Every day, thousands of domains expire – leaving their former owners to not only lose business, but lose their valuable domain and all the work they’ve put into it as well. How do you know if, and when your domain will expire – and more importantly, how do you prevent that from happening?
These days, there are sophisticated programs and websites that recognize when a domain has expired and has been “dropped” from the registrar. That makes it easy for anyone to go in and grab that name – even just seconds later. Some websites even make a business out of this practice.
So how do you protect your “good name”? By following these simple steps, you can be certain that your domain name is protected and that you’re the first to know before anything unexpectedly happens to it.
1. Keep your contact information current – All domains are registered via a registrar – such as GoDaddy.com. When you register a domain, you enter your contact information, such as your address, phone number and e-mail address, as its owner.
When it comes time for you domain to be renewed (or if it’s getting ready to expire), the registrar will often notify you by e-mail only. That’s why it’s crucial that you keep your e-mail address you used to register the domain name, up-to-date and current.
Avoid using free email accounts such as Hotmail or Yahoo, as these typically expire when they haven’t been used for a month or so. That means your domain registrar could be sending you notices about your domain’s expiration – and you’d never receive them.
To update your contact information for your domain, simply login to your domain registrar and update your account with the correct details. Some registrars will send you a confirmation email to ensure that you (and not someone else) sent the message.
2. Register for more years – Some domain registrars will offer you a discounted rate if you register for more than the standard 1-year renewal. You can register a domain for up to 10 years if you choose.
By extending your registration period, you can forget about having to worry about renewing it for awhile. That doesn’t mean you should let it slip though – keep that contact information current at all times!
3. Turn on auto-renew – Most registrars have an “Auto-Renew” feature which will automatically bill the credit card you have on file with them – making it possible to keep your domain name indefinitely as long as the card on file is active and hasn’t expired. If it can’t be charged, the registrar will often notify you via e-mail that there was a problem.
The auto-renew feature is a great time-saver for people who own and register multiple domain names.
4. Turn on the “locking” feature – A few years ago, a technically-savvy person could initiate a domain name transfer request, a process that would move a domain name from your account to theirs, and if you (the owner) didn’t respond within a certain timeframe, the domain was automatically moved to the requestor’s account.
This caused a lot of people to needlessly lose good domain names. For whatever reason, perhaps their contact information was out of date or they were on vacation, they didn’t get the request or didn’t notice it – until it was too late.
Because of the outrage in the online community, domain registrars started a process known as “locking” a domain. Rather than acknowledging the domain transfer request “by default” as if you had approved it, locking a domain forces you to explicitly acknowledge a transfer of a domain from one account to another.
If you deny the request or don’t respond at all – the domain doesn’t move.
Sensing this, most domain “hijackers” have abandoned this practice, so it’s rare that you’ll ever receive a domain transfer request at all. Still, the locking practice is still in use by registrars – just as a protective measure.
Oftentimes this feature is turned on from the moment you order a domain name – but if not, be sure to enable it as it simply adds an extra layer of protection – and doesn’t cost you a penny extra.
If you keep these tips in mind, you’ll be able to easily hang on to your valuable domain names and continue to build and grow your business online – without worrying about expiration dates, renewals and other registration headaches.
For cheap domain registration ($6.99 per year), we recommend 1and1.com. They also turn on locking and auto-renew for each domain you register, so you never have to worry about when your domain will expire!
