Register a domain with Cloud Domains

Register a domain with Cloud Domains

Note: On September 7, 2023 Squarespace acquired all domain registrations and related customer accounts from Google Domains. For more information about how this change affects Cloud Domains, see Cloud Domains feature deprecations, Google Domains FAQ, and Squarespace purchase of Google Domains FAQ.

This quickstart shows you how to register a domain by using Cloud Domains, including how to search for an available domain, register it, and then verify the registration. After you register a domain, Cloud Domains automatically renews your registration as long as your Cloud Billing account stays active. After your domain is registered, you can turn off automatic renewal at any time.

This page provides steps to register a domain by using the Google Cloud console. To register a domain by using the Google Cloud CLI or the API, see Register a domain.

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To follow step-by-step guidance for this task directly in the Google Cloud console, click Guide me:

Guide me

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Before you begin

1. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   Go to project selector

2. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

3. Enable the Cloud Domains API.

   Enable the API

Note: After you register a domain and enable billing, Google bills you for the domain and automatically renews your registration. You can turn off automatic renewal after you've registered your domain.

Get IAM permissions

This section provides information about Identity and Access Management (IAM) permissions and how to get them.

Permissions required for this task

To perform this task, you must have been granted the following permissions or the following IAM roles.

Permissions

• domains.registrations.create

Roles

• roles/domains.admin

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the IAM page.

   Go to IAM

2. In the permissions table, find your account, and then click Edit principal at the end of the same row.

3. In the Role list, select Cloud Domains > Cloud Domains Admin.

4. Click Save.

   If you can't add the role, ask your administrator to add the role to your account before proceeding.

Register a domain

To register a domain, complete the steps in the following sections.

Search for a domain name

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud Domains page.

   Go to Cloud Domains

2. Click Register domain.

3. Search for an available domain, and then identify the domain name that you want to purchase. Pricing is listed for each available domain.

4. Click Select next to the domain name that you want to purchase. You can add as many domains as you like, subject to your available quota. For details, see Quotas and limits.

   The total pricing based on your selection is calculated and displayed in the Search domain section. To remove a domain from your cart, click Deselect next to the domain name.

   After you set up billing and complete your domain registration, Cloud Domains automatically sets the registration to Auto-renew.

   Note: You can turn off automatic renewal at any time. For more information, see Turn off automatic renewal for a domain name.

5. Click Continue.

Configure DNS for the domain

Console

1. In the DNS configuration section, Use Cloud DNS is selected by default. However, you can choose one of the DNS providers that's listed in the following table. If you are registering multiple domains, you can choose individual settings for each domain.

   DNS provider	Description	Cost
   Cloud DNS	Google recommends that you use Cloud DNS as your DNS provider for all your name servers.	Additional Cloud DNS charges apply. For details, see the Cloud DNS pricing page.
   Custom name servers	If you choose this option, you can use Cloud Domains to configure your name servers, and then use a third-party DNS provider to configure your DNS resource records.	Check with your DNS provider.

2. In the DNS provider section, select your DNS provider:

   • If you select the default value Use Cloud DNS (Recommended), Google Cloud automatically creates a zone for you. To edit the zone name and other details, do the following:

     1. In the Cloud DNS zone list, select Setup new zone.
     2. Make the required edits, and then click Save and continue.

     If you already created a zone in Cloud DNS, Cloud Domains selects that zone by default.

   • If you select Use custom name servers, enter at least two name servers. To add more name servers, click Add another name server.

3. Click Continue.

Choose privacy settings for your domain

Console

1. By default, privacy protection is turned on. However, you can change the settings to one of the privacy options in the following table.

   Privacy option	Description
   Privacy protection on	Caution: If your domain uses the PRIVATE_CONTACT_DATA setting for contact privacy, it is changed to REDACTED_CONTACT_DATA when the domains are migrated to Squarespace. Your data is not shared with a third-party contact privacy provider and is instead shown as redacted in public contact databases like WHOIS. For more information, see Cloud Domains feature deprecation. Choosing this option ensures that your contact information is not available to the public. To help protect your contact information and prevent spam, a third party provides alternate (proxy) contact information for your domain in the public directory. The third-party provider forwards all messages that are sent to your proxy contact information to the actual private contact information. Cloud Domains does not offer privacy protection for all domain endings or top-level domains (TLDs). Registries, the organizations that manage domain endings, have policies prohibiting the use of privacy protection for certain TLDs.
   Limit your info available to the public	Choosing this option makes limited non-identifying information available to the public. The actual information available publicly depends on the domain that you have chosen. If you provide an organization name, it might be publicly visible.
   Make all contact info public	Choosing this option makes all your contact information available to the public through the WHOIS database.

   For information about how to use contact privacy, see the ContactPrivacy section in the reference documentation.

2. To limit which information is available to the public, select Limit your info available to the public. This option is only available for .com and .net domains.
3. To make all contact information publicly available, select Make all contact info public.
4. If you agree with the statement in the dialog, click I agree.
5. Click Continue.

Specify contact details

Console

Your contact information is necessary for ICANN to reach you if there are any problems. The information that you enter becomes the public contact information for your domain in the WHOIS database. For more information, see Contact information.

1. Enter contact details for the domain. By default, the same contact details that you enter are applied to the registrant, administrative, and technical contacts. To enter different information for each type of contact, you can edit your contact settings later.

   If you are registering more than one domain, you can choose to apply the same contact details to all domains or choose to enter different contact details for each domain.

2. Click Register.

   Processing your registration can take a few minutes.

   Cloud Domains or Squarespace sends a verification email to the email address that you enter.

Verify your contact information

After you register your domain, Cloud Domains or Squarespace sends a verification email to the address that you provided in your contact information for the domain. This email includes a subject line that states Action required: Please verify your email address or [Action Required] Verify your Squarespace domain contact.

You must verify your contact information within 15 days or your domain becomes inactive.

To verify your email address, complete the following steps:

1. Open the verification email from [e-mail].
2. Click Verify email now.

After Cloud Domains verifies your contact information, a confirmation message is displayed that indicates that your email address is verified.

If there is an error in verifying your contact information, see the Troubleshooting section Registrant email verification issues.

What's next

• To get an overview of Cloud Domains, see the Cloud Domains overview.
• To make changes to your registration settings, see Edit registration settings for a domain.
• To access API information, see the Cloud Domains API.
• To find solutions for common issues that you might encounter when using Cloud Domains, see Troubleshooting.