About Domain Names

Using a Domain You Already Own

If you already own a domain name registered elsewhere, you can still use it with your Bluehost account. You'll need to change your domain's settings to point to Bluehost. To do that, contact your registrar or log in to your account with your current registrar and change the name servers to:

• ns1.bluehost.com
• ns2.bluehost.com

This tells your registrar that Bluehost is now the hosting provider. It does not move website content; that is something you'll do later in your control panel. Once that’s been done, it can take up to 24–48 hours for the new nameservers to update across the internet. This is called DNS propagation.

Once a domain has been pointed to the Bluehost servers, there are two ways you can use the domain on your account. You can transfer the domain's registration to your Bluehost account, or you can assign the domain name to your account without transferring the registration.

Domain names are typically renewed once a year and sometimes for multiple years at a time. It can be easy to lose track of where your domains are registered when it's time for renewal, especially if your domain and hosting are in separate places. Remember, you need both a hosting provider and a domain registrar to have an active website and a working email. For this reason, many of our customers like to transfer domains to their Bluehost account to keep things simple. Here, you can keep everything on one bill, buy domain names for multiple years, and set up your domains and hosting to renew automatically; there is no need to worry about a lapse in service or, worse, losing your domain registration altogether.

Registering a New Domain Name

Your domain name is the name of your website and acts as your address on the web. Viewers will use your domain to find your website, which is why it's also a good idea to register your domain name along with common misspellings and various other domain extensions— just in case. If you own johnsphotography.com, see if johnsphotos.com and johns.photos are available to catch users who misspell your domain name. We make it easy to see which domain names are available for registration.

Shorter domains are typically better since they are easier to type out and remember. If your business name is long, you might try registering one domain for your website and a shorter version of the domain name just for email. Email addresses should be simple enough to be written out and spoken aloud without too much effort.

Your domain should be unique so you won't be confused with another website or business, but simple so it's easy to remember. Avoid things like hyphens or unusual spelling so people can still find you online.

You can also set up redirects on your hosting account so that if someone visits a misspelled or short version of your domain, they can be redirected to the correct site.

Domain Name Privacy

Domain registrations require registrants to provide accurate contact information to their registrar. Depending on the domain extension, registry policies, and applicable privacy regulations, some registration data may be publicly available through WHOIS or RDAP services, while other information may be redacted or privacy-protected.

Domain registrants are generally required to provide accurate contact information to their registrar. Domain Privacy helps limit the amount of personal registration information that may be displayed publicly, where supported. But most people wouldn't want their personal contact information available to the public, where scammers, hackers, and anyone else can see it. This is what makes Domain Privacy so valuable.

Domain Privacy is a service Bluehost offers to hide your personal contact information from the public WHOIS database and replace it with generic Bluehost contact information instead. You are still the domain name owner, but your personal contact information can be kept safe.

Domain Privacy can help reduce your exposure to:

• Spam and other unsolicited communications
• Unwanted phone calls and postal mail
• Misuse of publicly available registration information
• Certain forms of domain-related fraud

Summary

A domain name serves as a memorable link to your website's IP address, making it easier for people to find your site. If you own a domain registered elsewhere, you can still use it with Bluehost by updating its settings to point to Bluehost's nameservers. You can transfer your domain registration to Bluehost for simplified management or assign the domain to your Bluehost account without transferring registration. Keeping domain registrations and hosting under one account can help streamline renewals and reduce the risk of service lapses or losing domain registration. When registering a new domain name, consider its uniqueness, simplicity, and potential variations to capture misspellings or alternative extensions, enhancing your website's findability. Shorter domains are preferable to ensure ease of use and recall.