Your domain is your brand and identity on the Internet. You need to protect your domain by registering it securely with a domain registrar, like Namecheap or Hover. The domain registrar you select will maintain a public record of your domain, and important technical information about your domain required for your web site(s) and email server — plus many other Internet services — to function correctly.
Not sure if you control your domain registration? Follow these steps to Review the Public WHOIS Info for Your Domain.
What You Need to Set Up a Secure Domain Registrar Account
To create an account at a domain registrar, you must provide:
- a valid email address (not in the domain you want to register)
- credit card
- a user name
- a strong password.
IMPORTANT: You do not want to use an email address that is part of the domain you are registering. For example, if I was registering the domain “cadent.com,” I would not want to use an email address in the “cadent.com” domain to set up the domain registration account. Why? Because if there is any problem with your domain registration, your emails associated with that domain may also stop working correctly, which means you won’t be able to fix your domain.
To avoid this, set up your domain registrar account with a secure email address on a different domain. An easy way to do this is to create a “company” Gmail address. Then use this email to set up your domain registrar account. Since this email account is literally the key to your Internet kingdom, make sure it’s secure by setting up 2-factor authentication. This means if someone steals your password, they still won’t be able to get into your Gmail account.
Once you’ve set up your company Gmail account, you can set up auto-forwarding to send any emails on to your work email, so you don’t have to check yet another email account.
Protect Your New Account with 2-Factor Authentication
Once you’ve set up your new account, you should turn on 2-factor authentication, if possible, with your domain registrar. This will ensure that your domain registrar account will also be secure even if someone steals your password.
Adding Domains to Your New Account
Now that you’ve set up a secure account with your domain registrar, you can purchase your domain if it’s not already taken, or transfer it to your account from the account of the current owner. Read Transfer Your Domain to Your Secure Domain Registrar Account for detailed instructions on the transfer process.