Category: Domain Names

Nancy’s post for today is at Web-World Watch on the topic of domain name crisis and being held hostage by your registrar. Click in to read this article to learn the preventative actions you need to take.

We’ve had a great response to our article last month on protecting your domain name and why you should not let your webmaster own it on your behalf. This month’s article is about domain name expirations and what you should know to keep your domain name safe.

It is very important that you keep your domain active. When you get a renewal notice from your domain registrar, you must take it seriously. Check immediately in your domain name control panel that your credit card information is accurate and up-to-date. Don’t assume that your registrar will auto-renew your domain. We’ve just had a client experience a problem on that issue. He was set up to auto-renew, but his credit card had expired. The registrar turned off his domain breaking his access to email and “taking down” his website. Fortunately, our blogger found out his site was down when she went in to post, and the client was able to work with his web host and domain registrar to get back up online the same day, but others have not been so lucky.

Make sure that you keep your contact information current in the accounts you have for your domain name and for your web hosting. Supply two email addresses whenever possible so you will make sure to receive these very important renewal notices to prevent problems.

If you don’t respond to the emails to renew or update your credit card information, after the expiration date of your domain name, and there an expiration date for every domain name, your registrar will allow you for a time to quickly repair the situation, pay up, and get back online. Wait too long, and the registrar will hold your domain. We’ve had a situation such as this and the fee to return the domain to the chastised owner was over $300. Sometimes the fees are so high that it is best to abandon the domain and select a new one. The registrar is not violating any laws or rules by charging a return fee.

Don’t think that to keep from paying this “hostage fee” and that you can rebuy the domain in a few days or weeks on the open market. Registrars know this, and some will actually hold your domain for several months under their own name hoping to charge a big “return fee” to you the original domain owner. If you have gotten to this juncture, at some point the domain may return to the open market, but only if someone has not placed a hold on your domain name to buy it when it becomes available. The reserve applicant will have the first opportunity to buy your domain name. Then and only if no one else wants it and sometimes after months have passed, your domain may actually appear back on the open market allowing you to rebuy it for $7 or so. But just think, you’ve been out of business throughout the whole process.

Don’t think this disaster could happen to you? Well, I have actually helped several clients in this situation and it is really a mess when it gets this far. My recommendation is start domain name renewal 30 days out. I recommend this as sometimes you have forgotten the login information to your renewal control panel, or possibly you don’t even own your domain name and you didn’t know it and need time to remediate that issue first. Don’t wait until the last minute to renew and risk being shut down and having to go into a “crisis repair”.

My next recommendation is that when you do renew your domain name, renew for a minimum of five years on your company’s main website domain and two years on peripheral domains. The reason is that Google actually evaluates the length that you have held your domain name and the length of your renewal as just one of the over 150 different and important factors they use to determine your organic placement on the search results page also known as the organic rankings.

So in conclusion, own your domain name outright, make sure you keep your email and billing information up-to-date, and renew 30 days out.

When you get a notice that your domain is about to expire, make sure you react, and react quickly.  There is nothing worse than having to let a client know that in their ignorance and lack of action that they have lost their domain name or will have to pay several hundred dollars to get it back if they can even get it back.

ICANN has rules on what happens when a domain name expires. However the charges to get it back are in part determined by your registrar. In several situations the client has ignorantly not responded to numerous notes from the registrar to renew their domain name. In some cases they felt that they were on auto renew, but did not realize that their credit card had expired that was on file with the registrar.

If you let your domain name expire, this is typically what will happen. First your registrar will give you a grace period, then they will repoint the domain to a parking page in some cases taking down your email and website. Sometimes they don’t do this, GoDaddy will hoping to get your attention. If you still don’t respond, then the registrar will take back and own your domain. You will have to pay sometimes several hundred dollars to get your domain back at this stage, but you really have no choice. If you still don’t respond, then anyone who had reserved your domain gets an opportunity to buy it. Finally the domain goes back on the open market.

I have seen some registrars automatically keep control of the domain for several months trying to get more money from you to return the domain to the original owner.

The bottom-line is that if you want the domain you should not let it expire. If you have, then sometimes the best action is to move to a new domain name. It simply may be too costly to get your domain back.

Routinely when I renew a domain I start 30 days out. Sometimes the client does not know the registrar and research needs to be done. Sometime the client does not even own the domain and work needs to be done to secure it first. DO NOT wait until the last minute to renew your domain, it is simply too crucial for your business! 

When you are a website owner, it is important that YOU keep control of your domain name. I cannot begin to tell you the problems that I have come across where a new client has let the previous webmaster or the original web designer procure their domain name for them. In the most serious cases, that person had done so under their own name tied to their own private registration account, where the client and real domain name owner had no access.

My top tip for domain security is that every website owner should manage and own their own domain name! It sounds easy to let someone else control this aspect of your website, but if you choose not to work with a web designer or webmaster in the future, you have lost all control of one of the most crucial elements of your web presence – your domain name.

Here are my recommendations for domain security:

1. Before you work with any designer or webmaster, purchase your own domain name and tie it to your credit card, your billing address, and your name using either GoDaddy or Network Solutions. I personally like GoDaddy as the domains are very inexpensive, the control panel easy to use, and they have an auto renew function. Your domain name registrar is not the same as your web host! In fact, your hosting can be at one provider and your domain at another.

2. Don’t let a new web host push you to move your domain registration to them. There is no benefit for you to do this. The hosting agent who encourages you, or misleads you, into believing that this is top priority, is simply looking for a domain registration commission every time you renew your domain.

3. Don’t let your webmaster control your domain name. You can let them manage the changes or additions needed, but don’t ever let them set up domains under their own personal account, with their name as domain administrator. They can be technical director, but not administrator.

4. Protect your domain name as you would your reputation! You never know what the future holds for whom you will use for your webmaster services. I can tell you “real life” stories of clients who have had to abandon their “bread and butter” domain name as the old webmaster either held the domain name hostage or refused to assist with access or transfer. If your name is not listed as the administrator on the domain registration, sometimes the only way to get back access to what you thought you owned, is expensive legal action and months of red tape. It is best to just be safe at the start and own your own domain name.