Domain name and website before or after incorporation, what is the right order?
The domain name is checked and reserved before the company is registered and recorded in the company’s name after registration; the website is planned without waiting for registration and goes live once the trade name is final. Under current legislation, registration is done through MERSİS, Türkiye’s Central Registry System, with an e-signature and KEP (registered e-mail) (Ministry of Trade MERSİS page, accessed October 2026). The Ministry of Industry and Technology’s definition of the digital company (dijital şirket) had not been published as of October 2026, when this article was updated; the order does not depend on it.
What this means for you: leaving the domain until registration day means getting your trade name into the registry and staying nameless online. Buying it early and leaving it in the wrong person’s name means a transfer job later. The right order prevents both mistakes. We collect every question about the digital company on our digital company page.
Should the domain name be bought before or after company registration, what is the short answer?
Check before, record after. You need to see that the domain is free before registration; otherwise the trade name enters the registry and the domain stays with someone else. The record is made in the company’s name after the company gains legal personality. For the few days in between, the domain can be reserved in the founder’s name and then transferred.
What is the right order: how are trade name candidates, domain check, registration, record and website lined up?
BU BÖLÜMÜN ÖZETİ
- Step 1: Write three trade name candidates
- Step 2: Check the domain and the social media handles together
- Step 3: Registration, then the record in the company’s name
- Steps 4 and 5: Site plan first, launch later
Five steps, two phases. Before registration: trade name candidates and the domain check. After registration: the record in the company’s name and the website launch. The website plan sits between the two and is done while waiting for registration.
Step 1: Write three trade name candidates
A founder with a single candidate starts over if the domain is taken. Write three, each short, readable and easy to type. Whether the trade name is acceptable in the registry is queried in MERSİS; domain availability is checked separately. The candidate that passes both moves to the front.
Step 2: Check the domain and the social media handles together
The domain and three social media usernames are checked at the same time. A free domain with a taken handle creates an inconsistency. Extension choice and the document rule are covered in our article on matching the domain name and the trade name; this article looks only at timing.
Step 3: Registration, then the record in the company’s name
Registration is done through MERSİS with an e-signature and KEP; the steps are explained in our article on setting up with MERSİS, e-signature and KEP. Once the registration certificate arrives, the domain and hosting are recorded under the company’s trade name with a company e-mail. The founder’s personal e-mail does not stay in the record.
Steps 4 and 5: Site plan first, launch later
The website’s page plan, 6 top-level pages, 12 sub-pages and 6 categories, is drawn up while waiting for registration. The texts are written and the structured data is prepared. The launch comes after the trade name and the domain are final, so the site is ready on registration day.
When does it make sense to buy the domain in the founder’s name before registration, and how is the transfer done?
If the domain is a word generic enough for someone else to take, waiting for registration is risky. Then it is reserved in the founder’s name and transferred to the company after registration. The transfer is the job of updating the record details with the company’s trade name and company e-mail.
When does the website build start, and do you wait for registration?
BU BÖLÜMÜN ÖZETİ
- What is done while waiting for registration
- What is done after registration
- A common mistake: registration first, then a search for a website
You do not wait for registration to start the website; you wait for it to go live. The plan, the texts and the design proceed with the trade name candidate. Once the trade name is final, the name, contact details and structured data are updated. With this double timetable, the site is ready for registration day.
What is done while waiting for registration
The page plan, the service texts, the 6 categories and the keyword groups for the 108 articles are set while waiting. The design is built and the pages are prepared unpublished. The trade name appears on the site as a candidate and is updated in one move after registration.
What is done after registration
The domain is recorded in the company’s name, the site is connected to it, the trade name and tax details go into the structured data, and the contact page is completed. GA4 and Search Console are opened in the company account. Then the site goes live and the 108 articles enter the publishing calendar.
A common mistake: registration first, then a search for a website
A frequent order: the company is set up, and months later a website is sought. In between, the company is invisible in search and unknown to AI. Incorporation providers list the website as an add-on, and most founders leave it for later. We build digital assets on this timetable in our website consulting service.
What does the ready-for-the-next-step advantage mean, and what does an early domain gain in search and AI?
BU BÖLÜMÜN ÖZETİ
- The search engine does not recognise a new site right away
- AI recommends the consistent entity
- In parallel with the once-only principle
Ready for the next step means that on registration day the domain, the website and the accounts all carry the same name. Google and AI begin to recognise a company with its first content. A site that starts early has been read for longer. This advantage is bought with the calendar, not money.
The search engine does not recognise a new site right away
The pages of a new domain are discovered, crawled and then indexed. This can take weeks rather than days; an exact duration cannot be given. A site that goes live on registration day starts early. A site built six months later is six months behind.
AI recommends the consistent entity
AI answers more easily recognise a company whose name is written the same everywhere. If the trade name, the domain, the site name and the handles are identical on registration day, the entity is consistent from the start. The 108 articles built early make the company a source on its own subject.
In parallel with the once-only principle
The “once-only” principle Ertan Barut wrote about in Dünya on 28 September 2026 looks at the public side. A similar rule applies on the digital side: decide your name once and carry it everywhere the same. The decision to wait or incorporate is discussed in our article wait or incorporate now.
In what order should a founder preparing for registration proceed this week?
BU BÖLÜMÜN ÖZETİ
- Today: Trade name candidates and domain check
- This week: Site plan and keyword groups
- Registration day: Record, connect, launch
Three days, three tasks: write your trade name candidates and check the domains; if the name is generic, reserve it in the founder’s name; start the site plan. Whatever day your registration falls on, these three finish before it.
Today: Trade name candidates and domain check
Write three trade name candidates. For each, check the domain and three social media usernames. Move the candidate that is free in all three to the front. This takes an hour.
This week: Site plan and keyword groups
Write the 6 top-level pages as questions. Define the 6 keyword groups for the 108 articles. Our My Digital Company (Dijital Şirketim Olsun) package delivers the domain proposal and project plan, the domain and hosting in the company’s name, the site and the articles at a single price of TL 36,000 + VAT.
Registration day: Record, connect, launch
When the certificate arrives, the domain is recorded in the company’s name or transferred, the site is connected, the structured data is updated and publishing begins. GA4 and Search Console are opened the same day. The company’s registry life and its digital life start together.
Quick Summary
- Under current legislation, registration is done through MERSİS with an e-signature and KEP (Ministry of Trade MERSİS page, 12 May 2026).
- The domain check comes before registration; the record in the company’s name comes after it.
- The website plan, 6 top-level pages, 12 sub-pages and 6 categories, is drawn up while waiting for registration.
- Ertan Barut wrote about the “once-only” principle on 28 September 2026; on the digital side too, the name is decided once.
- The Ministry’s digital company definition had not been published as of October 2026; the right order does not depend on the definition.
Short Glossary
- Registrant
- Registrant is the person or company entered in the record details to show who a domain name belongs to.
- Transfer
- Transfer is the update made to a domain’s record details to move it from a person to the company.
- Indexing
- Indexing is the search engine’s act of crawling a page and storing it so that it can be shown in results.
Frequently Asked Questions
Next Step
If you want your domain, website and accounts set up in this order from trade name candidate to registration day, book a discovery call on our digital company page.
The definition and conditions of the digital company scheme are not final yet; support amounts and conditions may change. Check the latest information with the Ministry of Industry and Technology, KOSGEB and the Official Gazette before deciding. This is not legal or financial advice.
Sources: Ministry of Trade, MERSİS (12 May 2026, accessed October 2026) · Dünya, Ertan Barut, What Türkiye’s digital company model should look like (28 September 2026) · Diken, Mehmet Şimşek’s statement (27 April 2026)
Updated: October 2026
Sık Sorulan Sorular
Changing a trade name after MERSİS approval means a new decision, a new registration and new documents. A domain check takes minutes and costs nothing. A founder who checks the domain first corrects the trade name candidate before registration if needed.
A domain is an asset; it belongs to whoever it is registered to. It cannot be recorded in the company’s name before the company exists. Recording it after registration makes it a company asset, with no dispute in a partnership, transfer or sale. Whose name the accounts should be in is explained in our article how to open digital company accounts in the company’s name.
It does not. When the definition is published, the incorporation route may get easier; the need to check the domain before the trade name stays. The concept as a whole is in our article what is a digital company in Türkiye.
If the trade name candidate is two or three short words and contains a phrase people search for in your sector, you do not wait; the domain is reserved that day. If the trade name is a surname on its own or a coined word, waiting a few days usually causes no trouble.
For the transfer, the registrant’s name, the trade name details and the e-mail address are updated. The sticking point is usually the e-mail: if the domain stays tied to the founder’s personal e-mail, access is lost when the founder leaves. The company e-mail and the company’s authorised person are entered instead. Hosting and the security certificate are transferred the same day.
With more than one founder, which partner will reserve the domain is written down at the start. The post-registration transfer is done in the same week as the shareholders’ agreement. If the domain stays in one partner’s name, the company cannot use its own name in a split. That is the most expensive delay.
It can; the record is made in the founder’s name. After registration, the record details are updated with the company’s trade name and company e-mail. If the name is generic, not waiting and transferring after registration is the safer route.
The plan and the texts are prepared before registration; the launch happens once the trade name is final. This way no wrong trade name stays on the site, and the structured data and contact details are entered correctly in one go.
The company is invisible in search and in AI answers for all that time. The domain you want may have been taken by someone else. The search engine’s process of getting to know the site also starts that much later.