How to get and set-up your own '.com domain' using Google Domains in 3 minutes?

Hello dear reader,

Welcome to my first blog! Thanks for stopping by, please share your feedback and suggestions through the Contact page.

Why Google Domains?

1. Google Domains is a great place to buy your domain for the following reasons:

2. Google is a reputed and well-known brand; you are safe there from tonnes of frauds going there in the domain industry.
   Google being in multiple arenas, the integration with other Google solutions is seamless. For instance, if you have to create and publish your website through Google Site, or claim your site on YouTube to share links, the process is flawless.

3. The whole process of getting and maintaining the site is much simple.

How to get a site using Google Domains?

1. First, go to https://domains.google.com.

2. Then search for domain of your interest. In case the website you want isn't available, Google will provide some suggestions, you can use those if you like.
   You can also filter the results for the price and in case you don't want the .com domain ending, then you can look for alternative endings in All endings tab.

3. Once you've decided your domain, add it to your cart.

4. In the checkout, there are certain options:

   • Privacy protection—Google provides it for free. When this is on, your personal data will not be shared in the WHOIS public directory.

   • Auto-renew—If you want to keep the domain for a few years if not forever, then I suggest keeping it selected. From my research, I Found that there are companies out there who are in constant look-up of buying sites with expired registration only to sell it back to you for a much higher price. So better safe than sorry.

   • G-Suite—This is a paid option at CA$7.80/user/month (at the time of writing this article). I’d only suggest opting for this if you are at least a mid-sized company as it is too expensive compared to other alternatives out there like Namecheap. However, feel free to try out the 14-day trial.
     The only major benefit you will get is your custom email—contact@yourdomain.com. However, you can set that up for free as I’ll share in a future post.

5. Finally, do the checkout.

Congrats! You now own the domain.

How to set-up DNS settings and Verify ownership at Google Search Console?

Google Search Console is an SEO tool which provides you data on how well your website is doing and how to improve its performance. It also helps Google know that you are the valid owner of your site. Now, if you are buying your domain form Google Domains, then it seems obvious, but the tool can also be used if you bought the domain from any other registrar.

Set-up root-level redirect DNS record

Once the checkout is done, Google will take you to your domain page Here we will configure some DNS settings. The first setting that we are going to configure is to have the users go to your website without having to type www in the search bar. In other words, yoursite.com will be redirected to www.yoursite.com.

To set-up this property, do the following:.

1. Go to DNS > Synthetic records.

2. In Subdomain, put @ as this is a root-level redirect, and in Destination URL, put https://www.yourwebsite.com.
   Since this is a permanent redirect, select the fields—Permanent redirect (301), Forward path, and Enable SSL. Click 'Add'.

NOTE—You might get an error, but you can ignore that. The redirect sets-up successfully.

Verify the ownership in Google Search Console

To verify the ownership in Google Search Console, follow these instructions:

1. Go to Google Search Console.

2. Click Start now

3. Click Add property and type your website without the www.

4. Hit enter.
   If this is your first time using the Console, Google will give you a code to add to your domain DNS so it can verify the code and know that you own the domain.
   Otherwise, the ownership will get auto-verified

5. If you get the code, copy the code, go back to your domain page.

6. Go to DNS, and then Custom records.

7. In the Name field, keep the @, and it's a TXT record, so select the Type—TXT and finally in the Data field, paste the code and click Add.

8. Go back to Search Console and see if you get verified. Sometimes it might take some time for it to happen. So, I suggest waiting for at least a couple hours.

And now you not only own a website, but are also a Google Verified Owner of it, how does that sound? BTW, I’m gonna go ahead and build the website in Google Sites where I would use that verification that we obtained. I will post a video and blog for that as well, so stay tuned and follow me on social media @idaljot.

Stay tuned:

See the video I made on this topic at YouTube