How To Buy A Domain Name In The UK

A domain name, also known as a URL, serves as a website’s address. It typically appears as www.example.com, where “example.com” is the main web address and “www” is the prefix that makes it easier to find the site online.

Domains represent the website’s location or customised web address. Websites with lengthy IP addresses, like 105.31.553.0, are challenging to remember. The domain name system (DNS) simplifies this by letting users type in domain names instead of IP addresses.

New domain extensions like .club, .app, .london, and .store help businesses stand out by providing unique and memorable web addresses tailored to specific markets. The domain name system links these names to their respective IP addresses, allowing the user to reach the intended website easily.

Your own domain name – Your online identity

There are many benefits of purchasing a custom web address and doing a domain name search instead of using someone else’s free one, such as:

To build a website, you need to buy a perfect domain name. Registering a UK domain name can be daunting for newcomers, but our helpful guide walks you through the process.

Do web hosts give you the option to buy your domain name?

Domain names and web hosting are different. A domain name serves as a website’s address, while web hosting is the home of that address.

Buying a domain name from a web host is a direct approach. Not all web hosting companies offer the option of purchasing a domain name. GoDaddy and Bluehost offer website hosting with a “free domain name registration.”

However, these offers are usually free for some time (usually for the first year), and after that, the buyer has to pay a yearly fee to keep the custom domain name on his/her name.

If someone already owns a chosen or existing domain name, it can be bought from that owner if he is willing to sell.

How much does it cost to register a domain name?

A brand-new domain name typically costs £8 to £30 per year to purchase (e.g. for .org). There are no defined prices for registering a domain name.

The price variances majorly depend on the type or nature of the domains and the registrar from which you purchase your custom domain name.

It’s good to compare registrars’ offerings to select the one that best suits your needs.

Some newer extensions like “.app” could be costly or above the normal range because of their high demand or being new in the market. The following are the factors that could increase the price of the custom domain name:

Can you buy a domain on WordPress?

WordPress is a web host, not a domain seller. You can use a domain of your own for free here by choosing between any available annual plan. WordPress is open software that hosts websites and gives users free access to and modify them. It is a web host that provides both free and paid plans.

If you choose a free plan for your website, a subdomain (example.wordpress.edu or .org) will be added to the domain name.

Custom domain names or premium domains are part of paid plans, which also provide some add-ons to increase your website’s credibility.

How can I get a free domain name?

No credible registrars offer a free domain name; some money must be paid.

However, you can always make it less costly by checking the market’s price ranges of different credible registrars.

The buyer should look for registrars offering free domain name registration for a short period (one year). After that, the buyer is asked to pay monthly or yearly for his domain name.

Some registrars do the opposite of making it payable for the first year and free after the renewal of your domain name. This would save the buyer from paying extra fees.

What are the best places to buy domains?

To start a blog, you must buy a domain for easy access.

Domain names can be bought or registered through any high-level domain seller officially permitted by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to register domains.

However choosing the right domain registrar is difficult for beginners, but this article will help you step-wise.

After choosing a domain registrar, you must select an easy-to-remember domain name not already owned by anyone else.

The availability of a domain name can be checked through the domain availability checking tool. Listed below are some of the reliable companies to buy domains from:

Method to buy domain names

Registering a domain name mainly includes the following steps: No two websites can have the same domain name, emphasizing the uniqueness and importance of selecting a distinctive domain name for one’s online identity.

Choosing the right registrar

Domain registrars are companies that sell domain names and manage the whole domain registration process. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) authorizes these companies for domain registration.

The buyer must be careful when choosing a credible registrar because picking the wrong one might result in the buyer paying extra fees or getting scammed.

Therefore, look for the following features offered by the business company before the registration:

Price Range:

The buyer needs to read the company’s terms and policies and beginner’s guide deeply to observe any hidden costs to be paid. No cost is required to be paid except the fee to register.

The buyer shouldn’t choose registrars who offer low-cost packages for the first year but higher rates for renewal.

Registration renewal:

People could buy domain names after the expiration date.

Therefore, a current owner should choose registrars who provide automatic renewal services to avoid losing ownership of their website’s domain name.

Domain name transfer policy:

A buyer can register and host a domain name elsewhere, but companies like Google Domains do not offer this. Therefore, the buyer must read domain transfer policies carefully to protect his domain privacy.

Additional Services:

No one minds getting some add-ons. Buyers should consider domain registrars who offer additional technical skills and services like hosting, e-mail and control panel management, extra domain privacy, etc, to guard your info by replacing it with proxy info in the public WHOIS directory.

Deciding your Domain Name

After choosing the domain name registrar, the next important step is deciding on your domain name.

Choosing the right domain extensions is extremely important because the wrong one could misinterpret the website’s purpose or agenda.

Therefore, the buyer needs to be aware of the following different types:

Country Code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD):

This type of TLD is region-specific ( for example, the European Union ) and is used when the URL must represent a country. For instance, “.uk” is the ccTLD used for the United Kingdom.

Sponsored Top-Level Domain (sTLD):

This type of TLD is used for specific corporations or institutions to represent a clear agenda. This domain extension includes TLDs like “.edu”, “.gov”, “.jobs”, etc.

gTLD

This type of TLD is considered to be the most generic. It is not limited to any region, country, or purpose. It includes TLDs like “.com”, “.online”, “.net”, etc.

Check Domain Name Availability

The buyer has to be very clear with the purpose of his blog to choose the right domain extension to have an accurate or good domain name.

Once you have decided on your domain name, you must check its availability through a domain name availability checker.

If your decided name is owned by someone already, you can reach out to the owner and offer an attractive price to buy that name from him to take the domain forever.

If that owner isn’t willing to sell the domain name, you can always choose another name or add an extension, e.g. “.edu.pk” as an example.

Buy A Domain Name

The buyer must continue the purchasing procedure after choosing a credible registrar and the right domain name. This step also involves selecting the registration period.

Registrar companies offer different periods for buying a domain name, such as one to ten years. After this period, buyers must renew the domain name registration.

Purchasing policies for domain names offers buyers the option of paying for a short initial period, which could be one or two years.

After the domain purchase and checkout, the buyer will be asked to provide personal contact information, including an email address, for the domain name registration.

Verify your ownership

Purchasing might seem like a final step, but it is not. After the purchase, the buyer must verify your ownership of the email address related to the contact details and privacy protection you provided during the process.

This verification email is sent to the buyer after completing the domain name purchase and domain setup.

If the buyer doesn’t verify the ownership within 15 days, he could lose the domain name registration. Therefore, after payment, it is necessary to check the verification email and reply on time.

How to use the domain name for your website

The following are further steps that need to be completed to be able to have a website with your purchased domain name:

Choose a website’s host

The next step after purchasing a domain name is to look for and select a reputable web hosting provider. Hosts let you launch the website and provide resources on the server to store your website’s files and data when you sign up for a hosting package.

The domain name serves as a website’s address. Meanwhile, web hosting comes in different types:

Transfer of domain name

For connecting your domain name to the host, the buyer must have the willingness of his domain name registrar.

The domain nameservers must be changed from the previous registrar to the newly chosen website’s host.

After that, the buyer needs to create an account for his existing website on the web host server to transfer the domain name to host a website.

Create your website

It’s time to build your site once you purchase a domain name and build a hosting account on the website’s hosting server.

Website hosts are now offering easy-to-use site builders; however, they have minimal functionality, and significant upgrades are impossible. There are also many limitations in terms of design, Search Engine Optimization, and other functions.

More advice here is to use WordPress. It helps create websites, protects privacy, and manages control panels. It is also highly customizable, meaning you can change your site’s look and feel to match your brand.

Visitors find WordPress easy to manage and to rank higher. However, setting up from zero to a fully functional website while utilizing a control panel is a bit of a steep curve. We recommend using the services of its developers, who can do it effectively.

Once websites are ready and themes are finalized and customized, you can create new pages, set a page, and add a wide range of posts, special characters, images, and videos.

The most significant benefit is that it is SEO-friendly on any page, offers privacy protection, and has a free SSL certificate, which can help you attract more visitors to your site.

How Cude Design help you create Amazing Websites

As explained earlier, WordPress is easy to use and has a wide range of features, making it an excellent choice for businesses of all sizes. However, designing and developing a website page here can be time-consuming and complex. That’s where Cudedesign comes in.

We’re a WordPress design and development company that can help you create a great website, whether starting from scratch or looking to improve an existing site.

Our team of experts will work with you to understand your requirements and design and develop a website that meets your needs. Contact us today to learn how we can help you create a great website.

Submit your website to Search Engines.

However, search engines are not limited to manual website submission to be aware of new sites.

They use web crawlers to get new sites every second. However, submitting your website yourself will provide the business with fast marketability.

For this purpose, it is required to develop a sitemap to aid in the discovery of your website’s files and content by search engines.

It lists your website’s pages, tutorials, photos, and other pertinent information, along with their linkages. Cudedesign will do this for you.

These engines often use links to find new websites and their updated content. However, this could become problematic if the owner has different websites and the web crawlers don’t have access to all of them.

In such cases, it’s a better idea to submit your website to the search engine manually.

Key takeaways

We are here to help people struggle with buying a domain name and creating websites. This article will help everyone with a detailed description of purchasing a domain name and all the other features of this topic.

A key takeaway for the readers is to set time-to-time reminders for your domain name on time registration renewal or choose such registrars who offer auto-renewal so as not to lose your ownership.