Domain Order Validation
According to the ICANN 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement, HostGator requires domain order validation for any of the following actions:
- Domain registration
- Domain transfer
- WHOIS update
WHOIS Verification
The domain contact information is included in its record in the public WHOIS database, as required by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). As the owner or "registrant" of the domain, you must provide accurate and reliable contact information and promptly update it as necessary during the domain's registered term. As the domain's registrar, we are obligated to verify the accuracy of the contact information you have provided. This information is then included in your domain's record in the public WHOIS database, as required by ICANN.
How to Verify Domain
Step 1: Complete your domain order
To complete your domain purchase, please check out the instructions in this article.
Once the domain has been successfully purchased, you'll receive a confirmation email for your payment.
The sample image above displays the order confirmation email sent to HostGator customers' primary email addresses after they purchase a hosting product, add-on, or domain.
Step 2: Confirm your domain registration via verification email
- After the purchase, you will receive a verification email to verify your domain registration.
- Confirm that the email address is accurate, as instructed in the verification email.
If you did not receive the verification email, please do the following:
- Check your email's spam or junk email.
- Check the spelling of the email address you used as the domain's registrant contact information
- Please contact us via phone or chat so we can assist you.
Failure to Validate
A validation email will be sent to the registrant's email address on the following schedule:
Day 1 - The initial validation email you will receive right after you purchase the domain.
Day 7 - If you failed to validate your email on the 1st day, you would be receiving a reminder email.
Day 14 - If, for some reason, you're still unable to validate your domain on the 7th day, another email will be sent to your registrant email address.
If the domain order is not validated within 15 days, the domain name will be suspended, and a ticket notification will be sent to the email address under which the domain was registered. Once this occurs, you will need to respond to the ticket notification.
About ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the organization responsible for establishing policies and procedures that govern domain registries for generic top-level domain (gTLD) names. We are obligated to follow these rules through our Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA), which is the contract enabling us to be a registrar and sell domains. For more information about ICANN, please visit http://www.icann.org.
All registered domains must provide contact information for the owner, administrator, and billing contacts, including their full name, postal address, email address, and phone number. This collection of information is included in the public WHOIS database for each domain. The public can look up a domain in the database to find out when it was registered, where its name servers are located, and who the owner is. To protect the domain information from public view, we suggest purchasing Domain Privacy.
As an ICANN-accredited registrar, we are required to verify the accuracy of the WHOIS record for all gTLDs within 14 days in the following cases:
- A new domain is registered with us.
- A domain is transferred to us from another registrar.
- The registrant's contact information is changed.
Upon the occurrence of any of these events, we will email the domain's registrant, requesting them to verify the validity of the contact information by clicking a link. If the verification is not completed within 14 days, the domain will be suspended pending verification.