How to Find Out Who Owns a Domain Name
Domain names are intrinsic to the internet and central to branding, and you should invest much thought when registering a domain name: ideally, it will correspond to your or your business’s name. But what if the domain name you prefer already belongs to somebody? There are plenty of other legitimate reasons, such as business offers or research, why one should want to find out who owns a domain name, aside from looking from whom to buy it.
But before we get into the nitty-gritty of the how-to, let us first take some time to clarify some of the internet lingo and the differences between running a website and owning a domain. Here’s what we’ll be talking about:
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In many cases, the owner of the website is also the owner of the website’s domain, but that is not necessarily true. In some ways, domains are very much like real estate. Think of a domain as of a street address, and of a website as of a business running from that same address. The business might own their own premises, but they could also be renting them.
The same goes for domain names: the owner of a website might have very little to do with the owner of the domain. They could be business partners, or it may be the case of the domain registrar retaining ownership of the domains they are leasing out. Maybe the website operator used an intermediary to register a website in their own name, or in the name of someone on the operator’s staff.
All this is to say that, while it is often the case that the website and the domain owner are one and the same, this is not necessarily so. If you want to know who owns any particular domain name, going after the website owner’s contact information can lead you down the wrong path.
The most obvious reason why you’d want to find out who owns a domain name seems to be wanting to buy the domain name. You might want to buy a domain name for various reasons: if the domain name you prefer is already taken, for instance, or if it matches your brand name just a little too closely, diluting the brand. In either case, as with anything else you might want to buy, you need to buy it from the owner either directly or through the owner’s representative.
Many brands also buy domain names which correspond to their brand’s name “corrected” with a common typo, and redirect clumsy typists to their own website – take it from this frequent visitor of zahoo.co.uk.
You might also want to contact the owner of a particular domain name for other reasons, such as partnership offers or similar business reasons, legitimate business or legal questions about their content or design, or even academic research.
Site Search
Now, while it is true that the owner of a domain and the owner of a website may be different natural or legal persons, most often they are one and the same, or at least connected in some meaningful, substantial way.
This is why your search for the owner of a domain should include the website’s pages. Specifically, the About Us, Contact Us, or Team pages. Sometimes, important information is conveyed using the website’s footer, too.
It is worth saying that, although there might not be a link to an About Us page on the website, for instance, that page may still exist, as these pages are often typical parts of ready-made layouts. Sometimes, you can find these hidden pages by adding /about, /about-us, /team, /our-team, or similar to the website’s URL. While you’re at it, you could also try checking out the sitemap, too.
Of course, these pages not meant to be reached by website visitors might be blank, filled with placeholders, obsolete, or useless, but you never know: you might just get lucky.
Sometimes, a website’s privacy policy or similar legal document may identify the owner or operator of the website in such cases as they may be operating under a trade name or a nickname.
Domain Search
Considering that a domain name is much like a street address, you should be able to find it in a directory. The directory containing domain registrars’ data can be searched using a WHOIS search. The authority governing all domains online is ICANN, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. You can look up a domain’s owner using the ICANN lookup tool.
This is especially useful if somebody owns a domain, but doesn’t operate a website on it: people might have registered a domain and then changed their mind, or their business is no longer operating but they still have rights to the domain.
We find it very necessary to say that there are legitimate reasons why a person would want to remain anonymous on the internet while still providing content, say, by running an anonymous blog, or they may simply use a proxy to register their domain for the sake of convenience. If they are actively seeking anonymity, they will likely be using a hosting provider which offers protection from a WHOIS search. You may only be able to find the provider’s data.
Ask Nicely
Every now and again controversy flares up about social networks and the amount of our private data they manipulate. At least one social network, however, specializes in searchable professional information: LinkedIn.
If you know who operates a website, chances are you can find the company on LinkedIn, and you can work from there. Find someone within the company’s IT department and ask them politely and respectfully whether they know who owns the domain. If they don’t know themselves, chances are they know someone who does, and can refer you to them.
And even if you don’t use LinkedIn, a WHOIS search or a website’s contact form will likely render an email address you can use for inquiries. In fact, there are ways of finding most anyone’s email address. So long as you don’t abuse a person’s email inbox, you should be fine with just asking nicely.
In Conclusion
As you have seen, there are reasons why you’d want to know who owns a particular domain, and several ways to find that out. A lot of important information is on official record, whether volunteered by the operator of the website itself or their staff, or supplied to the public directory. If the particular information you are looking for cannot be found that way, we encourage you to contact whoever might know directly and politely. That is, of course, if you have a legitimate reason for contacting them: nobody likes unsolicited emails.
