How to safely check if a domain name is free and avoid it getting registered as premium domain

What does it mean to register a domain name?

Registering a domain name means that you claim a domain as yours to use for a fixed period of time, usually a year (although longer periods are also possible). After that time you have to re-register your domain to continue using it. If you don’t, your domain drops and becomes available again for someone else to register. So in effect you never really ‘own’ a domain name, but you kind of hire it.

Step 1 – check if your name is available

So first you need to figure out if the name that you’d like to use is free. One way to do this is to visit a domain registrar’s website and check there the availablility of your chosen domain. This is an easy and obvious way of doing it. But we strongly recommend you only do this if you’re completely sure about your domain and ready to buy it. If you’re still researching/deciding and just want to check your options, searching for a domain at a domain registar may get it reserved by that same registrar if you don’t buy it right away.

We’ve experienced several times ourselves and with clients that a name that was available at the first time of searching, an hour later was unavailable and registered in the name of the registar we searched at. This is called ‘front-running’, and although every domain registar denies they do this, the coincidence is too much and and we’re pretty sure this really happens.

Wikipedia have an article on it and decribe domain name front-running as ‘the practice whereby a domain name registrar uses insider information to register domains for the purpose of re-selling them or earning revenue via ads placed on the domain’s landing page. By registering the domains, the registrar locks out other potential registrars from selling the domain to a customer. The registrar typically takes advantage of the five-day “domain tasting” trial period, where the domain can be locked without payment’.

Also, if you search online, you’ll find many stories of people who’ve had this happen to them.
So how do you avoid it?

How to avoid your perfect website name being reserved before you can register it

The easiest way is to do a so-called WHOIS lookup of your desired name at the ICANN website. ICANN (short for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is a global not-for-profit public-benefit corporation that helps coordinate the internet’s naming system. And a WHOIS lookup tells you who is the current owner of a domain (if any). Because you can’t register a domain through ICANN, doing a WHOIS lookup through them is a safe way of checking whether a domain is available.

You can do a WHOIS lookup here: whois.icann.org

So for example, if we check our domain websiteswithaheart.com, we see that this domain is already registered and ICANN shows us the publicly available details for this domain, such as contact info and expiry date.

If you search for a domain that’s currently unregistered, you’ll get a message that the domain was not found:

This means that your domain is available and that you can register it if you like.

Please note that through ICANN you can check for the availability of generic  domains. These are domains that end in in the traditional .com, .org, .net, and .info, as well as newer generic extension like .life, .shop, .today, .blog and many more. You can find a complete list at this wikipedia page [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains#ICANN-era_generic_top-level_domains].

If you want to check for a country specific domain extension such as .co.uk, .au.com, .ca, .us, .nl, .de, etc., then you’ll have to check at the WHOIS database for your country’s registry. In the box below you’ll find links to a few commonly used country specific domain registries where you can check domain name availability.

Country level registries where you can safely check domain name availability

• United Kingdom: https://www.nominet.uk/
• USA: https://www.about.us/ (you must be a US citizen or US based business to be able to register)
• Canada: https://cira.ca/ (you need to have a local prescense to be able to register)
• Australia: https://www.auda.org.au/ (you must be Australian to register)
• New Zealand: https://www.dnc.org.nz/
• Ireland: https://www.iedr.ie/ (you must prove a valid claim to the desired name and a tangible connection to the island of Ireland)
• South Africa: https://registry.net.za/
• Germany: https://www.denic.de/en/
• Netherlands: https://www.sidn.nl/

If you country is not on this list, you can find it by Googling: your-country-name domain registry, so for example, Spain domain registry or Brazil domain registry, etc. And then look for the result that has something in there that indicates it’s the overarching domain registry for your country.

Step 2 – Registering your domain

When you have decided on the name that you want to use, it’s time to register it. It’s important to immediately register the name now! You should not first search for it through the companies search function, and then go and do something else, like feeding your cat 😉  Be ready to go through with the purchase immediately, otherwise next when you come back the domain may only be available as premium domain for a much higher price ( the dreaded domain name front-running). 

To register your domain you need to go through a domain registrar. There are many of these, and it can be hard to choose a reliable one, so below we have some recommendations for you.

In any case, in our experience it’s good to register your domain at a company that exclusively does domain registrations, because you’ll get the best experience with them. It’s also possible to register your domain at a hosting company, but we’d advise you to steer away from that and keep your domain and hosting completely separate.

How much does registering a domain cost?

Depending on the extension you choose (.com, .info, etc.), you can expect to pay roughly anywhere between $10.- to $100.- per year for registering your domain. The .com extension is typically most affordable, because there is a lot of competition for it. And newer extensions, like .love, .blog, and .life normally cost a little more to register. Please note that many registrars offer these for a lower price the first year, and charge more in the following years (for example, first year about 9 dollars per year and the years after about 25 dollars per year). 

What information do you need to provide when registering a domain?

When you register a domain you’ll have to provide your personal and/or business details plus contact info like email and phone number. For country specific domains such as .us and .uk you may also need to provide proof of address, and a copy of some form of ID. Plus you’ll need to have payment information on hand such as your bank or credit-card details or PayPal/Stripe account logins.

Typically you then create an account at the registrar of your choice, find your domain, and purchase it.

Your registration address and contact details normally become publicly available, and anyone doing a WHOIS lookup will be able to see them. But if you don’t want that you can turn on a privacy service (ususally  for a small fee), which will display generic information in a WHOIS lookup.

Renewing your domain registration

It can be a good idea to put your new domain on auto-renew. That way your domain registrar will automatically renew it for you after the initial registration period and you don’t accidentally lose your domain. But in any case you’ll get several reminders from your domain registrar by email  before your domain expires.

What if I accidentally let my domain expire?

If you domain expires there’s a grace period in which you can still re-register it for an admin fee. These fees can be quite high at some companies. After the grace period your domain becomes publicly available again and anyone can then register and use it. If you have a website set up with a domain name that you let expire, your website will no longer work until you pay the annual fee at the domain name registrar. If you can no longer secure the domain name because someone else has registered it, then you’ll need to connect another domain to your site to make it live again. Bottom line is, renewing your domain name on time each year is pretty important!

Recommended domain registrars

There are many companies where you can register your domain, and you can choose any one that feels good for you. Below are a few reputable companies that offer domain registrations at reasonable prices and that we have good experiences with:

• Namesilo
• Namecheap
• IWantmyname

We hope what we shared here will help you secure the perfect domain name for your website!

If you have any questions or would like more information, please feel free to get in touch. We’d love to hear about your ideas and think along.

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