How to Buy Domain Names in 4 Simple Steps

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How to buy domain names in 4 simple steps
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https//www.dcpweb.co.uk/blog/how
-to-buy-domain-names When you are starting a new
business, one of the first steps is to register a
new domain name. Trying to find that perfect
domain for your business website can sometimes be
a tricky task. It's a good thing that most
hosting companies and domain registrars make this
process simple by following a few simple
steps. I have personally purchased many domains
over the years for my own business ventures and
for clients, but I would also recommend my
clients to purchase domains directly so they have
full control.
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The aim of this article is to guide you through
my favourite ways to buy domain names. Guess
what! One of those methods will get you a domain
name for free for the first year! In this
article, I will show you a few different domain
providers I use to purchase domains and the
processes required. How to buy a domain name
with Bluehost Bluehost is an amazing website
hosting provider with more than 2 million
websites hosted across the internet. Website
hosting is used to store the files for running
your business website, like WordPress for
example. If you use Bluehost for web hosting
then you can also claim a free domain name for 1
year. If you are a new business and just
starting out, then you can use a Bluehost hosting
plan and domain registration package features.
This is a good option as your hosting and domain
will be located with the same provider which will
help later if you need technical support.

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Step 1 Go to Bluehost.com In this first step
simply go to Bluehost.com where we will start the
setup process. In the top navigation select the
"Hosting" option.
Note To get the free domain you need to purchase
a hosting plan. You can purchase a domain
separately but then you will still need hosting
anyway, so better to select the hosting plan
option and get the domain for free!
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• Step 2 Select a Hosting Plan
• Bluehost provides three different types of
  hosting
• Shared Hosting
• Dedicated Hosting
• VPS Hosting
• Shared hosting for a start-up business is the
  best low-cost option. Remember you can always
  upgrade your hosting if required at a later date
  to more powerful VPS or Dedicated hosting.
• Select the "Shared hosting" option from the
  drop-down menu for now.

• Bluehost offers four different types of shared
  web hosting plans
• Basic
• Plus
• Choice Plus
• Pro
• The basic hosting is good for a small personal
  website which only costs 2.87 per month. I would
  recommend choosing the Choice Plan if you are
  launching a business website as this will give
  your extra features and most importantly free
  automated backup for 1 year. The cost difference
  between the Basic and Choice plan is small so
  simply click the "Select" button for the plan
  which best fits your requirements.

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• Step 3 Registering Your Domain
• Now that you have selected your hosting plan,
  Bluehost will direct you to the next step where
  you can register your new domain name.
• In the domain registration step, you will see the
  following options.
• Create a new domain
• Use a domain you own
• To get your free domain you will need to use the
  Create a new domain option.

First, you need to type in the domain name you
want to register in the text box. Next to the
text box is a drop-down menu where you can select
the domain extension. I would recommend
selecting the .com domain extension as this is a
popular extension and commonly used by most
businesses. If your select domain is already
taken, you will see a message box pop up
requesting for you to choose a different
domain. For example, if you tried to register
hair-salon.com then most likely this domain will
already be taken.
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Tip You can add your initials at the start of a
domain that normally will not be already
registered, for example, dcp-hair-salon.com If
the domain is available, Bluehost will display a
green confirmation and take to you the next step.
Step 4 Create your Bluehost user account In the
final step, you will need to fill out your
personal / business information. To get the best
price on hosting you will need to select the
36-month option. There is a dropdown menu where
you can choose a shorter hosting term but this
will also increase the cost slightly.
If you are based in the UK then domain privacy
should be free of charge to comply with GDPR
regulations.
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Bluehost offers some additional package extras
which you can select if required. I would
recommend enabling the "SiteLock Security
Essentials" to help protect your website from
hackers.
Now all you need to do is enter your payment
details and claim your 1-year free domain name!
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How to buy a domain name with Namecheap Namecheap
is just one of many domain name registrars, but I
like using Namecheap as the process of purchasing
a domain name is super simple and they often have
great offers and deals to help save you some
cost. When I am planning a new project and first
think about the website name, I then make sure a
suitable domain name is available and then I
create the logo design. Using this process
ensures I complete the tasks in the correct
order, no point in creating a new website and
logo and find out a suitable domain name is not
available. The method for purchasing a domain
name on Namecheap is more simple than Bluehost as
we are not purchasing hosting, only the domain
name. We can complete a domain name purchase in
3 simple steps. Step 1 Go to
Namecheap.com Simply open your web browser and
click this link to get to the Namecheap
website. Directly on the home page, you can see
the search box. Simply type in your required
domain.
By default the "Register" button should be
selected for you, this will make sure you are
registering a new domain and not transferring a
domain to Namecheap. Select the search button to
continue.
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Step 2 Select a domain extension Like most
other domain registrars, Namecheap also offers a
wide range of domain extensions. There are many
types of domain extensions to select from like
.fun, .com, .net, .io, .health, .design and many
more. Honestly, if I was you I would simply
register a .com and .co.uk domain. That it,
nothing else. Why register both domains? Now
simply click the "Add to cart" button next to the
domain(s) you want to register.
Select the "red" checkout button located in the
bottom right corner on the Namecheap website.
Step 3 Complete your domain registration Nameche
ap is the domain registration service but they
also provide hosting and email services. I prefer
to host a website using SiteGround as they have
awesome customer service.
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For Namecheap, we simply want to register the
domain name(s) only, make sure you do not select
any extra option like SSL certificate, email
services, web hosting or any other additional
service. On the shopping cart page, you will see
a few different options for each domain. There
is an option to select the number of years you
want to register the domain name for, I suggest
select 1 year only, this way you can test your
website/business idea and if it works out well
then you can easily add more years later for the
domain name. I would highly recommend selecting
the "Auto-Renew" option, this will make sure your
domain renews automatically before the expiry
date. Note you will need to log into Namecheap
and disable this option later if you do not want
to renew a domain name! By default we should
enable "Domain Privacy", this option is free
forever and will help to protect the information
you enter when registering your name, make sure
you also select the "Auto-Renew".
Now all you need to do is select the "Red"
confirm order button.
follow the simple steps to create a Namecheap
account, enter your domain Whois information and
finally make your payment.
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• Tip - I would recommend that you create a
  spreadsheet and list all the domains you have
  registered, the domain registrar's name, website
  link and date of expiry.
• If need you help to point your domain to your
  hosting provider then speak with your website
  designers, give me a call and I will help for
  free! or check out the nameservers update guide.
• Domain reigstration FAQs
• What are domain name extensions?
• In simple terms, domain name extensions are the
  end part of your domain name. For example in the
  United Kingdom the domain extension is .co.uk, in
  France it is .fr.
• Most countries across the planet will have a
  unique domain extension.
• If you are based in the UK then I would recommend
  buying both a .co.uk and .com domain name. Most
  people are used to typing in a .co.uk or .com
  extension, also you can protect your business by
  having both matching domain names. For example, I
  have registered
• dcpweb.co.uk
• dcpweb.com
• When someone types in dcpweb.com it automatically
  re-directs to my dcpweb.co.uk domain which is
  used for hosting my website.
• What are new gTLDs or new domain extensions?
• gTLDs are a generic type Top-Level Domains that
  are alternative to more traditional domain
  extensions like .com, .net or .co.uk.

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The above are just a few examples of alternative
domain extensions, but in most cases, I would
recommend using a .co.uk or .com domain
name. How long does domain name registrations
last? In most cases when you register a domain,
the default duration should be 1 year. During the
registration process, there should be an option
to select more than 1 year. You can also log into
your control panel and extend the duration of
domain registrations. I would advise you to
select "Auto-Renew" option for your domain
name(s) to make sure they never expire, last
thing you want is to lose your domain name, your
website to go down and emails stop working. Can
I buy multiple domain names? Yes, you can! In
fact, you can buy as many domains as you
like. Some domains are restricted, like .edu or
.gov domains. These types of domains are used by
government organisation and educational
institutes. Tip - Don't go domain crazy and
register too many domain names. I have seen some
of my clients register 20 or 30 domains for
their businesses and probably only use two of
these domains names. What is a domain name
search? When you are starting a new business, it
is important that you think about the company
name first. Once you know the company name then
you can use a popular domain registration service
like Namecheap mentioned above to do a domain
name search. Domain name searching is the
process of finding a suitable domain name for
your company that has not already been taken by
another business. Almost all domain registration
services will provide you with tools like a
search box to help you find the perfect domain
name.
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• About DCP Web Designers
• At DCP we have over 15 years of web development
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