3 Steps to Find Out Who Owns a Domain Name

Are you on the hunt to find out who owns a domain?

Perhaps the domain name you want is taken and you want to buy it. You may be running into problems trying to find the owner of the website because people keep information private.

Before you give up on buying that domain, we may have a solution to help you find out who owns it.

Not only are we going to help you find that domain owner, but we’re also going to give you some tips on what to do next.

Why Finding a Domain Owner is Important

Finding a website owner could be important for 2 reasons:

1. Availability of the domain. The domain name you want might be taken, but it may be available to buy.
2. Credibility of the domain. The domain you want may have been resold many times, which could lead to website security issues.

For instance, if nameboy.com was resold by a lot of different website owners and wasn’t protected with an SSL certificate, it could be unsafe. It could‘ve even been hacked!

This could lead to more work on your part by having to get additional online security for that website.

A site that’s unsafe can affect website rankings in the search engines, in a bad way. If it hasn’t been maintained, that could be bad for search.

If you’re not sure how to find this out, here’s how to measure your website’s SEO performance with Google Analytics to help.

So, how do you find out who owns a domain name to see if it’s safe? Let’s find out.

How to Find Out Who Owns a Domain Name

Here are the steps to get a domain owner’s information:

Step 1: Run a Domain Search

Start with a simple domain search by typing the name in any search engine or browser.

If the domain is available to buy, you’ll see a message letting you know it’s not an active website.

If it’s not available, it will lead to the active website that it’s being used for. You can search for contact details there.

You might find that the domain owner’s information is still not available, so the next step is to search in a domain registrar directory.

Step 2: Check a Domain Registrar Directory

Another way to find out a website’s owner is to search for their domain in a registrar directory.

Every time someone registers a domain name, a domain registrar is required to collect basic information, which is stored in a WHOis directory.

A WHOis directory is like a public directory of all the domains. It lets you look up ‘who is’ responsible for a website.

You can visit ICANN Lookup and search for the domain name in their directory.

If the contact information is available, it’ll be listed.

For example, when you look up nameboy.com you’ll find the following contact information:

You’ll notice that there is no email or phone number listed. The search continues.

Next, we recommend you check out the domain expiration date. That lets you know if the domain will be coming up for renewal soon.

Since you’re still looking for the domain name owner’s details, it’s time to visit the registrar that they listed.

Under Registrar Information, you should be able to find out who the domain registrar is, and the contact details they listed.

So, the next step is to contact the domain registrar for more details.

Step 3: Contact the Domain Registrar

Now that you have the domain registrar contact information that was listed in the directory, you can reach out to them for more.

Here are some tips when you reach out to a domain registrar:

• Include contact details. Be sure to include your name, email, and phone number.
• List the reason for the request. Share that you want to buy the domain name along with a time frame, if possible.
• Share an online profile. We recommend sharing a social profile, like LinkedIn, to let them know you’re legit.

If you share these details, your request is more likely to get through to the domain registrar.

The registrar will then contact the website owner or forward the message on to them.

So, what happens after you’ve contacted the domain owner?

After You Find the Domain Owner

After you find out who owns the domain you have a few choices:

• Request to buy the domain. Send a request to buy the domain right from the website owner.
• Hire a domain broker. If you’re not sure about the details, you can hire a professional to make a domain offer for you.
• Choose a new domain. If you’re unable to reach the domain owner, or they don’t want to sell the domain, you can choose a new name.

Here’s where the help of a domain name generator comes in! You can find a new domain or get some help with suggestions, instantly.

This is the end of the search to find a domain name owner.

If you need some more help, check out how the domain name ultimate guide or how to choose the best domain name extension.

We hope this article helped you find that domain owner! After all, domains are our favorite thing at Nameboy.

Good luck!