How To Purchase a Domain Name for a Website in 2023? 4 Steps You Must See First!

How To Purchase A Domain Name for A Website?

If you have a business or storefront and want to get online, you will need to first get a “domain name”. Today, I will show you how to purchase a domain name for a website using 4 basic steps!

If this will be your first time & you don’t know how to purchase a domain name for a website, then let me assure you that it’s not to hard as you may think. It’s actually quite easy once you learn a few things.

Hopefully by the end of this quick tutorial, you will be able to not only see how to buy website domain names, but also where to go for web hosting to start creating your website! I will try to keep this nice and simple to understand to help you see what you need to do in the process.

So first of all, let’s discuss briefly what exactly are domain names.

Disclaimer: There are affiliate links on this page. When clicked and a purchase is made, I receive a modest referral fee that helps keep this website running. It doesn’t affect your pricing at all. In fact the affiliate links will give you the best web hosting price possible for your domain.

What are Domain Names? 

Domain names are simply the name of you website. Examples are www.amazon.com, www.ebay.com, etc.

The domain name would be exactly what a person types into their browser to arrive to your site. Any website that you visit online is the web address or name of the domain. My domain name is learnanet.com. Easy enough to remember?

There are basically 4 steps that I recommend to help you learn how to purchase a domain name for a website online.

Steps to Buying Domain Names for Websites

I have currently about 30 domains that I have purchased to date. These were for both business and personal uses. So I will share with you a few steps that I use each time that I purchase a new domain to create a website. This same basic process is what I use for both personal & business use.

Whether you want to start a simple blog or website like this one, learning how to buy domain names is your first step to getting online.

4 questions to consider..

• Where Can You Buy Domain Names for Websites?
• How to Name Your Domain Names?
• The Price of Domain Names for Websites?
• Where To Get Web Hosting For My Domain?

 

 

1) Choose a Domain Registrar

This is the first step of buying domain names for websites. There are literally thousands of domain registrars where you can purchase your new website domains. There are also web hosting companies that all you to registrar domain names. I will discuss some popular web host later that recommend for creating websites later.

Rather than giving you a long list of domain registrars & pages to visit, to save your time I have put together a few common household names that are great to use to buy domain names.

• Namecheap.com
• Godaddy.com
• Register.com
• Domain.com
• Name.com
• 1and1.com

You may or may not recognize some of these names above. Of this brief list, I really like Namecheap.

Godaddy has 18 million customers worldwide and maintains 77 million domains. It’s probably the largest platform for domain registering in the world.

Although NameCheap is not as large of a domain registrar as Godaddy, they are the cheapest place to buy domain names online that I have seen. I actually prefer using them over Godaddy.

I have well over 30 domain names that I have purchased to date. Many of them I have purchased from Namecheap for only $8.88. I even found some domain names for only 88 cents! So obviously I know everything about how to purchase a domain name for a website.

Namecheap also has a lot of free features such Domain Privacy that they give users. Godaddy Domain Privacy is $7.99/year. Bluehost offers it for $0.99/month with their Basic hosting plan, it is FREE if you get their Plus hosting plan. Also, the great thing is that you can get a FREE domain with Bluehost web hosting.

Although Godaddy is good, I highly recommend that you just stick with NameCheap for buying domains because you get Domain Privacy for FREE with your domain. You will need this to protect your information online.

Alright guys, the next thing in this tutorial is to pick a domain name to buy at the registrar.

2) Name your Domain

What will you call your website?

There are 3 important things to keep in mind BEFORE naming your website domain.

• Keep it simple & easy to remember for users. You can do this buy using 10-15 characters or less. The shorter the url, the better.
• As for domain extensions, stick with TLDs such as .com, .net or .org for your brand or company name. Why? These domain extensions are most used and easier to remember for most searchers. You can also buy domain names with high trafficked long tail keywords that people use to search your product or company.
• Avoid dashes in your domain names. The easier the better.

Look at my blog name learnanet.com

You may notice that it’s not something crazy like:

• www.learn-a-net.com
• www.learn-anet.com

Why? The reason for this is that learnanet is easier for people to remember being the domain name doesn’t have any dashes. The same could be applied to any domain online. If a searcher types in their browser an incorrectly spelled domain, it could display an error message or even point to a questionable website. Some people may do it for domains, but it’s not recommended at all and be extremely hard to remember.

According to MOZ.com, it’s really bad to use hyphens and dashes in domain names because it looks spammy and impedes readability.

Buying expired domain names is another option. Some people may have domain names that have expired being it was not renewed in time with its registrar. You can find these through registrars like Namecheap and others.

3) Domain Pricing

The truth is that most domain names costs about $10/year depending on the extension you purchase. The pricing may change sometimes, but for the most part you can buy domain names in this range. However, periodically, domain registrars run specials for discounted .com’s, and other extensions.

NameCheap .com domains usually run $8.88/year, however using this special link here, you can get one for $5.98!

Godaddy .com domains usually run about $14.99/year. [ 2nd year billed at $18.99]

But as mentioned before, I typically try to look for domains with .com extensions first. If it’s a major keyword or term that I am after, I will try the .net or .org if it’s available. Other extensions are available, but I stick with 3 being that they are easier to remember for most people.

[NOTE: If you are considering flipping domains to make money from home, there are many guides online to help. In this case, I recommend using Godaddy for buying domain names versus Namecheap IF your goal is to do domain flipping.] However, if you are not doing domain flipping, then I recommend Namecheap being they are cheaper than Godaddy.

For every domain name that you purchase, next you must have web hosting.

4) Get Web Hosting For Your Domain

Now that you understand how to purchase a domain name for a website, the next step is getting web hosting services.

Web hosting in short is what makes your content of your website visible to the world. It’s where the data, files, images and information of your website are stored.

Web hosting companies will allow you to basically rent space on their servers to store your website’s data in exchange for a small monthly fee. These monthly service fees could range anywhere from about $3 to several hundreds of dollars.

You should know that are literally thousands of web hosting services that will be more than happy to host your new website domain. There are 2 basic types of web hosting to choose from when creating websites: Shared web hosting and Managed WordPress hosting. WordPress is a CMS software that us used by more than 34% of websites online.

The following 4 web hosting services listed are very affordable & highly recommended for creating WordPress websites online.

 

Scala Hosting starts at only $3.95/month for the Mini plan. It’s great for hosting 1 single website & gives you unlimited traffic. You can even get a free SSL certificate. However, if you are looking for more resources, then the Start or Advanced gives you more unlimited resources.

How to purchase a domain name for a website using Scala Hosting? They have several web hosting packages that you can select from to create your website. You can then choose a domain name for your website. The cool thing is that Scala Hosting gives a FREE domain that you registrar for your brand or website online. This is another nice savings that you can pocket.

Who is Scala Hosting Good For? 

Scala Hosting specializes in providing managed shared, WordPress & VPS hosting. They are really great for both beginners and experienced users and have exceptional customer support is good. They have been in business for since 2007 and are super duper cheap for beginners. Scala Hosting offers a 30 day money back guarantee on their web hosting plans.

Get started here: www.scalahosting.com

How to purchase a domain name for a website using Bluehost?  It’s really simple. You will got to Bluehost website here: www.bluehost.com.

Once you select your desired web hosting plans for your personal needs, then you will enter a domain name where it says “new domain”. After clicking “next” you will see if the domain name is available.

If your domain name is available to register, then you Bluehost will let you know and then you will proceed to setting up your account.

Bluehost basic web hosting starts at only $2.95/month and has great customer support & performance. Their Plus hosting allows you to create unlimited websites online and really great for things like affiliate marketing and those needing unlimited resources also. Bluehost is recommended by WordPress.org due to their performance and are great for creating blogs and websites. I have also have a Plus hosting account with them and I really love it.

Who Is Bluehost Good For?

These are great for bloggers and entrepreneurs that may need to create just 1 or even multiple websites for businesses. Bluehost will even install WordPress on your FREE domain to help your website off to a great start. This is a great aid especially for beginners online who may not know how to install WordPress. They also have a step by step guide that walks you by the hand in installing WordPress plugins, themes and more.

Also, Bluehost is a great web host for all website sizes. Bluehost offers a 30 day money back guarantee on its web hosting plans.

Get started right now with 60% OFF, go here: www.bluehost.com

SiteGround web hosting starts at only $6.99/month.  Their Startup is awesome for beginners and highly recommended. Siteground also comes highly recommended by WordPress.org & is known mostly for their great security features and solid customer support. They currently hosts over 2,800,000 million domains online.

You can buy your domain and web hosting directly with them. Although their domain names are not FREE and web hosting is not cheaper, Siteground does have more reliable web hosting, faster page loads & customer support than many of its co.

Who Is SiteGround Good For?

Growbig & GoGeek plans are great for bloggers, small business owners and entrepreneurs being that they offer more resources for creating multiple websites. I have personally used the Growbig hosting and love it! I have created 12 websites online using this plan.

 

SiteGround offers a 30 day money back guarantee on all of its web hosting plans.

Get started right here and get 60% OFF: www.siteground.com

A2 Hosting that starts at only $2.99/month for the Startup plan. They are known most for their fast customer support, great reputation and super fast turbo servers. Although the Drive and Turbo plans provide unlimited web hosting, the Turbo Boost is most popular among users.

 

Who Is A2 Hosting Good For?

It’s great for beginners and experienced bloggers, entrepreneurs and small businesses. If you are concerned more about speed and page loads, then A2 Hosting is the best web hosting for your domain to create a website.

A2 Hosting offers an ANYTIME money back guarantee on its web hosting packages.

Get started here: www.a2hosting.com

Managed WordPress Hosting

Although we only discussed buying domain names from 4 great shared web hosting providers today, Managed WordPress hosting is another option. The main difference with shared web hosting vs Managed is that get faster customer support, rock solid uptime performance, security, much fast speeds and page loads.

Once you buy your domain name, then you could start building your site with one of these recommended Managed hosting providers below.

• Liquid Web
• Devrims
• Kinsta
• Rocket
• Nestify
• BionicWP
• Flywheel 
• Pressidium

 However, my favorite managed hosting service that prefer over all and recommend over the previous is Liquid Web!

If you want to try their VPS Hosting with 75% OFF, please go here.

If you try their Dedicated Hosting with 50% OFF, please go here.

Clearly you can see that there are many web hosting providers that you can use to create your website after buying your domain. I wanted to share all of these with you guys today so that you can understand how easily you can create websites online.

How To Purchase A Domain Name For A Website – Conclusion

As you could see today with our brief consideration, learning how to purchase a domain name for a website and then creating it is a process. However, this process, once learned gets easier the more you do it. As mentioned earlier I currently have about 30 domain names that I have purchased over the years so I know how to buy domain names for websites.

But you could see that once you determine & buy you domain online, the next step is buy web hosting to create your website online. You can find other helpful tools on our resources page.

I hope that you guys have enjoyed this review on how to purchase a domain name for a website. Hopefully these tips were very helpful and get you on your way quickly to building your first website! If so, I would love to read your comments below. Also, if there was something that you didn’t understand or have questions above, you can also ask questions below.

If you need help getting started with any of these web hosting providers after buying your new domain name, leave a comment below or contact me for help. Thank you so much for reading this review. I hope you have an amazing day and much success in your business online this year going forward!

Frequently Asked Questions About Domain Names

What are the best domain names to buy?

As mentioned before in this review, to get the best domain names it’s always good to keep it simple and don’t make it complicated. The rule of thumb is the shorter, the better. This makes it easier to remember for your visitors. Try to shoot for .com domains first if all possible as these are most popular and best for brands. Just like learnanet.com it should be easy to spell and pronounce as this will also make it easier to remember and share online. Avoid using hyphens in your domain names as it’s your visitors forget to type this online, it could take them to your competitor’s website which you don’t want.

Why do I have pay for my domain name every year?

To create a website online, you need to buy a domain name and web hosting. If you don’t have one of the two, then you can’t have a website online to show your visitors and customers. When you pay for your domain name every you are reserving that specific name to represent your brand online. Being the case, no one else will have rights to it until you fail to renew it and as a result it expires.

Think of paying your yearly domain name and web hosting like property taxes on your house. Although you purchased your home on a specific day and year, if you don’t pay your MONTHLY mortgage and YEARLY taxes, your house could be repossessed. As a result another buyer can see and then BUY your house for cheap. This is exactly what when you don’t renew and pay for your domain name every year. It will expire and then you will lose it. Someone else searching online on domain registrars like Namecheap or Godaddy might see it and buy it.

How long can you own a domain name?

You can technically own a domain name for as long as you want. When you initially purchase a domain name online you must reserve it for at least 1 year. You can reserve it for up to 10 years and then renew it during these periods. This is a really great strategy to make sure that you never lose your brand’s digital real estate online.

The great thing is that most domain name registrars like Namecheap and Godaddy will send you reminders typically 30-60 days before your domain expires. If you no longer want your domain name, you can let it expire or sell it online to someone who is searching for it.

Does it matter who you buy your domain name from?

No, it doesn’t really matter, but there are some things to consider. What really does matter is that you reserve the domain name that fits your brand online. If you are a beginner online and you thinking more about ways to save money on domain names and web hosting, then I recommend using Namecheap being they have the best ongoing deals.

However, if you are person that doesn’t care about costs and willing to pay more money for the same thing, then Godaddy. Godaddy is more popular online, however their overall costs and renewals for domain names are the highest in the industry. So when you asked does it matter who you buy your domain name from, this is a decision you must make based on your personal budget.

How much does a domain name costs?

How does a 1 year domain cost? The costs of a domain name will vary and depend largely on where you buy it. It also will depend on what type of domain name extension you use. Most domains runs anywhere between $10 – $20 per year. You can search from literally hundreds of TLDs such as .com, .net, .org, .info and others. With Namecheap domains, you can always find the cheapest deals for creating websites online. Most domain names costs $5.98 a year, however sometimes they run deal under $1! Domain names at Godaddy usually cost about 3 times as much for the same brand name.

If you are perhaps a dealer or a huge corporation, a .dealer or .inc domain could be as high as $1,000. So as you can see when it comes to determining how much does a domain name costs, the purchase place, extension are the main factors to consider.

Which domain name is the most reliable?

When it comes to buying domain names, there are hundreds of extensions to choose from. According to Wikipedia, there are over 1500 top level domains (TLDs). However, of all of these options that are offered, .com, .net, .org, .edu, and .gov TLDs are the most reliable and popular. These domains tend to be more trusted by searchers and rank higher in search engines.

Any other question that you have about how to purchase a domain name for a website? Please drop your questions below in the comments area and I will answers them.