Someone looking for a service in Syria trusts an address ending in .sy more: at a glance they know the site’s owner is from here, and that the name was registered by a person or organization that submitted their documents. But registering the national domain is not like buying a .com with a card in a minute: it asks for documents and set steps. This guide walks the whole way: who may register, which extension of the national family suits you, the documents to prepare, the registration steps as they run at Illevante, and what to do once the name is yours.
01What .sy is, and whom it suits
.sy is : the country’s code on the internet, as every country has its own. The name comes right before .sy with no word in between, which makes it the shortest and clearest address in the national family, fit for a company, a store, a project or a person who wants to be known as being from Syria.
Any person or organization may register .sy, provided they submit documents proving who the actual is. And because it is national, your customer inside Syria knows it better than a visitor from abroad does: if your audience is here, it is your first address, and if you also have an audience around the world, register the same name with .com too, so each side reaches you at the address it knows.
- A local business in Syria: the first choice, as a short name fits on a sign and is said over the phone without explaining.
- A company working in Syria and abroad: .sy for the local market and .com for the world, so register both.
- A personal site or CV: .sy suits it, and .me.sy is a personal option from the same family.
- A government body: it has its own extension, .gov.sy, registered with an official letter from the body.
02The national family: .sy, .com.sy or another?
Under .sy there are extensions for each category, at the same price. They differ in who may register them and in the document they ask for on top of the owner’s documents:
| Extension | For | Asked for on top of the owner’s documents |
|---|---|---|
| .sy | Any person or organization | The activity document if the name is for a commercial, union or institutional activity |
| .com.sy, .co.sy and .biz.sy | Businesses | A valid individual commercial register or a company’s trade license |
| .org.sy | Organizations and associations | An official license or a founding notice certified by the licensing bodies |
| .edu.sy | Educational institutions | A public or private educational institution’s license, or a valid proof of affiliation to one |
| .gov.sy | Government bodies | An official letter from the body confirming it belongs to a government line |
| .tv.sy, .news.sy and .info.sy | Media organizations | A media organization’s license issued by the Ministry of Information |
| .name.sy | Individuals | The name must match the applicant’s own full personal name |
If you have a commercial register, register the name in both .sy and .com.sy, so no one takes either of them in the market you work in. And .net.sy is reserved for networks and internet service providers.
03The documents to have before you start
What delays a registration most is a missing document or an unclear copy. These are the requirements for completing the registration of any national domain:
- 01A clear, certified copy of the actual domain owner’s personal ID.
- 02A working mobile number, where renewal and verification notices arrive.
- 03An official, working email address belonging directly to the owner.
- 04The full, exact residential address in detail.
- 05A true copy of the official registration or license document, if the domain belongs to a commercial, union or institutional activity.
04The registration steps at Illevante
Illevante is an for the national domain, and the whole registration runs through a ready-made WhatsApp message, not an instant payment on the site:
- 01Choose the name: Up to 63 characters of Latin letters, digits and the hyphen, with no hyphen at the start or the end. Best is a short name read the way it is written, like halawiyat-hama.sy for a sweet shop in Hama.
- 02Check that it is free: Type the name into the domain search on the domain registration page or the .sy page: you see whether it is available, along with the other national extensions for the same name.
- 03Choose how long: From 1 to 10 years at once, at $0.55 a year. Registering for longer protects the name from any future price rise, and spares you the yearly renewal.
- 04Send the registration request: The site prepares a WhatsApp message with the name and the number of years, and you send it as it is to Illevante’s line.
- 05Send the documents: Those listed in the previous section, plus the activity document if the extension asks for one.
If the name shows as taken, find out who owns it and when it expires with the lookup tool on Illevante’s site: it shows the registration data, the expiry date and the status of any national or global domain. And you may find the same name free in another extension of the family.
05After registration: make the domain work
A registered name alone opens no website. What makes it work is the it points to: your hosting’s servers if your site is on cPanel hosting or a VPS, or DNS Console’s if you want to manage the domain’s records in one place, apart from the hosting.
- Point the domain: set the right name servers, then follow the change spreading with the DNS propagation check on Illevante’s site.
- Turn on HTTPS: every domain you host on our cPanel hosting gets an SSL certificate through AutoSSL. If you want a certificate apart from the hosting, our certificates start with PositiveSSL, and we have OV and EV certificates for businesses.
- Use an address on your domain: an address like info@halawiyat-hama.sy is short, and tells whoever writes to you that you work from Syria.
- Protect the name: register the same name with .com if you have an audience outside Syria, and with .com.sy if you have a commercial register.
And remember that once it expires, the national domain follows the national registry’s rules, so don’t leave renewal to the last day: registering for several years is the simplest way never to miss a date.
06Does .sy help you show up in searches inside Syria?
Search engines treat a country’s extension as a sign that the site is meant for that country’s audience, so .sy is a factor that helps your page in the results of people searching inside Syria. But it is one signal, not a guarantee of first place: what really lifts a page is content that answers the searcher’s question, a fast site, and links from other sites search engines trust.
- ProblemYou registered .sy and waited for the site to rank on its own
- FixWrite pages that answer your customers’ questions in their words, and get links from business directories and your partners.
- ProblemThe name is registered to the designer or an employee
- FixPut the actual business owner’s name in the registration data from the start.
- ProblemThe registration was delayed by an unclear document
- FixPhotograph each document clearly and make sure it is certified before you send the request.
- ProblemSomeone else took your name in another extension
- FixRegister .sy and .com.sy together for your company, and .com if you have an audience outside Syria.
The national domain is an official address that suits business papers, invoices and stamps, at $0.55 a year. Start by checking the name you want, prepare your documents, and send your request.
