Obtaining a domain name for your company is like buying real estate for yourself on the internet.
Without a domain name or URL, your website wouldn’t have a home on the internet to promote your business and to provide information about your company. You also wouldn’t get the professional-looking branded email, such as [email protected].
Taking care of your domain name is a critical part of your website maintenance activities since you need a domain name to get your website up and running on the internet in the first place.
Here are a few tips that we think help you avoid domain name drama.
1. Choose the right domain name
Efficient domain management starts by choosing the right domain name for your company. You could simply jot down a few names that you think would be suitable to use for your domain. However, you need to make sure that the name you choose is creative, unique and also something that is also easy to remember so that they don’t have to search the internet for a long time before they can find your website.
You also need to take care not to infringe on any of the existing domain names. Instead, try protecting the domain that you have thought of by getting all of the available options like .com, .net, .ca, etc. from some reputed domain name registrant like GoDaddy. To make your search for the right name easier, you could even consider using some online tools to help you come up with some names.
2. Registering your domain name
When it comes to registering your domain name–while it may seem scary–you should do it yourself. This is considered as a best practice as you would then have full control over your domain name. If you prefer, you could even ask your website designer to register your domain on your behalf, instead of asking an external IT person to do it (and risk getting it registered in the wrong name).
The good thing about registering your own domain name is that you will always be in control of it. You will also have the assurance that by personally handling the registration and renewal process, nothing will go wrong with regards to your domain name.
However, if you can’t do this by yourself for whatever reason, then you have to make sure that the person handling the registration provides you all the necessary details like login credentials, FTP login credentials, providers phone number, etc. Some of the popular registrars with whom you can register your domain name are Hostgator, Hover, GoDaddy, BigRock, and Namecheap.
3. Renewing your domain name
Renewing your domain name is as important as getting it registered.
So make sure to mark it on your calendar when your domain name is up for renewal and get it done on time. Whatever you do, don’t forget to renew it or you might lose ownership of the domain after it expires.
Moreover, once you lose ownership of the domain, it could cost you a lot more money if you want to get it back from the people who have scooped it up–that is, if you even CAN get it back at all. But, you can easily avoid this scenario by renewing your domain on its due date. Another way to ensure that you renew your domain is by using the automatic renewal feature that most registrars provide.
4. Other ways of taking care of your domain
Multiple Domains
- If you are using multiple domains, then you can streamline them to make them all point to one website with the help of permanent redirects.
Moving Domains
- If you decide to move your domain name from one host to another, then make sure you give your current host the reason for moving before actually making the move. After doing this, you need to obtain a unique authorization code (EPP code) to authorize the new host to register your domain.
Transferring Domains
- This situation usually arises when you’re rebranding or expanding your business, or when you didn’t register the domain yourself and maybe as a result the wrong one has been registered. So now, if you to transfer your domain, ensure that all files and important emails are transferred to the new one.
Cancelling Domains
- In case you want to cancel one of your domains, all you need to do is let it expire. If the auto-renew feature is on, you would need to disable it so that it expires at the end of the billing cycle.
Renewing expired domains
- An expired domain can be retained if you renew it during the grace period that most registrars provide. When grace period is over, you may still renew it but only after paying a hefty fee.
That’s a Wrap!
This article should have provided you the insights you were looking for with regards to domain management. We hope that these tips can help you manage website’s domain name more efficiently. If you think that we have missed something on this subject, then please share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.