Complete Wix Domain Guide
Wix domain hosting is actually free for the first year if you buy a yearly premium account. Yearly renewal or first time purchases not with a premium account are $14.95 a year for a single year, $13.95 a year if your purchase 2 years, and $12.95 a year if you purchase 3 years.
Wix has the ability to host your domain for you instead of needing to go to other hosting websites like Go Daddy. This way all of your website information is in the same place, making it much easier for you to manage your online presence.
But what are your other options? What if you already have a domain name and want to transfer? How do you search for a domain if you don't have one?
The goal of this is post is to have you feeling comfortable with purchasing a domain on your own but also giving you all the information you need in order to let your developer or designer know what your expectations are.
Wix Free Domain Name
Wix offers you a free domain name when you make a website with their platform. You don't even have to do anything!
Create an account with Wix and then create a website in their editor or ADI. Once you click on the "Publish" button you will immediately be able to see your site live. Doing this has automatically created a free Wix domain name that you will be able to use at your pleasure.
This wont be a very professional domain name and people will not end up taking that kind of a domain seriously as a business until you actually pay for a custom domain.
But, you do have the option and this can be perfect for setting up a quick site for a family reunion or wedding invitation.
Wix Domain Search
Wix has made it incredibly easy for you to find a domain name perfect for your business and it's important that you do this first step.
Too many times entrepreneurs and businesses start their websites and edit and create something beautiful with the perfect name in mind only to go to purchase and realize that it's not even available!
So use this free tool that Wix has provided to see if your domain name is immediately available. Because this tool is located inside of the Wix platform it will even easier to connect to your actual site.
The Wix tool is great and will give you alternative options to your domain if it is not available like a .org or .io. But using other tools will give you a little extra information.
Google Domains is a tool that will tell you how much a year each domain will cost if you purchase from them and more options like adding domain names to a saved list or adding to a shopping cart.
On average this is a couple bucks less than what Wix offers. This is because Wix allows you to have all your domain information in one place causing less of a hassle if you ever need to troubleshoot.
There are plenty of other domain hosting services that you can shop around for pricing like Go Daddy or iPage.
Wix Domain Cost
As we covered above there are yearly domain plans that Wix offers. You will not be able to purchase a domain for any other length of time than one, two, or three years. Wix also does not "own" your domain just like any other domain host does not own it. You purchased and it is yours and you will be able to transfer anywhere you want.
$14.95 is the single year plan that Wix offers. This would be perfect if you are just starting a side hustle and not sure if you plan on making it long term, like affiliate marketing.
There is also a 2 year plan you can purchase for a total of $27.90. This is a total price and breaks down to $13.95 a year.
There is a 3 year plan as well you can purchase for a total of $38.85. This total price breaks down to $12.95 a year.
You must have a premium Wix account in order to use a custom domain name on your site. You will not be able to connect your domain if you do not purchase a premium account. This is why if you are setting up your site you will want to wait to purchase a domain until you purchase your premium account because the first year is free.
Wix Domain Refunds
There are no refunds on any domain purchases from Wix including one, two , or three year purchases. Often times people will sign up for a domain name, have no people come to their site and make no money and then want a refund because the site didn't "do anything."
The only refunds I have heard of being successful are ones in which you purchase the domain and then want to refund within a day or two. This is the only flexibility I have seen Wix have with domain purchases.
You have to think of domain hosting as a local festival...
You arrive at the local festival and there are lots of tarps set up for local vendors to sell their products. Jewelry, painting, crafts, etc. are all available for you to purchase. These vendors actually pay the festival a fee to be able to set up. The idea is that the vendor invest upfront for a spot and counts on being able to sell most of their merchandise to not only make up the cost of the fee, but also some profit.
You are the local vendor with a tarp set up at a local festival when you purchase a domain name. You are putting in an investment upfront with the goal for your site to make enough money to cover those fees and also make you some money.
But neither the vendor, or you, will be able to get a refund on that money if you don't sell well because it had nothing to do with the festival, or Wix.
Connect Your Wix Domain
So you have purchased the domain and now it is time to connect your Wix domain.
You might have already cruised through this step if purchasing from Wix because they make it so easy. If you have already built your site, purchase your domain and Wix will automatically prompt you to connect to one of the sites you have already built.
And that is it. You will have connected your domain name to your Wix site! Check the site out live and you will see the URL as your custom domain purchase.
Wix Domain Transfer
Transferring your domain can mean a couple of things. It can mean you have purchased a domain outside of Wix and need to connect it to a site you have built.
It can also mean you have a domain on one Wix site and need to transfer that domain to a different Wix site.
Both are easy to do but do require some extra steps that often intimidate most business owners into needing some help.
Transfer Domain From Outside Wix
Let's say you purchased your domain ahead of time because you didn't want to risk the chances of someone taking it.
You probably used Go Daddy or Google domains to do this. Wix has made step by step instructions that can guide you through the transfer process.
One thing I have noticed about these guides is that they are often out of date. It is the price of having such quick moving technology. This will often intimidate inexperienced users to abandon ship and dish out some money.
As someone who has done LOTS of these types of transfers its important for me to say a couple things about this.
1) Use some of your natural smarts. Being an entrepreneur isn't easy and so you have had to adapt and learn your way through problems and this is no different. Although some of the guides may have older versions of sites and things seem out of place, the concepts and functions are all still there and have not disappeared. Just take one extra step and you will probably find what you are looking for.
2) Use customer support! Sometimes it takes 5 minutes for support to tell me one simple solution I was missing and instead of spending all day figuring it out on your own call support and they will guide you through everything.
HERE IS A GUIDE that will walk you through setting up you google domain to Wix. THIS IS ANOTHER GUIDE that will walk you through setting up your Go Daddy domain name to Wix.
Transfer Wix Domain To Another Wix Site
This is a simple process and like the others Wix has created an easy to follow guide that can walk you through the steps.
You can transfer a domain to any other Wix site that has a premium account because if you remember, you cannot have a custom domain without a premium Wix account.
Because a Wix premium account can only be applied to one Wix site, businesses will often want to transfer both their domain and premium account to another Wix site.
This is done mainly because of redesigns. When a company redesigns their site they will not want to mess with the current site so they build a whole new one and when it is ready they attach the domain and premium account.
YOU WILL FIND THIS GUIDE to be helpful when you are ready to transfer your Wix domain to another site.
Wix Pointing
In the process of connecting your domain that you purchased outside of Wix you might find that there are two options to doing this, pointing and name servers.
This can get a little technical but we will stick with the basics so you have an idea of what it actually means.
There are what is called Name Servers for your domain. When you purchase a domain you get these name servers automatically and they reside with your domain host. So if you purchased a domain from Wix the name servers will be there, if you purchased from Go Daddy your name servers will be located there.
Domain host like Go Daddy will want to hold on to the Name Servers because it keeps you on their platform and spending more time with them. So they will recommend that you "point" your name servers to Wix instead of transferring them.
Why this is hard on you is if you ever need to troubleshoot a domain issue. Because you will go to Go Daddy and they will say you need to talk with Wix, and when you go to Wix they will say you need to talk with Go Daddy. And on and on and on.
But, if you have your name servers in the same place as your website host then you will only need to talk with one person when troubleshooting. This makes it easier not only on you but on the developer you hire to take care of this stuff.
I recommend always transferring your name servers and never pointing. This will save you some valuable time in the future.
Mercado Wix Design Takeaways
1) If you are building your site for the first time, purchase your domain with your Wix premium account!!! This will give you a free, first year!
2) The direction that websites are headed is to contain every piece of your online presence in one place. There is no better website builder on the market that does this than Wix. I HIGHLY recommend buying your domain through them if you are building your site.
3) Always transfer your name servers if you purchase a domain outside of wix but want to keep with your domain host. Again, you want everything in one place as a business owner because less moving parts means less troubleshooting when something arises.
Day 11 of my 30 day content challenge to bring non-stop valuable Wix content to business owners and entrepreneurs. If you have been following the challenge we went over how to hire a wix coder for your custom form or custom functionality.
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