WEBSITESfor Normal People2026
Contents

Part I: Setup (the boring bit that makes it work)02

Chapter 02Step 1

Step 1: Buy your domain on Cloudflare

3 min read, 2 things to tick

Buy it once. No renewal surprise.

Everything starts with the domain. If you don't have one yet, buy it on Cloudflare. Already own one somewhere else? Keep it where it is for now, skip to the bottom of this chapter, and just point it at Cloudflare.

Why Cloudflare, and not GoDaddy or Wix or Squarespace?

Three reasons. The first two are about money. The third is the one that makes this guide work, and you get it whether you buy the domain here or not.

1. The price doesn't jump. Most registrars sell you the domain cheap for year one and then renew it at two or three times the price, plus privacy protection as an add-on. Cloudflare sells domains at cost: what the registry charges them, no markup, same price every year. Privacy is included.

2. No upsells. No "premium DNS", no "domain protection bundle", no "business email trial" pre-ticked at checkout. You buy a domain and that's the whole transaction.

3. Your DNS is in the same account as your site. DNS is the settings page that says where your domain points and where its email goes. When it's on Cloudflare, your hosting, DNS, forms, email sending and file storage all sit behind one key. So when the agent needs to point the domain at your site, add a record to verify Google Search Console, or set up email so your contact form doesn't land in spam, it just does it.

With DNS somewhere else, every one of those becomes "log in to your registrar and add this record", a screenshot, a wrong field, a four-hour wait, and a "did it work?". Multiply that by every service in this guide.

The part that matters is DNS on Cloudflare, not where you paid for the domain. Buying on Cloudflare gets you both in one step. Already own a domain? Pointing it at Cloudflare gets you the same result.

Make the Cloudflare account

  1. Go to dash.cloudflare.com and sign up.
  2. Turn on two-factor: profile icon (top right) → Profile → Authentication. Do this now. In a later step you'll make a key to this account, and a key is only as safe as the account behind it.
  3. Stay on the free plan for now. Going with Path B (CMS), or want your site to email customers? Then upgrade to Workers Paid ($5/month): Workers & Pages → Plans → Workers Paid. Not sure? Skip it. The agent will tell you if you ever need it (chapter 1 has the full list).
Watch itCloudflare sign-up → 2FA. Separate short clip: the Workers Paid upgrade.

Personal details are blurred. Press play, it's silent and loops.

Buy the domain

  1. Cloudflare dashboard → Domain Registration → Register Domains.
  2. Search for the name you want.
  3. Buy it. Add your real contact details (they're kept private, but the registry requires them).

Done. It's already on Cloudflare DNS, ready for the agent.

Watch itSearch → buy → domain shows as Active.

Personal details are blurred. Press play, it's silent and loops.

Picking the name

  • Short and sayable. If you have to spell it out on the phone, it's too long.
  • .com or your country's ending. For a Canadian business, .ca is great and people trust it. Avoid .biz, .site, .online and friends for a real business.
  • No hyphens, no numbers unless they're part of your actual business name.

Already own a domain somewhere else?

Don't buy a second one, and you don't need to move it either. Keep paying for it where you bought it. All you change is where its DNS lives, which is free. The agent does most of this later (chapter 6), so for now just know the one part only you can do:

  1. The agent adds your domain to Cloudflare, copies over your existing DNS records (including email), and gives you two nameservers, like ada.ns.cloudflare.com.
  2. You log in to wherever you bought the domain (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Wix, Squarespace...), find Nameservers, choose custom nameservers, and paste in Cloudflare's two.
  3. Wait. Minutes to a day. The agent can check for you and tell you when it's Active.

Should I transfer the domain itself to Cloudflare? Only if it's saving you money. Transferring moves where you pay for the domain. It doesn't change what the agent can do, because the DNS is already on Cloudflare.

  • Renewal coming up in the next month or two? Transfer it then. A transfer includes a year of renewal at Cloudflare's price, so you skip your registrar's renewal price. The agent can start it, you approve an email and paste a transfer code from your old registrar.
  • Renewal is a long way off? Leave it. Nothing in this guide needs it moved.
  • Bought it in the last 60 days? Registries lock new domains from transferring for 60 days. Wait.
Watch itChanging nameservers at a registrar (GoDaddy as the example).

Personal details are blurred. Press play, it's silent and loops.

Checklist

Next: the other two accounts.

On a phone, swipe left and right to turn pages.