I bought a domain now what? 10 steps you should take now in 2022

You have found the amazing domain you were looking for.

It is perfect for your brand.

It is catchy and easy to remember.

Now the question arises, I bought a domain now what?

BTW, if you don’t own a domain buy one here. Namecheap is a reputable domain provider.

Now that your domain registration is complete, let me tell you about the 10 steps which can make your virtual life a bit easier.

1. Understand how to host your own domain

Understanding how to host your own domain is critical information you need as a new webmaster to build and maintain your website efficiently.

After purchasing your hosting plan, you need to connect your domain name with hosting server to get your domain online. 

Select the web hosting

There are three main steps to recognize when creating a website. You have to choose a hosting provider, a domain name, and an application to build and maintain your website content.

Selecting a web host is the very first step that you should consider when beginning a website project. A web hosting company provides this site. On the other hand, a domain registrar is a company that manages and rents out domains.

You simply need to pick a hosting plan that suits your budget and website needs. 

You can start with a shared web hosting plan which suits your initial needs and then scale up once your site is more established.

Web hosting is a support service, a space where one’s website files are stored, traffic to one’s website.

Some website builders provide free hosting, free hosting is only available with them till you use their website builder.

Some hosting providers give you a free domain name when you buy web hosting from them. Note the web host generally provides free domain for the first year and it is chargeble after that.

Web hosting also provides additional services such as firewall software, technical support, email providers, FTP access, domain name registration, web development tools, and much more.

I usually recommend web hosting providers who are experts in WordPress hosting like WPX hosting.

>>Click here for our recommended hosting provider (This website is hosted with the same fastest WordPress hosting provider)

For any technical issues you can contact your hosting company to help you with any website related issues.

Get name server information from the web host.

You have chosen your hosting package, now its time to connect your newly registered domain name to the web host.

There are some reasons why you want to check one’s domain name servers. However, by far, the most common condition is when users switch to a new web host.

Your hosting service offers a hostname. For this reason, each time you transfer one’s domain, you have to update the name servers again.

Find Your Web Host Nameservers

First of all, you need to access the hosting control center to find the nameserver information. In this tutorial, we’re going to use CPanel.

Go to Accounts-> For details.
Go to the Nameservers section and note all the information about the nameservers.
Nameservers Details of the Hosting Control Panel

Alternatively you can also check with the web hosting support and they will provide you the nameserver information.

Set up name server information

First, you have to visit the domain provider to manage DNS settings. Here you will find options to update/edit nameserver information

Refer the below image

 

2. Setting up professional email address with domain name

The number of email accounts you can create depends on your hosting plan.

1. Log in to your hosting control panel, or cpanel.
2. Click Email Accounts in the Email section.
3. Enter the details for your branded email address, enter the password and click Create Account, as shown here.
4. You will see a notification, like this: “Success! Account Created.” The email address will be shown on the same page.
5. Now you can set forwarding for the custom email address by adding a forward email address, this will forward the email to the respective email.
6. Fill all the details as shown below. Then, click Add Forwarder and you’re done.

1. Email account quota status.
2. The search bar and its filters.
3. Create an Email Account.
4. Email Accounts table.

Now all the emails sent to username@yourdomainname.com will be sent to your personal email address.

You can set up professional email address like sales@yourdomainname.com or contact@yourdomainname.com

3. Learn how to build a WordPress website

Now it’s time to build your own website, to get your business online.

This is easier said than done, but once you start and keep optimizing your WordPress site you will surely reach your goal of creating a professional WordPress site.

If you are interested in building a wordpress site, check out our post How to build a wordpress website from scratch

After purchasing your hosting plan, the first thing you should do is to install WordPress on your hosting account. Most web hosts provide one click installs that will install WordPress.

Why choose WordPress as your website platform

WordPress is a popular CMS (content management system) to create your website, landing page or blog.

WordPress is a tool that manages content for your websites, blogs and increases audience traffic on our site. It enhances the business and provides the user precisely what they are looking for.

Get familiar with the WordPress UI

If your site has a poor user interface (UI), most of the site visitors will not look for your website. The inefficient UI causes to load the page in more than 3 seconds.

Slow loading of the page leads the users to leave the site and look for another website. Also, suppose there is no means of interacting with customers, such as a chat option on your website. In that case, it will make your site look unattractive.

A chat option enhances the user interface, and makes your site more interactive.

WordPress helps in attracting a vast organic audience with the help of search engine optimization. You can also use optimized key, words, symbols, and sentences to get more traffic on your site. WordPress makes it simple and easier for its users.

Pick a WordPress theme/design for your website.

You can install WordPress Themes and designs make the websites look attractive to the customers, and they decide whether they want to take services from that particular site or not. So it is an essential element in online businesses.

WordPress themes control the appearance of your website by providing professional and eye-catching themes for our website.

Google loves lightweight, responsive themes >>Click here for the lightweight WordPress theme (we recommend what we use, this site is built using the same theme.)

Get plugins to extend your website’s abilities.

The Plugins Add New screen allows you to install new plugins. The plugins help to extend and expand the functionality of WordPress.

If the website takes more than 3 seconds to load, the customer will leave the site and look for other fast sites.

You can use WordPress plugins to avoid slow loading of the website. For example, images usually slow down your website. If you try to change the image size, it can affect your website’s attractiveness.

In this case, the WordPress plugin compresses images without making changes in size. So, the web site’s appearance and speed will not get affected, and the customer will surely visit again.

Create basic pages

With other software, we usually need to use many codes to build pages on our websites. With WordPress, using their drag and drop builder, you can build any custom page within minutes.

You can use the template of your choice by following more straightforward steps. WordPress controls the appearance of our website pages to be them look more attractive for new customers.

You can start by building your business a website, filling that website with valuable content, and developing a marketing strategy to draw people to your brand. 

Consider starting a blog.

Initially, people used WordPress for blogging purposes. Now it is one of the best content managing systems in the market.

WordPress provides an excellent platform for bloggers. Any new user can create a professional blogging platform within ten minutes and start working.

Adjust your site navigation

The appearance is not everything that attracts the customers or website visitors. Suppose the visitor is not comfortable in finding the relevant information.

In that case, the beautiful templates are not going to help in any way. The website navigations help the visitor to find the destination quickly.

WordPress improves the website navigation to make your website more likely for the visitors to repeat their visits.

4. Learn how to build an email list

Email lists are built to market your business through email. Through email marketing, groups of people get targeted to stay in touch and continuously get our services.

Instead of reaching your customers through social media, email is a way more effective approach.

Set up an opt-in form

The first step to make an email list is to make a group of people who wants to stay updated about your services.

To create these people’s groups, we create an opt-in form in which they provide precise information.

After making an opt-in form, you can find your customer’s interest and facilitate them more conveniently.

Through an email list, you can communicate and update your customers about sales, new products, announcements, etc.

Create a solid lead magnet

You can divide the information on your website into byte sized checklists, which help deliver value to your readers.

This actionable and problem-solving information can be packaged in the form of an E-book or a video, which your visitors can download or view after providing their email id.

Once you have your visitor’s email id, you can engage and nurture your subscribers with valuable content by sending them regular emails. It helps to build an engaged audience of your website visitors.

Host an event (offline or online)

To stay in constant contact with your new customers, increase your conversions. You can conduct offline or online informative events related to your business to spread awareness to more people.

You can announce the event by sending mail to your email list about these events that you want to host.

WordPress helps to track, manage and analyze email list and help you to target more audience.

Invite people to join the club or group

Through email, you can invite more audience to join the group. Suppose you are sending 100 people an email regarding your business and its services.

In that case, those who need those services are more likely to join your groups. It helps in increasing your audience.

Organize a giveaway

You can announce the different giveaways and inform your audience through different social platforms and email.

In this way, more audience will reach you, and your traffic and conversions will increase.

Build with your blog

You can stay in contact with your audience through creative blog posts. The blog post need to be informative communication about a niche topic. So, there are more chances of attracting your audience.

Engage with your followers on social media

There are multiple sources of keeping your audience engaged with your content.Secure your social media accounts. Before you get too involved with one particular social media network it makes sense to secure all the relevant social media accounts for your website/business.

Getting social media handles that match up with your website will help to establish your brand online. 

Use social media to promote new blog posts, and to start discussions with your customers to find out what problems they’re having.

Through posts on social platforms, you can broadcast emails and provide them their favorite products in a giveaway.

Also, use your social platforms for the exciting announcement. In this way, your audience will stay engaged.

5. Start an ecommerce business

Ecommerce is a booming business and it is growing at a rapid rate, follow the below steps to grow your e-commerce store

1. Research and identify your ecommerce business model
2. Plan ecommerce niche research
3. Verify your target market and product ideas
4. Register your brand name and e-commerce business
5. Create your actionable ecommerce business plan
6. Setup your online store
7. Bring buyers to your online store

Eventually, this can become your own online business.

6. Create a landing page

Lets look at steps to follow to create a landing page

1. Select a landing page template.
2. Give a name to your landing page.
3. Add unique content for your landing page.
4. Include attractive images.
5. Make sure all your links and CTAs (Call to Actions) are working.
6. Complete your meta description and SEO title.
7. Publish! Your landing page is ready.

Learn More how you create your funnel step by step

7. Add Google Analytics

Is there any benefit to having websites when people don’t know what the numbers are? What about knowing what people look for on the Internet? Tell me the page you prefer? Which web site do they not like?

If you want to have a successful website that’s designed for growth, you need to keep track of the popularity of your site. This includes monitoring your site’s performance and traffic growth rate. 

Google Analytics provides professional website analytics solutions that can help answer many questions and more. Google Analytics is completely free to use, and it’s fairly easy to learn and get to grips with the basics.

The use of this is able to inform you of the possible changes to your site. Google Analytics is totally free and is easy to learn basic information.

Verify your site with Google Search Console / Webmaster Tools. Google search console  generates valuable data and metrics about your website to inform your decision-making process. 

8. Add SSL to your new domain name

Take note of your Internet browser’s URLs. What’s the green lock on the left? What are the passwords?

SSL is a real thing! Please note that the website address is also pronounced “https”, rather than “https”. SSL is a secure-to-use protocol used in crypting web sites between your computers and their servers.

It ensures your personal data is protected; the same goes for sensitive data such as a credit or debit card. Keeping a secure site in place for visitors is a good security strategy.

9. Develop your online presence

Brands differentiate you from competitors within your own niches — in the modern marketplace they are absolutely essential. When we buy domains our competitors are already one step ahead.

Establishing your online profile is a vital step towards building your online profile because you can identify people within your company for a long time. This will help your company go from being just one random search result to gaining a following in search engines.

Because your domain names generally represent the same company that provides your services and your website it is important that you have something thought through.

10. Don’t let your domain expire

Although this may sound obvious, you’d be amazed at the numbers that allow domain names to expire without knowing they were going to expire.

Microsoft’s Hotmail.com domain name was forgotten in 2003. Microsoft fortunately reregistered it after its expiration and re-issued it. Disasters were avoided… only for a moment.

Bonus tip: How to get a free domain name?

Can anyone give me an idea about free domain names on my sites? If you plan on building websites, you can purchase a domain with any annual plan from Zyro. With many different TLDs available to you, there is no simpler way to fulfill your dream online.

Zyro – the best way to build websites Share.

FAQS – I bought a domain name now what?

Conclusion – I bought a domain now what?

The purchase of domain names is very easy and you can choose the best option when you buy the domains. The first step in creating your site will require careful planning.

The building of your professional website involves everything starting with domain purchases, installing necessary plugins, building an effective website marketing plan.

I hope these guides helped improve your website’s effectiveness.

I would like to hear your question here.