There is a lot of pressure when it comes to naming your online store. While the process of choosing a name for your business can be fun and spark your creativity, it can also be daunting and arduous, especially if all your ideas seem to have been taken. You may find that the company name you want is available, but someone else has already claimed the corresponding domain name.
But that doesn’t mean you have to go back to the drawing board. In some cases, you can find out who owns the domain (also known as the domain registrant) of your choice and contact them to negotiate a purchase agreement. You can use the WHOIS domain lookup to find out who owns a domain for free.
How to find out who owns a domain
- Navigate to the WHOIS database
- Find the URL of the domain name
- Detect if contact information is private
- Find registrant contact information
- Contact owner
You can find out who owns it of a domain by searching the WHOIS database to find the key. information such as the registrant’s name, address status, and phone number. Please note that some domains employ a privacy shield to hide such information.
Simply enter the URL of the domain name in question here:
Click the Search button to find information about the domain and who owns it. First, WHOIS will display basic information, such as the domain name, ID, domain registration server and URL, and creation date. You can see below that shopify.com was created on March 11, 2003 and is currently registered with MarkMonitor.
You can also click See more information to expand the window and see more data about the domain name.
Now, you may notice that this information doesn’t exactly take you directly to the domain owner. In effect, the domain name service acts as an intermediary, essentially protecting the identity of the domain owner. That means you’ll have to do a little more digging to find out who really owns the domain.
If the identity of the domain owner is hidden, look up information about the company that owns the domain. You can find a Contact Us or About Us page that talks about the leadership, founders, owners, etc. of the company.
You can also find out where the company is registered and search databases that include information on registered companies. . Search the secretary of state or department of revenue websites for the appropriate location. For a business registered in Florida, for example, you can search for business ownership by business name, employer identification number, address, or even the name of the registered agent.
What to do when find out who owns a domain
Once you know who owns the domain, you may want to find out how to contact them and possibly negotiate an agreement to transfer ownership of the domain.
Contact the domain owner
First things first: you need to contact the domain owner. You can find your contact information by following the steps listed above, often in the form of a physical mailing address. But if you want to communicate in a different way, there are a few steps you can take to find the right contact.
The best place to start is with a Google search. Just Google the person’s name to see what comes up. You can also search for “[name] email address” or “[name] contact information.” If that doesn’t work, check out databases like Hunter.
Once you contact the domain owner, be prepared to negotiate a deal for the domain. Have a number in mind and be prepared to hear a counter offer. When preparing your number, consider the authority of the domain or the amount of search equity the existing site has. If it’s clearly out of date and doesn’t appear high on search results pages, you can offer a lower number. But for up-to-date sites with a strong digital presence across multiple channels, you may need to start higher.
Migrating Your Site to the New Domain
Once you’ve secured ownership of the domain in question, you’ll want to migrate your existing site to that domain name. (You can skip this step entirely if you’re starting a website from scratch.)
If you build your website on a platform like Shopify, you can migrate to or from virtually any website builder online.There are several options for migrating a site to Shopify, each being a relatively simple process.
Learn More: Get the features you need to grow your business and help you switch seamlessly with Shopify Website Migration.
Propose new ideas for your domain name
If your negotiations don’t bode well and you can’t secure ownership of the domain name, have to think of some new ideas. Try these tips to help you choose a domain name without having to start completely from scratch:
- Opt for a different top-level domain (TLD). Many websites use a .com TLD, but you can also see if your domain name is available in .co, .org, .shop, .biz, or another TLD.
- Add a word to your domain name. Words like “buy” and “buy” are great additions to your domain name. If shoes.com is not available, for example, you can use shopshoes.com or buyshoes.com.
- Get help from a domain name generator. Get ideas from Shopify’s free domain name generator. Enter your ideas and keywords and you’ll get popular and alternative domain names to use for your business.
Set up your domain with Shopify
When you register your domain with Shopify, you automatically get access to Shopify’s full suite of business tools to help you manage it all. from your domain to inventory management to shipping and fulfillment.
Ready to build your first business? Start your Shopify free trial, no credit card required.
.