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What is a domain ownership certificate?
A domain ownership certificate is basically a printed document issued by some domain registrars on a certificate like document with a stamp.
It’s basically a document that you can print out that says you are the official owner of a certain website.
Many registers will even put their own stamp on their certificate that you can print out. Most website owners don’t get this certificate officially even though they own their domain names.
However, some find having a domain ownership certificate quite useful especially when they are trying to promote their business or even trying to sell their website and web-based business on the open market.
What are domain name certificates used for?
Domain name certificates are mainly symbolic since the owner of that domain has usually bought it from a domain name registrar and all their essential information etc. are already registered with that domain name registrar.
However, a “domain name certificate” should not be confused with a domain validated certificate.
A domain validated certificate is a “digital certificate” typically used for a transport layer security TLS, where the domain name of the applicant is validated by providing some control over the DNS domain.
How do I get a domain ownership certificate?
Getting a domain ownership certificate isn’t as easy or as common as you may think. Why? Because for most domain name registrars providing hard copies of a domain name registration is not common practice.
Most domain names, in fact, are not verified through hard copy certificates at all.
So your best bet would be to either:
- Register your domain name with a domain name registrar who is willing to print you out or provide you with some kind of domain name certificate hard copy.
- Ask your current domain name provider to provide you with a hard copy like certificate for your domain name registration.
All you need to do is basically contact their support and ask if either is possible.
Where can I buy a domain name?
You can buy a domain name from any one of hundreds of legitimate domain name registrars.
To become a domain name registrar, a company needs to register and be approved by the ICANN which is the internationally accepted accreditation organization for domain names on the internet. Here is the link.
However, it’s very easy to find a domain name register, since many of the more popular ones are quite active in advertising and promoting their service.
To buy a domain name, simply contact one of the official domain name registrars and provide them with your identification details including: your name, address, contact phone number, etc. Pretty basic stuff really.
Then you pay a fee for the domain name registration. That is of course, if the domain name you wish to get is available.
The average price of a domain name now is around $10 for a .com. That is $10 per year.
What is proof of domain ownership?
Proof of domain ownership is usually required by anyone wishing to do business with you through your domain name or website.
They will normally request proof that you own the domain name by various methods, which I will discuss below.
Interestingly enough, none of the methods, basically the two I will list below, will ask for a hard copy, or certificate of ownership, for your website.
Who owns a domain name?
Technically the person who registers the domain name owns that domain name as long as they pay the yearly domain name renewal fee.
That’s right, when you buy a domain name, you’re basically buying the exclusive rights to use that domain name for one year at a time.
Every year you must renew that domain name in order to legitimately keep it. Most domain name registrars do offer the options for automatic renewals.
They will either bill your credit card or bank account, so you don’t forget to renew your domain name and not let it lapse making it available on the open market once again. Or offer you the chance to pay for two to five years, maybe even more, in advance.
How do I prove I own a website?
To prove that you own a website most companies will ask you to upload a text file directly into your website, if you’re using WordPress, this could even be a plugin you can upload into your WordPress dashboard.
You can also embed some code into the header portion of your website as well.
Another way to verify that you own a website, a company will ask you to upload a text file to your htaccess file on the server that is hosting your website.
They will then verify on their side that you do indeed on the website by confirming that the specific text file or code has been correctly installed or uploaded either directly into your website’s dashboard or through your web hosting provider’s servers.
What is the difference between a domain name and a website?
A domain name is the actual main address of your website and can be seen in the websites URL in any internet browser.
A website is basically a content management system, like WordPress, that is hosted on a web server, usually through a web hosting service provider.
Though, you can own a domain name without having a website for example.
In fact, many will actually buy domain names and sit on them until someone wants to buy the domain name. This is otherwise known as “domain name squatting”.
Technically, it’s not allowed. In fact, it’s against the law according to this publication, “Protecting Trademarks in Domain Names: Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) for Small Business Fa”
However, this seems more of a “frowned upon” policy than an enforced one. In fact, many companies make their livelihoods by buying up domain names and sitting on them.
This is especially popular for expired domains, since they officially have some age as well as some potential legacy links still linking through to them by their previous owners.
These domain name squatters will sit on them until an interesting party makes them an offer.
However, it doesn’t work the other way around, meaning that you can’t have a website live on the internet without a domain name.
Domain ownership certificate conclusions.
As you can see, issuing a domain ownership certificate is not common practice. There are other, much more common practices that verify the legitimate owner of a domain name.
You can, however, ask your domain name registrar if they can print you out a hard copy stating that you own a particular domain name.
Some domain name registers will even put their seal, if they have a seal, on the certificate for you to have for your records.
Sometimes getting some form of s domain name certificate hard copy may be useful if for example, you are selling a brick and mortar’s type business in which you have a website for.
Some buyers may actually feel more confident with these types of hard copy domain name certificates.
Although most, who understand e-commerce, the internet and as well as website ownership issues and are familiar with them, will not ask for one nor expect one.
Most will use one of the methods I have mentioned above in order to verify that you are indeed the legitimate owner of that domain name and website.
In fact, usually printing out a bill from your domain name registrar proving that your domain name has been renewed and is up to date is usually more than enough to prove with a form of hard copy that you are indeed the legitimate owner of the website.
