Registering a domain The first step in building your website is registering a domain name. Your domain is what you type into your web browser's navigation bar to take you to your site. For example, our domain is www.fasthive.com. People sometimes refer to the domain name as the URL or website. Registration is the act of purchasing a domain name. This allows you to secure your unique domain name so only you can use it to build a site or create a custom email. How do you register a domain?When you register a domain name, you pay a registrar to secure the domain on your behalf from a registry. Each TLD (Top Level Domain) such as .COM, .NET, .NINJA, etc has its own registry that controls all their names. Registering a domain name means you are securing it for a set amount of time, usually a year. You can renew the domain indefinitely so it stays in your possession. However, you can only register it for as long as the registrar allows, which is usually a max of 10 years. You can get started registering a domain name right away. Since they are first-come, first-serve, you want to secure your domain idea as soon as you can—before anyone else does!