Domain Registration Basics

Everything you need to know about domain registration.

Establishing an online presence for your new venture, or existing brick-and-mortar business, is increasingly critical to success. While in-store retail sales in the US have grown at less than 5% for a number of years, e-commerce growth is in the double digits, with little sign of slowing.

Step one in establishing your business online: determine a domain name strategy. Business owners are often unfamiliar with the basics of domain registration: how you identify the right domain name, or domain names, how you actually purchase a domain name, what domain registration is, and why paying domain registration fees are critical to retaining your domain.

Remember: your domain name will serve as your online address, so it is critical to keep domain registration current on your domains, or you risk losing the name once the domain registration expires.

What is Domain Registration?

ICANN, the international body which oversees domain registration, requires that domain name owners pay a small, annual registration fee.  This fee is entirely separate from the purchase price of the domain name itself. This fee helps to maintain ICANN, and the regulation of the domain name system.

You may register a domain name that has not been previously registered; this is referred to as a “primary registration”. Or, it is very possible that your desired domain name has been registered by someone else; it may, or may not be available for sale on a marketplace like BuyDomains.com.

If you are pursuing a primary registration, then you can choose any registrar that supports the TLD (or domain extension—“.com” for example) that you have in mind. Nearly all registrars support .com, .net, and .org registrations; not all support ccTLDs, or country-specific domain extensions, like .fr, or .de.

Accredited domain name registrars offer online domain registration options, and it is recommended that you register your name for a minimum of three to five years. Domain registration fees vary by domain registrar and run from approximately $10 to $20 per year. Registering your name for a longer period of time will give your domain more weight in the eyes of the search engines, and you can have peace of mind about the security of your domain.

Consider selecting an ICANN-accredited domain registrar; check if it offers important features such as affordable pricing, full control and complete access, domain transfer capabilities, and multiple domain management.

If you are purchasing a premium domain name—one that has been registered by someone else that is now offered for sale—you will inherit the existing registration period left on the name. You can opt to maintain the domain name at the same registrar, or you may choose to move the name to a new registrar. Note that there may be restrictions on how quickly you can transfer a domain to a new registrar.