Top 5 Items to consider while Buying a Domain

Buying a domain online is one of the very first steps you take while setting up a new website or a business in general. It’s exciting, and it’s simple after you find the perfect name, of course. To make things easier, you should know about a few things while buying a domain.

Every company or online website, which sells domain names, isn’t necessarily the same. Some of them have these hidden fees and amounts that can impact your own website or business. But don’t worry. With a few simple tips, nothing can stop you from owning a great domain.

Here are the top 5 things you should know about while buying a domain:

Keep an eye out for hidden fees.

Price is always a huge factor when buying anything at all. You can get tricked into buying a domain at a very low price initially and then forced to pay extra amounts with tactics like these:

Additional costs:

A lot of domain registrars make use of the fact that people don’t go through the fine print. The terms and conditions of service are very important policies, and you should review them thoroughly to know about any hidden costs like renewal rates, upgrade costs, etc.

Costs for editing WHOIS or RDAP records:

Domains need to be registered on RDAP and WHOIS public directories, and this process is always free of any costs. If your registrar or domain buying website asks for a fee, you’re being scammed.

Extras and add-on charges

You can get lured into buying things you don’t really need or ones you may never need.

2. Protect your privacy

Details of a domain are usually public records in directories like RDAP and WHOIS. This makes this data accessible to all sorts of people, even scammers and spammers too. Make sure that your domain provider offers protection of your domain data without any charges. Domain-providing registrars or websites shouldn’t charge anything for privacy protection.

3. Data protection

Some of the domain registrars on the internet might even sell your personal data to third-party organizations like marketers or data miners etc. They can even mine the WHOIS database to send out fake renewal invoices and luring people into transferring their domains unknowingly. Find domain registrars who promise extra protection of your personal and customer data.

4. Transparency

The prices of your domain must be transparent and verifiable, along with the renewal costs, transferring, and cancellation rates. Some of the registrars advertise low initial costs and then add immense prices for the next renewal. Another thing could be to make the cancellation very difficult. All these things should be there upfront.

5. There’s a difference between sales and support

A lot of shady-looking registrars usually have whole dedicated sales teams, trained only to lure you into buying add-on services while also pretending to give support. It’s always wise to search up every domain-registrar online before making a decision. You can use public forums and other websites that have good content regarding domains and websites.