Domain Registration

A domain name is the address used by your audience to find your website.

To better understand what a domain is, think of the internet as a large map of building addresses. If you want anyone to visit or find where you live, you need an address. Just as if you want someone to visit your website, you need a website address. This is your domain name.

You've likely heard a number of terms related to domains including domain name, uniform resource locator (URL), web address. You can use these all of these terms interchangeably because they all mean the same thing.

Your website also has an IP address made up of a string of numbers (similar to 104.218.15.162). Instead of requring your visitors to remember that confusing string of numbers to visit you, your visitors can instead just type in your domain name. This is thanks to what is know as the domain name system (DNS).

DNS is simply a group of computers that translates your domain name into your numerical IP address. After all, computers communicate via numbers and not words. How does DNS work? If you want to visit A2 Hosting, all you need to do is remember the domain name "a2hosting.com". You do not need to know the related IP address made up of the string of numbers. When you type in a2hosting.com into your browser, your request is sent to DNS. DNS looks up the IP address for a2hosting.com and directs you to our website.
 

DNS is an abbreviation for domain name system. The domain name system is like the phone book for the internet.

DNS is essentially a database of IP addresses.  Each IP address contains a series of numbers that allow computers to communicate with each other. A website is identified on a server by its IP address. Instead of your visitors having to remember an IP address to type into their browser to access your site, they can instead just use your more memorable domain name. When your domain is entered into the browser, DNS translates it into an IP address because that is what computers understand. Your computer is able to connect to your domain hosting and show your website on the web browser once the IP address is found.

A domain name registration is the simple process of reserving your website's name for a specified period of time. The two parties involved with a domain registration are generally the user who is registering the domain and the domain registrar. The domain registrant is the user who actually registers the domain name (you) and the domain registrar is the company who helps that user with their domain registration (A2 Hosting).

There are organizations, called registries, that manage each TLD option. When you are ready to register domain names, you would first visit A2 Hosting. We in turn check with the registry, who manages the TLD of the domain you are interested in registering, to see if it the domain is available. If the domain for the TLD you want discovers that it is in fact available, the registry adds it to their registry and gives you access to it. If the domain for that TLD is unavailable because it has already been registered by another user, you will be shown during the domain registration process that the domain in fact is unavailable at that time.

You may be wondering who is in charge of all of these registration processes? Most countries manage a Network Information Center (NIC). An NIC is the main database that has all of the information regarding what domain names have been registered and the IP addresses associated with each of those domains. The nonprofit organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), is in charge of creating and managing the procedures for internet namespaces.

Yes, you need web hosting to have a website. 

You can have a domain name. You can have domain hosting (AKA web hosting). But without the two together, you're not going to be able to have a website. Domain names and domain hosting are attached at the hip.

When you register a domain name, you are acquiring exclusive access for your visitors to use that web address to find you online. But if you want to actually put up a website at that address, you need domain hosting. Domain hosting is the service used to store all of the files that make up your website.

Think of domain names and domain hosting as a physical storefront. A domain name is like renting an address for a plot of land. It's your plot of land for as long as you keep paying your rent. At the end of the day though, it's still just a plot of land. You still need walls, windows, doors and a roof for your store. These are the files, databases, images and videos that your website consists of. This is your domain hosting. Without domain hosting, you can't have a website.

Looking to purchase domain hosting in addition to buying domain names? We'll be more than happy to help you with that as well. Your website will be hosted on our high performance SwiftServer platform. Best of all, we offer completely scalable hosting solutions that can support your site as it grows. There's no need to switch web hosting providers because we'll have a solution that fits your needs. Choose from Shared, WordPress,  Reseller, VPSand Dedicated Server domain hosting solutions. Give your website a speed boost with our  Turbo Servers. They load pages up to  20X FASTER compared to competing domain registration and domain hosting solutions!

When you register domain names from A2 Hosting, you get access to our user-friendly My A2 Hosting control panel. You can manage your domains and all of the features included with your A2 Hosting domain registration in this control panel. Just some of the domain features you’ll be able to manage include customizing your nameservers, transfer in a new domain, DNS and much more!

You may not think there are many features and benefits included when you register a domain name. Maybe you just have never registered a domain with A2 Hosting. Let’s change that! Here is a list of just some of the benefits included with your A2 Hosting domain name!

• Setup Domain Auto-Renewal- Protects your domain from going back to the general domain pool if you ever miss a domain renewal email or invoice.
• Manage Nameservers- Set your nameservers or use custom nameservers for branding purposes. Custom nameservers are especially popular if you are reselling our services.
• Add Domain Theft Protection- Locks your domain to prevent it from being transferred away without your express permission. 
• Update Contact Information- Edit the contact information associated with your domain name for the WHOIS records. It’s important to keep this updated so you can retain control of your domain. You can specify separate registrant and admin contact information
• Setup Email Forwarding- Forward your emails to a different email address, allowing you to monitor your emails all within a single account.
• Manage DNS Records-  Use this section add and edit the A, MX, CNAME, SPF records and more for your domain.
• Manage All Domains- Easily renew your current domain, register a new domain or transfer a new domain to A2 Hosting.

Yes you can! At A2 Hosting, we make domain transfersextremely easy! It also makes your life easier when you have your web hosting and domains all at A2 Hosting. To ensure a smooth domain transfer, make sure you have the following information:

• Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) code. This code validates the fact that you have the authority to transfer the domain name. You can obtain this code from your existing domain registrar by request if you do not know it.
• Your domain must be unlocked - A locked domain indicates that it cannot be changed or transferred. Make sure that you contact your current domain registrar if you need assistance unlocking the domain.
• Current domain contact information - Your domain names have both a technical contact and an administrative contact. This information can be the same person. Regardless, these contacts are emailed once the domain request begins. You will want to make sure once of those contacts is you.

Follow these steps to complete your domain transfer to A2 Hosting:

1. Visit our Domain Transfer page.
2. Type the domain you want to transfer into the search box and click the Search button.
3. Add your EPP code within the Authorization Code text field. Click Add to Cart.
4. Confirm the information on the Domain Configuration page and click continue.
5. Review your domain transfer information and click the "Checkout" button.
6. Complete the Personal Information and Payment fields. Click the Complete Order button.

If you have done all of your research and settled on the domain name that you would like to use, then you're ready to get started! Follow our instructions below to search for your domain name.

1. Scroll up to the top of this page to our domain name search box.
2. Type the domain name that you're interested in registering into the text field located below "Register A Domain". When typing your domain into the search box, make sure to include the entire domain name. For example, if you wanted to register "a2hosting.com", you'll want to include the dot (.) and the TLD (com) at the end. Click the search button.
3. You will be directed to a page that will show you if your domain is available. If it is available, you can add the domain name to the shopping cart to complete your purchase.  
4. If your domain is unavailable, don't worry! We'll show you a number of alternative domain name options. Add these domain options to the shopping to register them.

Whether you're registering a new domain name or already have one, you're going to need Web Hosting if you want a website. With A2 Hosting, you can both register a domain and host your website. We aim to make your life easierand simplify your services by offering both!

Speaking of easy solutions, that's exactly the type of web hostingservice you'll get at A2 Hosting! That's because your account features the award-winningcPanel control panel. Manage your websites, files, databases, email and more all within its user-friendly graphical interface. Whether you've never run a website before or are an expert, you'll love cPanel!

At A2 Hosting, we want you to succeed, evident by the motto "Our Speed, Your Success". Your website speed has a direct impact on your success. A mere 1-second delay has a negative impact on your bounce rate, conversion rate, visitor satisfaction and even your SEO rankings. Your choice of web host plays a large part in how fast your site loads. That's why we focus on offering high speed hosting solutions. Your sites each come hosted on our SwiftServer platform, tuned for performance! You can even host on our  Turbo Servers featuring up to  20X FASTER page loads compared to competing domain registrars and web hosts!

TLD is an abbreviation for top level domain. A TLD is the extension or portion of a domain name that follows the dot(or period). You are likely most familiar with TLDs like .com, .net, .biz, .info and .org. These TLDs are designed to signify something relevant to the domain. For example, the .com TLD stands for "commercial" while .net stands for "network".

There is also an option called a ccTLD, or a country code top-level domain. A ccTLD is designed to signify sites located in or associated with certain countries or territories. However, most of the ccTLD options don't actually have restrictions regarding who can register a domain name. In fact, many ccTLDs are commonly misinterpreted as TLDs. For example, while .tv is commonly registered by television and media related websites, .tv is actually the ccTLD designated for the country of Tuvalu.

There are also second level domain options too, particularly popular with ccTLDs. For example, the United Kingdom has a number of second level domains ranging from '.co.uk' (designed for United Kingdom based businesses) to '.net.uk' (designed for UK-based internet providers).

Domain hacks are also a popular use of both TLDs and ccTLDs. A domain hack involves creating a full word or phrase when combining the domain name with the TLD to create something your audience will easily remember. A popular example is using the .me ccTLD for Montenegro, and combining it with "aweso" to create the domain aweso.me.

One of the very first steps to get started with your website is to choosing the perfect domain name. This can be a little tricky! You may have already decided on a domain for your site or you may still be brainstorming ideas. Great! You may just be completely lost and not sure of any domain names you should register. That's OK too! Our guide below offers a number of tips for choosing the perfect domain name.

You may want to read through these domain registration tips even if you think you have a domain name picked out already. After all, there may be some considerations that you haven't even thought of yet.

     1. Consider A Shorter Domain Name

While there is room to be creative with your domain name, you may want to consider keeping your domain name short and concise. This makes it easier for you to share your domain name via word of month, makes it easier for your visitors to type it into their browsers and it just more simple to remember. While "SuperDuperFastWebHosting.com" may have been an appropriate domain name for our service, nobody wants to type that into their phone or computer. On the other hand, "a2hosting.com" is much easier to remember and type. 

     2. Protect Your Domain By Registering Its Other TLD Alternatives

Whether you have an existing domain name or you are registering a new one, you should consider protecting your domain by registering the other TLD options for your domain. For example, if you're registering a domain with a .com TLD, you should also consider registering the same domain but with other TLDs including .net, .io. .us, it, . tmetc. This will help protect your brand by ensuring competing companies or websites can't register your domain name because you already own many of the alternatives. 

This will also prevent someone from scooping up the alternative TLDs to try to sell them to you at a higher price. Additionally, it could help you improve the usability of your site by ensuring your visitors can access your site if they do in fact type in a different TLD.

     3. Consider Using A Creative Domain Hack

There are well over 300 million domains that have already been registered. Unfortunately there's a good chance that the domain you had your heart set on has already been registered. Don't worry though! There are creative methods for registering an eye-catching, memorable domain. This is especially true if the .com or .net version of the domain you had your heart set on have already been registered. Consider using a domain hack. Domain hacks build in the TLD into the domain name. Examples of domain hacks include CoolC.at, Gamb.it and and Foc.us.

     4. Make Your Domain Name Your Memorable Brand Name

Search engines used to take into account the keywords in a domain name in their algorithm. They would give those sites preferential rankings based on those domain name keywords. That's no longer the case, particularly because spammers would take advantage of these loop holes. Spammers would register domains loaded with these keywords knowing that they would have to do minimal work to rank well for those keywords.

Since search engines no longer rank websites based on domain keywords, this gives you a better opportunity to use your brand name as your domain name. This allows you to register a domain that is easy for your audience to remember. It gives you ample chance to be unique.

A2 Hosting is a good example of this. One of our main focuses is to offer the industry's fastest domain hosting. Unfortunately, TheIndustrysFastestDomainHosting.com isn't the best domain name. It's long. It's hard to remember. It's not easy to type. It would've just been a terrible choice. However, since SEO doesn't take into account keywords in a domain name, we can use our short, memorable brand name as our domain; a2hosting.com. It's short, simple and to the point.

     5. Register Common Domain Name Misspellings

You could follow all of these registration suggestions, like keeping your domain name simple and brand-able, but you could still end up with a domain that your visitors have trouble accessing. In this instance, users could have trouble spelling your domain. While this should definitely be a consideration before registering your domain, it would be prudent to register the misspelling alternatives for you domain to be safe. This would allow you to forward these alternative misspelled domains to your correct domain and not lose any traffic. Some of the most commonly misspelled words you may find in domains include "business", "jewelry" and "recommend"

     6. Check The Legality Of Your Domain Name

It's not a bad idea to run your desired domain name through trademark and copyright databases to ensure that you are legally allowed to register the domain you're interested in using. You likely aren't intending to infringe on a copyright. However, you don't want a surprise "cease-and-desist" email from someone who owns the copyright for a term found in your domain name. Spending a few seconds searching for existing trademarks before you use them could save you a number of headaches in the future.

     7. Check The History Of The Domain Before Registering It

There's a distinct possibility that the domain you want to register was previously owned by another website. When you have decided on the domain name you want to register, it's a good idea to search for that domain within the Wayback machine. The Wayback machine is a searchable archive of all websites. It allows you to see what the website for your desired domain name looked like in previous days, months and years.

With the Wayback machine, you can see if your domain name had some sort of website in the past. More importantly, this will allow you to see if the website had previously contained anything that was immoral, illegal or controversial. This is particularly important if you're launching a brand and don't want a harmful reputation before you even get started. You can also simply search for the domain name within a search engine to see if there are any mentions of it in forums, blogs or social media sites.

     8. Avoid Hyphens (-) On Your Domain Name

You may be tempted to use a hyphen (or dash) in your domain name. This may be because the domain you really wanted has already been registered or because you think the hyphen breaks up the words in your domain nicely. It may also look creative. This won't be the case.

You should avoid using a hyphen in your domain name at just about any cost. A hyphen makes it much more difficult to share your domain name via word of mouth. It also makes it more difficult to remember your domain.

Let's use A2 Hosting as an example. Imagine if our domain name was actually a2-hosting.com. At first, it doesn't seem like it would be a big deal. However, we would continually have to explain to our visitors that our domain is "a2 dash hosting dot com". If new or returning visitors ever forgot to include the hyphen in the domain name, they would go to the wrong site. It's likely they would end up at a competing website. Not good!

Make everyone's lives easier. Just don't use a hyphen in your domain.

     9. Set Your Domain To Auto-Renew

While you currently may be in the process of brainstorming what domain name you would like to use, take a moment to imagine your website in a year or two. You've built an attractive website, have an engaged audience and are continually having other sites link to you. You're thriving and only becoming more popular each day. Now imagine that you go on vacation, you forget to renew your domain while you are gone and your domain becomes inactive. In the worst case scenario, someone buys your domain name now that it is publicly available. After all, it became very valuable with all of the back links that you had spent time building.

This may seem like an unlikely scenario, but unfortunately this happens all the time. Domains are usually registered for a year. After this initial registration period, the domain needs to be renewed. If it isn't, the domain re-enters the general pool meaning anyone can now register it.

Don't let this happen to you. If you decide to register your domain with A2 Hosting (and we hope you do because you'll have an excellent experience), make sure to setup automatic renewal for your domain. When domain auto-renewal is turned on, we will send you a renewal invoice ten days before your domain's expiration date. This will provide you with ample time to finish the domain renewal process before the expiration date.

     10. Check Availability Of Social Media Handles

Over half a million comments are posted on Facebook every hour. There are over 6000 tweets EVERY second. It's likely, especially as you're just starting to build your website, that you will get more visits and engagement to your social media than you will on your website. That's why it's crucial for you to check social media handles to make sure they are available for the domain name you want to register. If they are, you should register those handles just as fast as your register your domain name.

     11. Select An Appropriate TLD

There are hundreds of TLD options for a reason. Each has a unique purpose. They are designed for specific website categories and for specific locations. While the .com TLD (commerce) and .net TLD (network) are two of the most popular options, there are plenty of other appropriate options to choose from. Consider registering these TLD options for your website:

• .biz - Intended for business websites
• .info - Designed for informational websites
• .org - Used by non-profit organizations and non-commercial entities
• .me - Often used for personal websites
• .blog - A popular TLD option among blogger
• .io- Often registered by startup companies

      12. Act Fast! Buy Your Domain Before Someone Else Does!

It has happened to all of us. You're sitting at work or school and get an unbeatable idea for a website. Or you wake up late one night with a brainstorm for "the next big thing". Yes, you should definitely register your domain name before someone else does. 

When should you be in even a larger rush to register your domain? When you spot massive trends or fads in society. Not only will you want to buy your domain before it's claimed by someone else, you want to start building your site fast before the trend passes.

      13. Choose A Timeless Domain Name For Your Business

If you're going to buy a domain name for your business, you should consider the long term implications of the domain. Some considerations:

• Service expansion - You may expand the products and services you offer. You should consider using a broad TLD to advertise your service. For example, let's say you are a running coach, so you appropriately choose the .run TLD. If you think you may expand your specialties to be a biking coach one day, perhaps you should consider a .fitness TLD instead.
• gTLDs - If you choose a .us TLD as an indication that your business is located in the United States currently, what will happen if you decide to expand to other locations? You may not want to use a gTLD if you are a global company or expect to be one day. That way expanding to other locations will be much easier (of course you can employ a multiple ccTLD strategy based on the visitor's location).

Yes, you can always change your domain name to update it to better match your business as it expands. Yes, you can forward the old domain to the new domain. Yes, you can update your advertisements to match your new domain name. However, the bottom line is you can't update years of building your brand very easily. Doesn't it make sense to plan ahead with your domain registration?

     14. Choose A Domain Name That Succinctly Explains What You Do

It takes just over 2.5 seconds to get a first impression of a website. If someone is confused by your website or don't quite know what the website specializes in, they're probably not going to spend very much time to investigate it. They're likely going to just close their web browser or just click the back button. This is a lost opportunity.

While keywords won't necessarily improve your search engine rankings, using a helpful keyword in your domain name can certainly help explain to your audience what you specialize in. If your visitors know what you do right off the bat, that should ultimately improve your bounce rate, conversion rate and time your visitors spend on your website.

     15. Pay Attention To How The Domain Sounds When You Say It Out Loud

It's extremely easy to buy a domain name. You can also launch a website in a matter of minutes. Many users can do this all by themselves without a single human interaction. While your domain name may look OK when you read it in your head, that may not be the case when you say it out loud. How does it sound when you say it? Does the domain name roll easily off your tongue? Is it easy to pronounce? Does it sound controversial at all? Could it potentially be confused with other words unintentionally?

If you're buying an intentionally unique domain name by combining or condensing words, it may be more difficult than you thought it would be to pronounce.You may want to ask a friend or colleague to read the domain back to you before registering it. How does the domain name sound? Getting a second opinion from someone you trust can help you avoid an error. Remember! It's better to be safe than to be sorry!

     16. Combine A Boring Single Word Description With An Exciting TLD

This domain name registration tip combines some of the previously mentioned tips. While not always the case, you want your visitors to have an idea of what you do or what sort of content you have simply by looking at your domain name. If you have a blog about "cars", having a domain name with the word "cars" in it makes a lot of sense. While not particularly eye catching or memorable by itself, you can combine the word "cars" with a fun TLD to make it exciting. Your "boring" cars domain name can easily become cars.ninja, cars.cool or cars.luxury. And just like that, you have an memorable and fun domain name.

     17. Avoid Combining Words That Have The Same First and Last Letter

This rule may sound a bit confusing at first, but it is actually rather simple. If you have two separate words in your domain name and the first word ends with the same letter as the second word begins with, avoid that domain. This can cause typos and confusion when your audience tries to visit your site. It can also be difficult to read.

For example, you may want to combine the words "best" and "theater" in your domain name. When you combine these words in your domain, it becomes "besttheater.cool". The double "t", where the words are joined, is an issue can be cause. To avoid this, consider buying a domain that combines "top" and theater" instead. In this case, your domain name would be "toptheater.cool". This is a much more user-friendly domain name.