I Bought A Domain Name Now What?
This is one of the frequent questions asked by newbies.
If you have purchased your domain name then I would like to congratulate you on getting started.
If you are confused about what to do after buying a domain name, then this post will help you.
I will help you clear all your doubts with this informative article.
For the people who think, “I bought a domain name now what?”, here are the simple and useful steps to do after getting your domain name.
- I Bought A Domain Name Now What? Things To Do
- Get Web Hosting
- Connect your Domain name with your Web Hosting
- Get Matching Social Media Names
- Install WordPress
- Install and Customize your Theme
- Setup a Professional Email Address
- Add Important Pages
- Install the Essential Plugins
- Write your First Blog Post
- Add your Website to Google Search Console
- Include Email Opt-in
- FAQs Related To I Bought A Domain Name Now What?
I Bought A Domain Name Now What? Things To Do
Before we dive into the topic, let us see what is a domain name.
When you purchase a domain name, it will have a unique address through which the users will be able to access it.
Let us go into the topic “I bought a domain name now what?” and see about the useful things to do.
Get Web Hosting
The first thing you need to do after getting a domain name is to build your blog or website. To do that you need to buy the right web hosting.
There are many web hosting providers available in the market. Most domain name providers also sell web hosting services. It is recommended to choose a different provider for your domain name and web hosting service.
Though there are many free web hosting providers, I would recommend staying away from them.
I recommend Bluehost as it is a reliable and WordPress.org recommended hosting.
Why Bluehost?
Bluehost is one of the most reliable hosting providers at an affordable rate. Here are its best features:
- Affordable Price
- Officially recommended by WordPress
- 30 days money back guarantee
- One-click WordPress installation
- Easy to use
- Endorsed by top industry players Like Neil Patel, and others
- 24/7 Support
- Excellent uptime
- And so on…
Connect your Domain name with your Web Hosting
If you have bought a domain name from Godaddy or Namecheap and web hosting from Bluehost, then you need to connect the domain name with your web hosting.
Here are the steps you need to follow:
Step 1: Find the DNS information of your web hosting. You will find it in the confirmation email from the hosting company. For Bluehost, it will be like this:
ns1. bluehost.com
ns2.bluehost.com
Step 2: Log in to your domain name account.
Step 3: Go to “Manage my domains” and select the domain name.
Step 4: Under DNS management, update the name servers.
That’s it. Generally, it may take around 24 hours to take effect. However, sometimes it will be updated in a few minutes. In the meantime, you can try getting social media names for your blog/website.
Get Matching Social Media Names
After buying a domain name, you would need to secure the social media names. If your domain name does not match the name with your social media profiles, it will cause great confusion.
For example, if you have bought a domain name bloggingstorm.com, then would need to get the same name for all the social media profiles like Facebook, Twitter, etc.
If your domain name is not available with the social network and it is registered already, then check whether that owner is ready to sell that account.
If they are willing, then you can purchase it. Else, choose a domain name that is similar to your domain.
For example, the Facebook profile for this domain is Facebook.com/StormBlogging and Twitter profile is Twitter.com/Bloggingstorm.
Install WordPress
It is time to install WordPress software to manage your site.
WordPress is the most popular CMS software. Login to the cPanel of your web hosting provider and you can install WordPress with just one click.
On the cPanel, on the list of softaculous apps, choose WordPress.
Select the domain name, and enter the admin user, password, and email that will need you at the time of logging into your WordPress dashboard. Then click on “Install WordPress“.
Once WordPress is installed, you will get a confirmation message. You will also receive an email with the WordPress admin username and password to log in to your website.
Install and Customize your Theme
When you install WordPress, it will provide a couple of free themes. There are plenty of free themes available in the WordPress repository.
I would suggest you install the GeneratePress or Astra Theme. Both are fast-loading and SEO Optimized themes.
Personally, I would recommend you to use GeneratePress. Here are the reasons for it:
- Lightweight
- Mobile friendly
- SEO Friendly
- 24/7 Support
- Simple and beautiful design
- And many more.
To enjoy all the features of the GeneratePress theme, you would need to buy the GenaratePress Premium.
Setup a Professional Email Address
After installing the theme, it is recommended to create a professional email address for your site.
A professional email address will look like [email protected]
You do not need to spend any money to create an email address for your website. Your hosting provider will allow you to create unlimited emails for your website.
In the case of Bluehost, you can follow the steps below:
Step 1: Log in to the cPanel of your hosting account.
Step 2: Go to the email section and click on “Add Email Account“.
Step 3: Enter the name for your email (admin or info @domain.com)
Step 4: Type the password and click on “Create Account”.
You have now created a custom professional email address. If you wish, you can forward emails from this email to your Gmail address. Else, you can leave it.
Add Important Pages
You need to add all the important pages to your website.
Following are some of the essential pages:
About us – On this page, you need to add information about yourself and your website. You can write what readers can expect from your site.
Contact us – You need to add the contact details here so that visitors can contact you directly.
Affiliate Disclosure – If you are doing affiliate marketing, then you need to disclose it properly.
Privacy Policy – Here you need to describe the privacy policy of your website. You need to tell how you collect information about your visitors and how you use them.
Disclaimer – All websites should have a disclaimer so that you are not taking any responsibility.
Install the Essential Plugins
Plugins help your website in many ways. Here is the list of essential plugins you must have installed on your WordPress website.
RankMath – RankMath is the best SEO plugin that helps you to optimize the On-Page SEO.
WPForms – WPForms is the best plugin to create beautiful forms within a few seconds.
Smush it – It is the best plugin to optimize the images on your website.
WPRocket – WPRocket is the best plugin to improve the performance of your WordPress site.
Write your First Blog Post
After customizing all the things, it is time to write your first blog post and publish it.
Make sure that your blog post is both user and SEO friendly.
Add your Website to Google Search Console
Google Web Master is now known as Search Console. It is one of the highly recommended free SEO tools that help to improve your performance on Google searches.
This tool will help you with the metrics such as Organic CTR, clicks impressions, mobile friendliness, number of links, etc.
It will also tell you whether there are any penalties or malware issues on the website.
In the search console, you can easily submit your sitemap or request to index an individual URL.
Include Email Opt-in
This is another important item on the list. An email list will allow you to keep engaged with your readers.
Email opt-in forms will help you grow your blog. You need to add an email opt-in form from day one. It also helps you to increase traffic to your website.
I would recommend using ConvertKit for email marketing.
It is very easy to get started and maintain things with them.
FAQs Related To I Bought A Domain Name Now What?
Can I own a domain name forever?
Domain names are bought for a period. You own the domain till the expiration date. You need to renew it before it expires.
Where is the best place to buy a domain name?
What Happens to My Domain When I Change My Web Host?
Considering you have bought domain name separately from your hosting comapnay, you just have to update DNS of the domain from Old Web Host to New Web Host.
I bought a Domain Name Now What | Conclusion
In this post, I tried to answer a common question asked by a blogger:
I bought a Domain Name Now What?
I hope after reading this post, all your confusion and doubts are cleared. If you have any comments or questions, please comment and I will clear them.
