.how Domain
Answers Start at the Domain
Register your .how domain from just £26.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
What is a .how domain?
The .how domain is managed by Google and designed for instructional content. How-to guides, tutorial platforms and educational resources all fit under it. Do not buy it expecting a ranking benefit: Google treats every extension it has not listed as a country code as generic, so .how carries no advantage on how-to queries. What it buys is a reader knowing the format before they click.
Who should register .how?
Tutorial platforms, how-to guide publishers, DIY instruction sites, and educational content creators.
Why choose .how?
- Names the format in three letters
- Managed by Google Registry
- Perfect for instructional content
- Three letters with clear intent
Who runs .how, and since when
Registry data from the .how delegation record held by IANA, which maintains the internet's root zone. Eligibility comes from the registry's own policy, and the prices are ours.
- Extension type
- Generic (gTLD)
- Registry operator
- Charleston Road Registry Inc.
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 2014
- Delegated 12 June 2014
- Who can register
- Open to anyone worldwide, with no eligibility restrictions on registration
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £26.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
Matching a .how domain to how-to search intent
Google's registry arm, Charleston Road Registry, put .how into the root zone in June 2014, in the first wave of new extensions. Its registration policy is one of the shortest Google publishes, and it says the whole thing in a sentence: there are no special restrictions on registration for .how domains. No trade body, no proof of anything, and none of the HTTPS conditions Google attaches to its .page and .ing namespaces.
The extension runs on one mechanic and it either fires or it does not. A .how address has to finish a phrase across the dot. Something like fixit.how or brew.how reads as a whole thought. A company name bolted on does not: acme.how says nothing acme.com would not say better, and you have paid extra for the privilege.
Be clear about the search question, because it is why most people land on a page like this. Google's own documentation states that unless ICANN lists an extension as a country code, anything resolving through the IANA root zone is treated as a generic domain. A .how earns no ranking credit for how-to queries. It earns recognition, which is a different currency and only pays out if the name is memorable enough to be typed from memory.
Is .how the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.how works well if
- Your brand and the word "how" combine into a phrase somebody would actually say out loud, and the matching .com went years ago.
- You are launching a tutorial series, a repair guide or a training product that deserves its own address rather than a folder on the main site.
- You want a short address for print, packaging or video, built on a single common word no .com would ever release.
Look elsewhere if
- This is your main business address. At £26.99 a year against £9.99 for a .co.uk, a .how is a memorable side entrance, not a front door.
- You expect the extension to lift you in how-to results. Google treats every new extension as generic, so it does nothing of the kind.
- You will read it out on the phone. "Dot how" is easy to mishear as "dot com", and the caller then lands on somebody else's website.
Need one address that does everything? A .co.uk costs a third as much and carries the UK signal this cannot. See .co.uk pricing.
.how vs .com: which should you register?
These two are not competing for the same job. A .com is the address a business hands out for twenty years. A .how is a phrase, and phrases date faster than companies do.
The case for .how is availability at the second level: the plain common words that disappeared from .com in the 1990s are still sitting there. The case for .com is that people type it without thinking, it costs less here at £15.49 against £26.99, and nobody has to be told twice. Most buyers should hold the .com or the .co.uk as the real address and point the .how at it for a campaign, a guide or a QR code on a box.
.how domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .how domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyNo. Google states in its guidance on multi-regional sites that unless ICANN lists a top-level domain as a country code, it treats any extension resolving through the IANA root zone as a generic domain. .how is generic, so the word in the extension buys no ranking credit for how-to queries. What ranks a how-to page is the page: clear steps, real photographs, a title that matches the question, and enough detail that nobody has to look elsewhere. The domain is branding, and useful branding, but it is not a search lever.
Charleston Road Registry Inc., which is Google's registry business, and it has held the delegation since 12 June 2014. .how sits in the same portfolio as .dev, .app, .page and .ing. It differs from several of them in one practical way: Google runs .page and .ing as secure namespaces where browsers demand HTTPS, and the .how registration policy imposes no such condition. A .how will load over plain HTTP if you let it, though there is no good reason to, since every package here issues a free certificate.
For most ordinary businesses, yes. A plumbing firm in Northamptonshire gains nothing from .how that a .co.uk does not give it for a third of the price, with a UK search signal on top. The extension pays for itself in one situation: when the second-level word plus "how" makes a phrase people repeat, and the site behind it teaches something. Buy it as a second address for a guide or a campaign, not as the place your invoices point.
Included with Your .how Domain
DNS Management
Full DNS zone editor to manage A, CNAME, MX, TXT, and all record types.
Email Forwarding
Set up professional email addresses and forward to any inbox.
Auto-Renewal
Never lose your domain with automatic renewal protection.
Free 10GB Mailbox
One 10GB mailbox (POP3/IMAP) included with every domain, on any TLD.
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Register your .how domain today
Secure your .how domain from just £26.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
