4 Easy Steps to Check Your Domain Availability  and Register It

Checking your domain’s availability and setting up a new website can be an exciting new venture, and while it may seem to be a tedious task – finding and registering a new domain can be straightforward. With only a few factors to consider, we at Hosted.com have our four-step guide on checking your domain’s availability, registering and connecting it.

1. Find a reliable domain registration platform like Hosted.com

At Hosted.com, we understand that businesses both large and small need to stay competitive in today’s ever-changing world, and having an online presence is increasingly important. That’s why Hosted.com offers an all-in-one platform, where you can check domain availability, have a simple, smart, and secure domain registration process, and we have various hosting solutions to help you get your business online smoothly and efficiently.

Professionalism at a Click

Every small business needs a robust website hosting and email package to maintain professionalism with its clients, suppliers, and the public. We strive to take the stress and complications out of setting up and maintaining your domain and hosting needs. At Hosted.com, we provide secure and reliable solutions that are tailored to meet the diverse needs of our customers and ensure that they are equipped with the latest security features to protect their online data.

Your One-stop Shop

At Hosted.com, we provide you and your business with everything you need in one place; check your domain availability with our domain name search tool, Domain Registrations and Transfers, cPanel Website Hosting with an easy Website Builder Add-on, WordPress Hosting, and DV SSL Certificate security. Our website builder makes it easy for anyone to create their own website, without having to learn HTML or other coding languages. We also provide you with a free SSL security certificate to protect your website and customer data.

For the small business startup that needs a professional email address as they prepare to get online, we even have Email Hosting that is specifically designed to close that gap, and can be easily upgraded to a cPanel Website Hosting or WordPress Hosting package.

Guaranteed 99.99% Uptime

We understand the importance for businesses to have a stable, secure, and reliable domain and hosting solution. That’s why we offer only the absolute best in website hosting infrastructure to our customers. Our servers are in state-of-the-art, N+1 data centers and have been engineered to provide the highest levels of performance, reliability, and security. We take great pride in our data centers, which are built to the highest industry standards, and we guarantee 99.99% uptime to our clients.

24-hour Dedicated Support

With our experienced support staff and 24/7 customer support, you’ll have all the help needed to get your business online. Our teams are there to answer and billing, support, or sales queries you may have, as we strive to ensure that our clients can manage their domains and website with ease and remain online and connected with no worries.

2. Choosing the Best Domain Name for Your Business

Choosing the perfect domain name is vital in helping you achieve your online objectives and goals for your website. Whether it is to drive traffic to your site, generate more leads and sales, or inform and educate your audience – choosing the best domain name is of paramount importance as the first step in ensuring a successful web presence.

If you are already running a business or are about to create your very own personal space on the web, it is likely you already have a domain name in mind. Check your domain availability and if it has not been taken, you could have your new domain registered in no time.

While having a desired domain name can help streamline the process of finding and registering your new domain, it can also pose a hindrance when it has already been taken, and if you have not yet thought of an alternative name – what do you do then?

Choosing a domain name aligned with your business or the purpose of your new website can increase the traffic your website sees, its relation to your audience, and its overall access. Making sure your domain name is true to your website and its functions, then becomes a success factor.

Key Points to Consider When Registering and Choosing the Best Domain Name:

• Choose a domain name closely related to your business, keep it short and easy to remember
• Ensure the domain name is relevant to your audience or the purpose of your site.
• You can also make use of other TLDs such as .net, .org, .biz, or .info after your desired domain name, in the case it is taken.
• If your desired domain is taken, choose a slightly different name. Consider choosing a prefix or suffix such as “Go” before your domain name or “live” after it, e.g.: if www.examplewebsite.com is taken, then try www.examplewebsitelive.com.

3. Checking Domain Availability and Domain Registration

Checking domain availability is an uncomplicated process thanks to Hosted.com’s domain lookup tool. If the domain you are looking for has already been registered, then having the ability to see key data about the ownership is invaluable, as you may be able to approach them to sell it to you. If you cannot buy it, having other pertinent options related to your business and products or service may be viable.

Searching for Your Domain Availability

Check Availability – On the Domain Registration page, enter your preferred domain name in the search bar with your desired TLD extension.

Explore Options – Results will yield a list of available domain names with different TLD extensions to choose from.

Add to Cart – After selecting your preferred domain name, start the checkout process by clicking “Next” or “Add to cart” next to other TLDs.

Domain Purchase – View your domain name selections and any addons that maybe required such as hosting, before clicking “Proceed to Cart.”

Review and Checkout – After reviewing your order, click “Checkout” and in the next window, you can either create a new account or login to your existing one.

Complete Contact Info and Secure Payment – Fill out a short contact form to provide the required registration information and proceed to a safe and secure payment gateway to complete the purchase.

Domain validity

Each domain registration is only valid for one year however, you can register your domain for up to 10 years. If a domain is set to Auto Renew the system will automatically renew it on the due date if there is a valid credit card registered on the account.

4. Connecting Your New Domain

Once your domain is purchased, you are ready to connect it to your website. You will need to verify ownership before connecting your domain to the website. Many companies register multiple domain names as variations on their business name, or products that they offer to draw business from other sectors to their main website. If you have additional domains that you would like to point to your main website, also referred to as URL redirection or URL forwarding, you can do so easily via the Hosted.com Control Panel – Domain Management. Should you require assistance pointing your domain, then please reach out to the Hosted.com support team.

Website Builder

If you do not have a website and need one, make use of our Website Builder add-on or sign up for WordPress hosting. Our Website Builder is user-friendly and is simple enough for anyone to create a great-looking website, without needing to understand coding or the complexities of creating one from scratch. A little creativity and attention to written content around the purpose of your website, could lead to more traffic and more engagement from your visitors.

Linking your Domain to Your Website

This is a straightforward process and can be done in just a few simple steps by changing the domain’s DNS (Domain Name System) records to direct traffic to the IP address of your website. You can find the IP address of your website hosting provider in your account control panel.

Linking the domain name to your website is then done by creating a CNAME record in your cPanel which should point to the IP address of your website. After setting up the CNAME record, it should take a few hours for the changes to take effect. Once the changes have taken effect, your domain name should be linked to your website. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to the Hosted.com Support Team for assistance if you require it.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. It is vitally important to choose a reputable service provider while considering their overall offering and value add-ons.
2. Checking your perfect domain availability and registering it asap, is important to ensure your website’s objectives.
3. Purchasing and registering a new domain is an uncomplicated process on the domain registration page.
4. Linking a domain to your website can be done through the Control Panel or our Support Team and it takes a few hours for the changes to take effect. 

Other Blogs of Interest:

– What Next After a Domain Name Purchase? Follow these 6 Easy Steps

– How To Buy An Expired Domain

– How To Find Cheap Email Hosting

– Web Hosting Versus Domain Name – All The Facts Explained

– International Domain Name Registration: What You Should Know