If you’re launching a business in Spain or targeting a Spanish audience, registering a .es domain should be high on your to-do list. Here’s everything you need to know about why, how, and where to register one.

Why Register a .es Domain?

The main advantage is SEO. Google and other search engines give preference to country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) in geolocated searches. With all other things being equal, if a user searches from Spain, Google will give more prominence to mydomain.es than to mydomain.com.

Beyond SEO, a .es domain signals to Spanish users that your business is local and relevant to them. This builds trust, especially for service-based businesses where customers want to know you operate in their country.

That said, if you plan to expand beyond Spain or target an international audience, a .com domain is still the better primary choice. Many businesses register both — using .com as the main domain and .es as a redirect or for a Spanish-language version of the site.

Requirements for Registering a .es Domain

Unlike .com domains which anyone can register, .es domains have some requirements:

• Individuals: You need to provide an identification number — your DNI (for Spanish citizens), NIE (for foreign residents), or passport number (for non-residents).
• Companies: You’ll need the company’s VAT number (CIF/NIF) in addition to the personal identification of the admin contact.
• Admin Contact: The administrative contact for a .es domain must be a natural person (individual). It cannot be a company name. The registrant, technical, and billing contacts can be either individuals or companies.

This means that non-residents can register .es domains — you just need a valid passport number. You don’t need to be physically present in Spain or have a Spanish address, though some registrars may require a Spanish contact address.

Where to Register

You can technically register through dominios.es, the official Spanish domain registry (run by Red.es, a government entity). However, I wouldn’t recommend it — the interface isn’t user-friendly and the management tools are basic compared to what commercial registrars offer.

Instead, I’d recommend any of these registrars:

• Namecheap — My top recommendation. Clean interface, reasonable prices (typically around 9-12 Euro per year), and good DNS management tools. They also include WhoisGuard privacy protection for free.
• Cloudflare Registrar — Sells domains at cost with no markup, making it one of the cheapest options. If you already use Cloudflare for DNS or CDN (which I’d recommend for any website), it makes sense to consolidate your domain here too.
• SiteGround — A solid option if you’re already hosting with them. Keeps everything in one place.
• GoDaddy — The largest registrar by market share. Not my first choice due to aggressive upselling, but they work fine if you already have domains there.
• Google Domains (now Squarespace Domains) — Google transferred its domain business to Squarespace in 2023. Still a clean, no-nonsense option with transparent pricing.

How to Register Step by Step

The process is straightforward regardless of which registrar you choose:

1. Search for availability — Enter your desired domain name on the registrar’s website. If it’s taken, most registrars will suggest alternatives.
2. Provide your identification — During checkout, you’ll need to enter your DNI, NIE, or passport number. For companies, you’ll also need the CIF/NIF.
3. Set your DNS — Point the domain to your hosting provider’s nameservers. Your host will provide these (they look like ns1.example.com and ns2.example.com).
4. Complete payment — Most registrars accept credit cards and PayPal. The domain is usually active within minutes to a few hours.

Costs

The cost of a .es domain is typically between 8 and 15 Euro per year depending on the registrar. This is comparable to .com pricing. Domains renew annually — make sure auto-renewal is enabled so you don’t accidentally lose your domain.

Some registrars offer a discount on the first year but charge more on renewal. Check the renewal price before committing, not just the initial registration price.

.es vs .com — Which Should You Choose?

Here’s a quick comparison to help you decide:

• Choose .es if: Your business targets exclusively Spanish customers, you want to rank well in Spanish Google searches, or you want to complement an existing .com domain.
• Choose .com if: You target an international audience, you want maximum flexibility for future expansion, or your primary language is English.
• Register both if: You’re serious about protecting your brand in Spain and don’t want competitors or domain squatters to register the .es version of your domain.

Tips

• Enable WHOIS privacy — Not all registrars offer this for .es domains (it depends on Red.es policies), but if available, enable it to keep your personal information out of public WHOIS records.
• Set up auto-renewal — Domain expirations can be catastrophic for a business. Always enable auto-renewal and keep your payment method up to date.
• Use a professional email — Once you have your .es domain, set up a matching email address (e.g., [email protected]). It adds credibility and is easy to configure with Google Workspace or any email provider.

Buy a .es domain

For activation, I like to use this set of resistance band glute exercises at home and at the gym.

For building muscle I like this great set of exercises for glutes that can be found on Bret Contreras’ (The Glute Guy) website.

You should also be aware of how many times to train glutes per week. You should be doing more exercises than just squatting to built great glute muscles.

Sometimes I meet men who tried to grow a beard but ended up shaving it all off due to it becoming too hard to maintain or due to some irritation or other bothersome things. There are a few simple beard maintenance tricks that can usually avoid all that.

Beard oil is definitely a necessary product when it comes to a healthy beard, but there are also other factors that will go into it.

For example, you’ll want to make sure that you’re using a high-quality beard wash 2-4 times a week to scrub the beard and skin underneath. This will help cleanse the pores and the beard to keep the beard clean.

You’ll also want to exfoliate with an exfoliating face wash or a boar’s bristle brush on days that you’re not washing to stimulate blood flow and remove dead skin.

Finally, you’ll want to use beard oil or utility balm daily to moisturize not only the beard but the skin underneath.

And that’s basically it. When you have a special occasion and want the beard to be in absolutely perfect condition, just blow dry it and apply some beard wax to keep everything in place.

I have a fairly structured morning routine that I’ve developed over the years. It used to go something like this before we had kids:

1. Wake up and go to the toilet.
2. Go back to bed for an HRV reading.
3. Take a shower immediately.
4. Brew a cup of coffee with coconut oil and do a ten-minute meditation.
5. Foam roll for 30 minutes while listening to a podcast.
6. Study a language for 15-20 minutes on Duolingo.

It takes around an hour and a half, and I try to be up by 7am on a good day, so by 8.30am I’m ready to start my day with some good wins in my bag.

Now that we have kids, I’d say it’s more like this:

1. Wake up and go to the toilet.
2. Apply creams in the bathroom.
3. Brew a cup of coffee with coconut oil.
4. Spend 10 minutes applying the Theragun.
5. Head to work/gym/time with kids.

As a morning person with the Lion chronotype, I have no trouble waking up and getting out of bed in the morning. I tend to wake up without any alarm clocks after 7.5 to 8 hours of sleep, and I’m immediately ready to jump out of bed with lots of energy and start the day.

I like to take a shower as it makes me feel fresh and ready to approach the day. The act of showering is more than just an act of basic hygiene; it gives me an extra boost psychologically, so I rarely go without it, even though I usually shower again during the day after training or in the evening before I head to bed.

The brewing of coffee is a meditative process in itself and gets me primed for the structured meditation that comes after it. By using a moka pot and manually grinding the beans I would have previously selected from a local roastery, I’m injecting a bit of art and manual work into the process, and it definitely means more and feels more satisfying to finally drink the brewed shot of coffee while I start my meditation, compared to if I had just used a Nespresso machine.

For meditation, I use the Calm app and adopt a zen meditation pose. The ten minutes of meditation give me the chance to heighten my awareness and build resilience for the day ahead.

When that’s done I move on to foam rolling, which is an essential way for me to iron out the knots in my muscles and stretch them out. Since I train so much, I tend to wake up with sore muscles and overall a stiff body, and foam rolling works wonders for that. I follow a number of podcasts so I’ll just pick up where I had left off the previous day or select a new episode that I fancy from the list of available ones. If my wife and son are awake by this time, I’ll skip the podcast and chat with them while I foam roll.

After foam rolling, I do the last part of my morning routine, which consists of studying a language using the excellent Duolingo app. There’s not much to say about this, except for the fact that it’s a compounding exercise. Although I do just 15-20 minutes a day, when you add it up over a year or two you can really get familiar with a language and be able to make practical use of your new skill.

During certain parts of the year I like to train first thing in the morning. Usually, I do this in the hotter months so that I avoid the heat later on in the day and also to make sure I get a good workout done and be free for the rest of the day.

When I switch to this variation of my routine, I skip the shower, foam rolling and language studying and do those after training.