Every site comes with a free address with .wordpress.com in the URL. You can hide the .wordpress.com part by registering a new domain if you have purchased a WordPress.com plan.

Quick Steps

1. Go to the Domains page.
2. If prompted, choose the blog you wish to add a domain to.
3. Enter the domain you wish to register in the search box.
4. If the domain is available it will show up below the search in a green box. Click Add.
5. Choose if you’d like to add email to your domain.
6. Fill in the Domain Registration Information.
7. Choose if you’d like your contact information to be public or private.
8. Make a payment to complete the registration and purchase a WordPress.com plan if you don’t have one already.
9. Update your domain to be the primary domain used for your site on the Domains page.

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Introduction

On WordPress.com, you can register a custom domain (for example, yourgroovydomain.com) and use it instead of your site’s current address (such as yourgroovysite.wordpress.com). Your old address will still work, but we will automatically redirect traffic from your old address to your new one.

Domain Registrations are offered as part of our WordPress.com plans. You will need to have an active plan on your site in order to register a domain. Each plan comes with one free domain registration. However, you can register as many additional domains as you want on the same site, but you have to pay for additional registrations separately.

You can find a full list of supported domains here.

If you already have a domain registered somewhere else, you can map your existing domain to your site. You can also map your site to a subdomain, if you already have a website up and you want your blog as a subdomain of that site. Mapping either an existing domain or subdomain requires a WordPress.com plan as well.

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Before Upgrading

WordPress.com supports registering domains with the extensions (TLDs) listed here. You can still map domains with other extensions to your site – you just have to register them with a different registrar and then map them to your site.

You can also map the domain to your site if you already have a domain registered. Registering a domain through WordPress.com is much easier, but it’s not required.

Please note that WordPress.com automatically removes the “www” from all URLs.

Same Rules Apply – The Domain Mapping Upgrade does not give you permission to use advertising, any kind of prohibited code, or upload additional themes or plugins. With the upgrade, your site will still be hosted here at WordPress.com, which means that you will not have FTP access to your files and you will still be required to abide by our Terms of Service.

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Public Versus Private

When you register a domain name, you have two options: public or private registration.

If you choose to register a domain publicly, your name, email, and address automatically become available to anyone, anywhere, including spammers, marketers, and other people who you might not want to share your information with.

With private registration, you can set up a new domain name without making any of your contact information public, and still enjoy all the benefits of regular domain name registration. It’s like being listed in the phone book: You can either have your number and address published, or you can pay to be unlisted.

All WordPress.com plans include a free domain credit with optional privacy protection. Privacy Protection for additional domains is a paid upgrade that costs $8.00 per year per domain registration.

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Enabling Privacy Later

If you already have a domain registered on WordPress.com and want to make your registration information private:

1. Go to the Domains page.
   
2. Click on the domain you wish to edit
3. Then click on Contacts and Privacy
4. Click Privacy Protection
5. Finally click Purchase Private Registration and Select your payment method, enter your payment information.
   
6. Your registration information is now hidden from the public.

Note: If your domain name expires within the next 6 months you will also need to renew the domain registration and mapping in order to make your registration information private. Once you renew the domain with private registration added the privacy will start immediately and the domain will be renewed for another year from its current expiration date.

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Instructions For Registering a New Domain

1. Go to the Domains page.
2. If prompted, choose the blog you wish to add a domain to.
3. Click the blue Add Domain button in the upper right of the domains listing
   
4. Enter the domain you wish to register in the search box. Make sure to include the extension, such as .com or .net.
5. If the domain is available it will show up below the search box. Click Upgrade to select the available domain.
   
6. Choose if you’d like to add email to your domain by clicking Add email or No thanks. For more information about how email is setup for a new domain, see our Add Email page.
7. Fill in the Domain Registration Information for the domain. This information must be correct, and you’ll need to verify that you own the email address.
8. Choose if you’d like your contact information to be public (Publish My Information) or private (Add Privacy Protection). If you want the private registration upgrade, click the button that says Add Privacy Protection. If you want to stick with the standard public domain registration, click the Publish My Information button.
9. Make a payment to complete the registration and purchase the WordPress.com plan if you don’t have one already. If you have credits on your account, you will see a message about how your domain is being purchased with credits.
10. Update your domain to be the primary domain used for your site on the Domains page. Select the domain you wish to activate and from the next screen click  Make Primary. Your blog will be accessible from all of these domains; the Primary Domain is what actually appears as your domain within the address bar of web browsers. If you do not see your blog at the new domain immediately, please allow some time for the DNS changes to propagate.

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Email Validation and Verification

When you are registering a domain name, make sure you are using a valid email address in the Domain Registration Information. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) requires your contact information to be valid. An email notification will be sent asking you to verify your email address. Please make sure to keep an eye on your email after you have registered the domain name. You will receive this email notification for all domain purchases, both publicly and privately registered.

An example of the email notification is posted below:

If you do not receive this email notification, please do not hesitate to contact support.