What is a Domain Name?
It is an electronic link that consists of three parts, such as www.sikka.sa and support.sikka.sa, and it is unique like a car license plate. An annual fee must be paid to the company registered for the domain to continue owning the domain name. If the fee is not paid within 30 days, the domain name will become available for others to purchase and register.
How do you know if a domain name is available?
Go to the website of one of the domain registration companies such as godaddy.com and search for the desired domain name in English. It will show you the annual registration fee if it is available, or indicate that it is not available. For Saudi domain names, use Hawsabah hawsabah.com.sa to register Saudi domains.
What are the requirements for registering a Saudi domain name (.sa)?
The Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST) in Saudi Arabia requires two conditions for establishments and companies:
- A copy of the current, valid commercial registration (CR).
- The registered trade name in the commercial register must be related or linked to the requested domain name.
Example for the second condition: Since our company's name in the commercial register is Sikka Software, the desired domain name is sikka.sa and we obtained it because our trade name is identical and clearly related to the requested domain name. However, if we requested a site like surub.sa, our request would be rejected because our trade name and the requested domain name have no connection.
What are the prices of domain names?
Annual domain registration prices range from 100 SAR per year to 1 million SAR per year, and sometimes more. The large price difference is due to the number of characters in the domain and the meaning of the domain. For example, if you choose the domain hala.com, it may be very expensive, reaching up to 50,000 SAR per year. However, if you choose halafeekom.com, the annual registration fee may be 100 SAR or less.
How to link a domain name to the server?
Update the DNS records of the domain name as follows:
- Make sure there is no A record pointing to another server.
- Add two A records containing the server's IP address:
- The first record is connected with the @ symbol.
- The second record is connected with www or the desired subdomain name.
