The .uz domain is Uzbekistan's national domain zone and a natural choice for any business serving a local audience. When customers see .uz at the end of an address, they immediately understand the company operates here, which builds trust. Registration differs slightly from international domains, though: the owner's details are verified, and the domain only starts working once DNS is set up correctly. Below we walk through the whole process using a small flower shop in Tashkent's Chilanzar district as an example.
Step 1: choose a name and check availability
Dilnoza, who owns the flower shop, wants a short, memorable name. The first generic name she thought of was already taken, so she started combining the shop's name with the district. A good name is short, easy to understand when spoken over the phone, and does not resemble someone else's brand. Domain names use Latin letters, digits and hyphens, and a hyphen cannot appear at the start or end.
The easiest way to check availability is the search box on a registrar's site, while technical users can run a whois query from a terminal. If the response returns owner and expiry details, the name is taken; otherwise it can be registered. Waiting for someone else's domain to expire is possible in theory, but owners usually renew on time.
whois -h whois.cctld.uz dilgul.uzStep 2: name the right owner
Contact details for a .uz domain are not a formality: whoever the domain is registered to is considered its owner. Individuals provide their full name, passport details, address, phone and email; legal entities provide the company name and identifiers such as the taxpayer number (STIR). Dilnoza works as a sole proprietor, so she registered the domain in her own name. If the shop later becomes an LLC, moving the domain to the company is a separate procedure, so choosing the right owner from day one saves time.
The most common mistake is registering the domain in the name of the designer or developer who built the site. When the collaboration ends, the business owner cannot manage their own domain and spends a lot of effort getting it back. The domain should always belong to the real owner, with the linked phone and email under their control.
Step 3: payment and registration term
Once the details are entered, the order is placed and paid. A .uz domain is registered for a fixed term, usually one or more years, and must be renewed when it ends. After payment the contact details are checked, so activation is sometimes not instant but happens once verification is complete. To avoid forgetting the renewal, turn on auto-renewal and keep your balance topped up; in the sayt.uz cabinet this setting sits right on the domain page.
Step 4: set the nameservers
A registered domain does not mean the site will open yet. Every device on the internet first looks up a domain's NS records to find out where it leads. Nameservers store the domain's DNS records; they are set at the registrar and delegated in the .uz zone. If hosting and domain are with the same provider, NS records are usually set automatically; otherwise you enter the nameservers your hosting provider gave you.
NS changes do not spread worldwide instantly. ISP DNS caches can hold old data for several hours, so during that window the site may open for some visitors and not for others. You can check delegation from a terminal:
dig NS dilgul.uz +short
dig A dilgul.uz +shortThe first command shows which nameservers the domain is delegated to, the second shows which IP address it points to. On Windows, nslookup -type=NS dilgul.uz gives the same information.
Step 5: configure DNS records
With nameservers in place, you configure the records inside the domain. An A record maps the domain to the server's IP address, CNAME makes one name an alias of another, and MX says which server receives mail. TXT records are used for mail protection such as SPF and for proving ownership to various services. For Dilnoza's shop the zone looks roughly like this (the IP is an example):
dilgul.uz. 3600 IN A 203.0.113.10
www.dilgul.uz. 3600 IN CNAME dilgul.uz.
dilgul.uz. 3600 IN MX 10 mail.dilgul.uz.
mail.dilgul.uz. 3600 IN A 203.0.113.10
dilgul.uz. 3600 IN TXT "v=spf1 a mx ~all"The 3600 is the TTL, the number of seconds a record stays cached. If you plan to move the site soon, lower the TTL a day or two in advance so changes propagate faster. Do not skip the mail records: without MX, messages customers send to the shop simply will not arrive.
Step 6: install SSL and launch
Once DNS works, an SSL certificate is installed so the browser shows a padlock and data travels encrypted. Let's Encrypt verifies that the domain really points to your server, so request the certificate after the A record has propagated. On sayt.uz hosting this certificate is free and renews automatically before it expires. Finally, open the site from different devices, over mobile data and Wi-Fi, and confirm that http redirects to https.
What to keep an eye on afterwards
A domain is not a one-time purchase but an asset that needs regular attention. Put the expiry date in your calendar and keep the contact phone and email current, since reminders go there. Use a strong, unique password for your cabinet: anyone who gets into your domain management can change the nameservers and redirect your site and mail. Follow these simple rules and your .uz domain will serve as a reliable address for your business for years.