So you’ve had one website for a while now and you now need or want to have another site online—or perhaps several websites. Most web hosting plans these days allow you to have multiple domains hosted. That’s the first step. Now there are three other steps you need to complete to add additional domains.
1. Register the New Domain Names
Whether you want to add a new .com, .net, or some other domain extension, you can either purchase your new domain through your current web hosting company or a third party domain registration company. There are advantages to each method. Going through your hosting company is usually easier. However, you have more flexibility going with a separate domain manager like Go Daddy and you can usually get your domains at a better price. For more information, see my previous post on keeping your domain and hosting separate.
2. Point your Domain to your Servers
Next, you’ll need to point your new domain name to your nameservers (the servers at your web hosting company where your files reside. Again, for more information see my previous post on setting your name servers at Go Daddy. If you purchased the new domain from your current web host, they will probably perform this step for you.
3. Set Up the Additional Domain via your Control Panel
Finally, you need to add the new domain to your existing hosting directory. Depending on your web host’s control panel, there may be some slight differences in the process, but the end result is the same. For example, to set up an additional domain at iPage, you would go to the control panel and click on DomainCentral.
Assuming you’ve already purchased your new domain, you just need to enter the domain name, select “Add Existing Domain”, and click the add button.
You can also search for and buy additional domains from this screen as well.
If your hosting company uses cPanel (like for example, InMotion), then you would go to the Domains section and click on Addon Domains.
Then you would enter your new domain name and specify its location.
Click on the Add Domain button and you’re ready to start creating content for your new site.
To see our list of recommended web hosting plans that let you host multiple domains, click here.
