domain name

How to Look Up A Domain Name Registration

I often say that you should know check to see exactly how your domain name is registered online, so that you know who owns it – but where do you look?

I recommend using BetterWhoIs.com for domain name searches. You’ll not only find out who owns the domain but when it was purchased, when the registration is due to expire, and you can find out where a website is hosted.

Once you go there, you’ll see a box in which to enter the domain name. Do so – then you’ll come to a page that asks you to enter a 4-digit security code that they give you. Go ahead and do that.

(You can ignore the rest of the stuff on that main page – it’s mostly ads. For example, I wouldn’t pay Registrar.com $20 for your domain name – you can register a domain at 1and1.com for half that price.)

When you’ve done so, you’ll see the results page.

The first thing you’ll see is whether or not the domain name is AVAILABLE (which means no one has purchased it) or RESERVED – which means someone owns it.

If the domain was not registered privately*, you’ll then see interesting info such as where the domain was registered (such as Godaddy.com) , where it’s hosted (the Name Servers) and if you keep on scrolling down…

You’ll get to the good stuff.

What you’re most interested in is who is listed as the REGISTRANT. That person or company is the legal owner of your domain name. It should be you.

Very often it’s your web designer – and if they bought your domain name for you, they may have done the initial purchases in their name. That’s pretty typical – but when they’re done with the site and you’ve paid them for their work, they should transfer ownership to you.

If it’s not you – contact the person listed as the Registrant and ask to get that fixed. Ask for the username and password to log into your domain name registrar.

Even if you paid for a domain name and website, and you own it – in practical terms, he who controls the usernames and passwords owns the site.

*If your domain name was registered privately – which means that ownership names and contact info are not publicly displayed like this – a third party’s information will be displayed, such as the Registration company itself.

Domain Name Renewal Letters in Your Mailbox SCAM

I got three of these yesterday. I won’t name the company (although their logo has an American flag in it). And what they’re doing isn’t illegal, I think.

But if you ever get a formal-looking letter from a company you’ve never heard of, saying that your domain name is about to expire and to renew it by filling out this form and sending in $35 for another year – don’t do it!

Call or email your web designer. Or take a couple of minutes to look up your domain name registration.

That may be a legitimate company – but they’re probably NOT your current registrar. They’re fishing for new customers by sending letters to people whose domain registrations are public info. (They are by default unless you have “private” domain name registrations.) If you complete that form, you will probably wind up paying quite a bit more for your domain name than you have to.

I seldom pay more than $10 for a domain name for a year. My favorite domain name registrar is usually $8.99 a year – often there’s a deal for $6.99 for the first year, then $8.99 a year after that – and they include free private registration.

Why Set Up Domain Forwarding?

I often encourage people to buy one domain name and redirect (or forward) it to another one. It’s an inexpensive way to make it easier for people to find a particular web site, or even a specific web page. I’ll describe how they work and why you’d want to use one.

Domain forwarding (domain redirection) lets you automatically send your domain’s visitors to a different web site. Forwarding is a slick trick when you have a web site built elsewhere and you want to give people an easy-to-remember domain name to reach it.

Here’s an example, one I’ve done.

I write a column for the Columbia Daily Tribune, and it’s archived online on their web site at http://www.columbiatribune.com/staff/diana-ratliff/. But that’s rather long and hard to remember – I wanted an easier way to tell people where to read it.

So I bought the domain name WebWiseColumn.com and set up a redirect.

Now, when people type http://www.webwisecolumn.com/ in their browsers, they’ll see http://www.columbiatribune.com/staff/diana-ratliff/

http://www.webwisecolumn.com/ http://www.columbiatribune.com/staff/diana-ratliff/

It’s like giving your site a nickname, one that’s easier to remember or to spell than the REAL domain name.

(If you want, you can hide that you’re doing this by enabling “Masking” – which prevents visitors from seeing your domain forwarding by keeping your domain name in the Web browser’s address bar.)

So why would you set up domain forwarding?

Let’s say you have a listing at one of the local business directories like EverythingMidMo.com. Rather than telling people “Well, to find my site, type in everythingmidmo.com, then click on “Beauty and Fitness”, then click on “Beauty Salons”, then scroll over to page 5 and it’s there, click on it…” – wouldn’t it be easier to say “Find my business at MyBeautySalon.com”?
Suppose you sell products or services online as an affiliate – you get a commission if you refer someone to another website and they make a purchase. Usually, you get an AFFILIATE LINK when you join an affiliate program – and the link is usually quite long and full of odd characters. You might buy a domain name and redirect it to your affiliate link. I do this for business card printers – for example, if you type in FindBusinessCards.com, you actually wind up at PrintsMadeEasy.com – and I’ll get a commission if you buy business cards there. (Go ahead, they’re great cards!)
Maybe you just want a domain name and don’t want to actually develop it yet. Say you want to buy “yourname.com” in case you ever want to use it. Or maybe you want to buy some great domain name that’s associated with your industry, just so your competitors don’t get it. You can buy that domain name and redirect it to an existing site.

It’s important to remember that what counts with the search engines is the domain name the files are actually ON. I’ll discuss that in a future blog post!