How To Buy And Register A Domain Name – A User Guide for 2023
Wanting to know how to buy and register your first Domain Name? You’ve come to the right place…
Website domain names are assigned by and registered with a central organisation called ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).
Registering a Domain Name you wish to use
All domain names currently in existence are effectively available for ‘rent’ or ‘lease’ and you can pay to register any given domain name, in your name, for your use for a given number of years.
You effectively own the rights to usage of that domain name, but you do not ‘own’ it. What you own is the registration of that domain name and the usage rights to which that grants you.
For example, ‘Google.com’ is a very well known domain name.
Google will have bought the registration rights to that domain name many years ago.
They never would, but if Google failed to renew and pay their registration fees for it at the end of a given period; then the domain name ‘Google.com’ could become eligible for re-circulation on the public market. Anyone could then ‘buy it’ once again.
How To Buy And Register A Domain Name – Domain Name Providers, or ‘Registrars’
To acquire a domain name and register it for yourself, you need to go through a Domain Name Provider or ‘Registrar’.
These are effectively ‘brokers’ in the world of web domain names. They are the ones with the rights to buy/sell and register domain names on behalf of their clients.
Well known domain providers include GoDaddy, NameCheap, 123Reg, and names.co.uk.
How To Buy And Register A Domain Name – Duration of a Domain Name Registration
Domain registration lasts for a period of time in multiples of 1 year.
Typically you might register a domain for 1, 2, maybe 5 years, at a time. This then gives you the option then of letting your registration lapse if you no longer need it.
After that, and a short grace-period, the domain will be released back into public circulation for someone else to register.
How To Buy And Register A Domain Name – Where to next?
There are many different types of domain name available on the public market. To help better explain these, we’ve written an article titled Different Types Of Domain Name – A Quick Guide for 2023
If you’re stuck and need some help getting your website hosting setup, or even getting a domain name purchased and linked up to your website – then we’d highly recommend that you consider outsourcing the task to a freelancer. whichfreelancer.walshsamuel.com has some excellent guides on buying freelance digital services and making use of digital work platforms such as Fiverr.com
Alternatively, if you’re interested in Domain Investing and the world of buying and selling domain names for profit – then be sure to check out our post on Domain Investing – A Guide to Successfully Buying and Selling Web Domains in 2023
In terms of who we would recommend as your domain name registrar, we would typically go with either NameCheap or GoDaddy.