Your domain name is your address on the internet, the yourbusiness.com part. It's on your truck, your business cards, your Google listing, and your email. Most owners don't think about it until something goes wrong.
And it does go wrong. While looking at local business websites around our area, I've come across more than one where the old web address now shows a completely unrelated site: a gambling page, a spam blog, or just "site not found." In most cases the business didn't do anything shady. The domain simply lapsed, and somebody else picked it up.
Here's how that happens, and how to make sure it never happens to you.
You don't buy a domain, you rent it
When you "buy" a domain, you're really registering it for a set amount of time, usually a year or a few years, through a company called a registrar. GoDaddy, Namecheap, Squarespace, and Cloudflare are a few you may have heard of. When that time runs out, you have to renew. If you don't, the domain expires.
What happens after it expires
The exact timeline depends on your registrar and the kind of domain. For common ones like .com, here's roughly how it goes, based on ICANN's rules for expired domains. ICANN is the nonprofit that sets the rules registrars have to follow.
- Reminders before it expires. Your registrar has to email you at least twice before the domain expires, about a month ahead and about a week ahead. Those emails go to the address on your domain account. If that's an old email nobody checks, you'll never see them.
- Your site and email go dark. At some point after expiration, before the domain is deleted, the registrar has to cut it off so your website and email stop working. That's meant as a last wake-up call.
- A grace period, maybe. Many registrars give you a window after expiration to renew, but how long it lasts and what it costs depends on their terms. Depending on those terms, the domain may even be auctioned off to somebody else during that window.
- A 30-day redemption period. Once the registrar deletes the domain, there's a 30-day window where you can still get it back through your registrar, usually for an extra fee.
- Back on the open market. After that, anybody can register it, first come, first served.
Who buys expired domains, and why
There are people and companies that watch for expiring domains and grab them the moment they come free. An established business domain is worth something to them because it already has a history: links from other sites, listings in directories, and people who still type it in or click it from an old Facebook post.
Once they own it, they might:
- Put up a spammy ad page or a gambling site
- Use it to try to boost other websites in search results
- Offer to sell it back to you, often for a lot more than renewing would have cost
- Just park it with a page full of ads
Meanwhile, your customers click the link on your Google listing or your old business card and land on something you'd never want your name tied to. Some of them will assume you've gone out of business. And any email on that domain stops working, so you can miss messages from customers and vendors without even knowing it.
How to protect your domain
The good news is that this is easy to prevent. Here's what I recommend to every business owner.
Turn on auto-renew
Log in to your registrar and turn on auto-renew. While you're in there, check whether you can renew for several years at once. That gives you a bigger cushion.
Keep a working card on file
Auto-renew only works if the payment goes through. When your card expires or gets replaced, update it at your registrar too. An expired card is one of the easiest ways for a domain to slip through the cracks.
Register it in your name, on your account
Your domain should be registered to you or your business, in an account you can log in to. Not your nephew's, not a web designer who moved away, and not an employee who left. If somebody else set it up, ask them to move it into an account in your name while you're still on good terms.
At Forged Digital, your domain is registered in your name and stays yours, even if you ever leave.
Keep your contact email current
Those renewal reminders go to the email on your domain account. Use an address you actually check, and update it if that ever changes.
Know where your domain lives
Write down which registrar your domain is with, how to log in, and when it renews, and keep that somewhere safe. If you're not sure who your registrar is, you can look it up with ICANN's lookup tool.
Check on it once a year
Put a reminder on your calendar to log in and make sure everything looks right: auto-renew on, card current, and contact info up to date. It takes five minutes.
What to do if yours already lapsed
If your domain expired recently, contact your registrar right away. You may still be inside a renewal or redemption window, and it's easiest to get it back early. If somebody else already owns it, you have a couple of choices: try to buy it back, or pick a new domain and update your Google Business Profile, Facebook page, directory listings, and printed materials. Either way, don't wait on it.
Want somebody to keep an eye on it?
Looking after your domain is part of what I handle for clients, along with hosting, security, and updates. If you're starting fresh or need a new web address, I can help you set it up right from day one. See what's included on my pricing page, check out the sample home pages I've built for local businesses, or read how much a small business website costs around here. And if you're wondering who I am, here's why I started Forged Digital.