Domains » Register a New Domain

Every WordPress.com site comes with a free .wordpress.com address such as yourgroovysite.wordpress.com. 

With a WordPress.com plan, you can add a custom domain name such as yourgroovydomain.com and show it in the browser’s address bar when someone visits your site. The free .wordpress.com address still works, but automatically redirects to your custom domain.

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Register a New Domain

To add a new domain to your site, follow these steps:

1. Go to Upgrades → Domains in the left sidebar of your site dashboard.
2. Click Add a domain and choose Search for a domain:

3. Type the domain you wish to register in the search field.
   • If you don’t have a particular domain in mind, you can also search for keywords, and we will suggest different options that match your keywords.
   • You can also click on the Filter button if you want to search for domains matching your keywords using a specific extension we offer such as .org, .net, .tv, and .blog, for example:

4. If the domain is available, it will show up below the search box. Click Select to choose the available domain.
5. In the next screen, choose if you’d like to add Professional Email or Google Workspace email to your domain, or you can skip this step with the Skip button. You can always add email to your domain later:

6. On the next screen, fill in the Domain Registration Information if prompted. Make sure your contact information is correct, and that you have access to the email address, as you may need to verify it later.
7. Make the payment to complete the registration and purchase a WordPress.com plan if you don’t have one already.

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Setting the Primary Domain

You can have multiple domains connected to one website, so the primary domain is the domain that your visitors will see in their browser’s address bar when they visit your site. All your other domains (including the .wordpress.com address) will redirect to the primary domain.

With a paid plan, you can set any domain as the primary domain.

To choose your site’s primary domain, go to Upgrades → Domains. You’ll see which domain is currently labeled as primary:

To change the primary domain, click the ellipses (three dots) next to the domain you want to make primary, and click Make primary site address.

If you prefer to use the free .wordpress.com or .wpcomstaging.com site address as the primary domain, click the three dots next to your free address and select Make primary site address:

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Email Validation and Verification

When you are registering a domain name, make sure you are using a valid email address in the Domain Registration Information. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) requires your contact information to be valid.

If the email you use to register your domain is the same as the email associated with your WordPress.com account, your domain will be automatically verified.

If you’ve used a different email address, please make sure to keep an eye on your email after you have registered the domain name. You will receive this email notification for all domain purchases, both publicly and privately registered. The email will be sent from the [email protected] email address.

It may take up to fifteen minutes for the domain to be shown as verified once you click the Verify Now button in the email.

An example of the email notification is posted below:

If you do not receive this email notification, please do not hesitate to contact support.

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Waiting for Domain Changes

The new domain should start working immediately in most cases, but sometimes the domain may be unreliable in the first 30 minutes. In rare cases, there might be a delay of 24-72 hours before your domain becomes active.

This is often referred to as propagation time. During this time, the domain may not load at all, only load sometimes, or load only in specific locations. This is because servers worldwide—from ICANN servers to local internet service provider servers—are still being updated.

Some servers only update once or twice a day. We have no control over domain propagation and no way of speeding this process up. You can check on the propagation status of the domain by using a service such as whatsmydns.net.

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Other Things to Know

• The annual and two-year WordPress.com plans come with a free domain name credit for one year of registration. When your plan and domain are up for renewal, they will renew independently of each other. Review your Purchases page for renewal dates and costs.
• It’s not currently possible to purchase domains through the mobile app. However, you can use the mobile app to redeem the free domain credit included with a paid WordPress.com plan.
• Domain registrations can be refunded within 96 hours.
• You can find the full list of supported domain extensions (TLDs) in the Domain Pricing and Available TLDs guide.
• You can still use domains with other extensions with your WordPress.com site. You just have to register them with a different registrar, then connect them to your site.
• If you already have a domain registered somewhere else, you can connect your existing domain to your site or transfer it to WordPress.com. You can also connect a subdomain to your site.

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Internationalized Domain Names (IDN)

Your domain name is an Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) if it contains language-specific characters such as ä, û, ע, ж, 字, मा. Domain registration, transfers-in, and connecting for IDNs is not currently supported at WordPress.com.

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Public Versus Private Registration and GDPR

Privacy protection is enabled by default on all the registered domains. GDPR has resulted in changes to WHOIS that, in many cases, will prevent your contact information from being publicly published. Please see the Domain Registrations and Privacy page for more details.

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Data Processing, Privacy, and Consent

We are required by ICANN to collect valid contact information for each domain registered at WordPress.com. Generally, this data is considered required in order for you to contract with us for domain registration services. We will send an email to the registrant contact email address when consent for optional data elements is needed. You will not have to consent share optional data in order to have your domain registered here. You can read more about domain registrations and privacy and managing consent here.

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WWW Version of the Domain Name

WordPress.com has chosen the non-www version of your site as the canonical URL. While www was required in the early days of the internet, it is no longer required or advantageous to use. Your site address can still be reached at the www version of the domain name, but it will always redirect to the non-www version. This is for SEO reasons; search engines prefer one version of the site address is set as the canonical URL because otherwise, they will see duplicate content.