are comparing apples to apples across websites.

Step 3: Vet selected registrar

If you are choosing a less well-known registrar, do some research before you make your purchase. Check for online reviews and read their FAQ page.

You should only need to do this the first time you’re working with a registrar.

If you don’t plan to build a website right away, you may want to see if you can create a landing page or coming soon page, or redirect to another URL (your LinkedIn profile, social media profile, old website etc.)

• Availability of top-level domains (TLDs) – some registrars don’t offer all the extensions e.g. .io .edu etc
• WhoIs Privacy – some offer this for free – essentially it just hides your identity as the domain owner
• Transfer policy – transferring from one registrar to another, typically you won’t need this; the main reason to move might be pricing on renewal or something like that, or moving it to your hosting provider if different from the domain provider
• Price – different providers charge differently for the same domain – I typically go with the cheapest, all else equal
• Contract – some people like to buy their domains for multiple years, and this option may differ between providers

Step 4: Purchase domain

Complete the purchase process. To avoid challenges (and mild heart attacks) down the road, choose the auto-renew option to ensure your domain name does not expire.

Step 5: Final checks

There are two important things you want to check once you complete your purchase:

1. Confirm that the information you have provided for your WHOIS registration (not related to WHOIS privacy) is correct and up-to-date. In particular, you want to make sure that the email address is accessible to you at all times, as this is important if you need emergency access to your domain.
2. Ensure that your domain is locked to ensure that it cannot be transferred without your authorization. This is usually automatically done by your registrar, but if not, reach out to their support for help. To find out if your domain is locked or not, do a simple Google search with your registrar’s name and “lock domain” to see where you can find this information in your account.