You know, really horrible things happen to really nice businesses when domains expire and I’ve seen some crazy things happen when it comes to domain names. Let’s make sure you’re prepared and protected with your domain. (Click on the image Above to go the Video)
We’re busy business owners, we have a lot on our plate and domains do expire. There’s a credit card associated with every domain name and they will expire as well, and as it comes down to the wire, you may or may not be getting emails from whoever hosts your domain, letting you know that you are about to expire.
What happens?
Let me share with you one of my client’s experience with this situation. She took her whole team up to some off-the-grid retreat and of course what happened? Her domain expired and a competitor went into GoDaddy and snatched it. And she had no idea until she went to look at it and found out that it was no longer hers.
What do you do now? Here’s kind of my hit list of what you need to do as soon as you find out that your domain has expired:
#1 Call your host right away.
Make sure that whoever is hosting your domain for example GoDaddy or whomever is hosting your domain. Not your website, your domain. Wherever you registered your domain, you want to make sure you can get it back.
PRO TIP: Once you register or renew with your hosts, make sure it’s set on auto-renewal plus 2 to 5 years on top of that, so that will never happen again.
#2 Buy the misspellings of your name.
The next one is if you’re already in there, go ahead and look up more domains with variants of your name or website name. For example, my name is Heather Lutze, L-U-T- Z-E. I also own heatherlutz.com without the e and I have a lot of other different variants that I own.
If you know your website domain or your name and or your company gets misspelled a lot, make sure to buy those misspellings. Then ultimately, if someone else has got your domain name, you’re going to have to then probably get an attorney and then start working through them to negotiate a deal to get the domain back.
This happens a lot, just make sure that you protect yourself.
PRO TIP: Make sure to buy ahead on your domain for 3 to 5 years. Make sure that you’re buying the misspellings of your domain so people can still find you even if they spell it wrong. Also, you need to make sure who hosts your domain and that you know your logins for it.
#3 Know who to turn to when it goes down.
It’s very important that you know who to turn to when your website goes down. That’s not your web designer, it’s going to have to be your host or the domain name registrar like GoDaddy. Let me remind you that your domain name is your fingerprint online.
It is absolutely critical to the health and reputation of your business. Don’t leave it to chance and definitely protect yourself from being hacked.
PRO TIP: Always keep a copy of important documents and information about your domain name. NEVER share it with anyone as this can be very crucial for your business. We have a document named Executive Log In Sheet, if you would like a copy send an email to gail@findability.com and she will get you a copy.
If you have any questions regarding your website and how to dominate your online presence. All you have to do is to start a conversation and Let’s get you started on your path to becoming Findable. Book A Call