By Kristie Parker
You know your life is thrilling when the highlight of your inbox is a payment reminder for electric, insurance, or that credit card you swore you’d cut up.
After a while you stop opening half of them since they’re just auto-generated notifications.
But sometimes you can miss something important – like your website domain renewal.
And if you realize it too late it’ll launch you into total panic mode.
Because one day your client calls and casually mentions, “Yeah, I tried to go to your website, and it wasn’t loading. Then I tried to email you, and that bounced back too.”
Say what now? Hmm. Probably just needs an update. So you try to login and…
Your business website is gone.
Vanished!
Your domain expired. And someone bought it knowing that you’d probably want it back. For a price.
You heard that right.
It’s called domain squatting.
It’s a crummy thing to do and it happens all the time. But it’s easy to avoid.
Read on to find out how to avoid losing your domain to predators and what to do if you’re already spiraling.
Your domain is your business address on the internet, like bungalowwebdesign.com. It’s how customers find you online.
Just like you wouldn’t want to show up to the locks changed and an eviction notice on your shop window, you don’t want to get locked out of your home on the internet either.
When your domain expires, your website goes down. This means customers can’t find you, contact you, or buy from you online. Every moment your site is down, you could be losing money.
Your domain is part of your brand identity. If it expires and someone else grabs it, you could lose a chunk of your business identity. Getting it back can be costly, or sometimes impossible.
Rebuilding your online presence with a new domain if yours is lost can mean starting from scratch with search engines. This could set you back months or even years of progress in SEO.
If you have a business email address connected to your domain, that’s inoperable too, which means you’re missing out on incoming customer emails.
It’s totally valid to wonder why someone would be waiting around to scoop up a small business website address that gets relatively low traffic.
It’s not like there’s a human googling your business every morning, rubbing his hands together like, “ooh lemme see if MrsParkersCatTreats.com is available yet.”
It’s more systematic than that.
These bots can be programmed to alert the user immediately when a domain is close to its expiration date or has just expired.
By using bots, companies can quickly identify and act on expiring domains without needing to constantly monitor them manually.
Some people literally make a business out of doing this, they’re called domain investors.
Additionally, expired domains often enter an auction phase, where multiple interested parties can bid to take over the domain. These auctions are visible and accessible to anyone who uses domain marketplace platforms.
Even if you don’t have a highly desirable URL or a whole lotta traffic, your domain could still be valuable to the right (or wrong) person.
Domain names can be like real estate. Just as investors buy up properties in hopes their value will increase, domain speculators snag expired domains hoping to sell them at a higher price later.
If your domain has even a trickle of visitors, it could be valuable to someone looking to divert that traffic to other sites, which might be their own businesses or, *cough* less savory operations. Ahhh, the internet.
Once they control your domain, these opportunists can set up a page full of ads. Every visitor who mistakenly comes to the expired domain can generate ad revenue for the new owner.
Ransom—okay, nobody’s getting tied to a chair in a basement, but it’s the internet version of ‘pay up or else’.
People buy expired domains just to sell them back to the original owners at inflated prices.
They know that if you’re particularly attached to your domain or if it’s closely tied to your brand, you might be willing to pay a premium to get it back.
In the worst cases, expired domains are purchased to host malware or phishing sites. Malware sites secretly install harmful software to steal or damage data, while phishing sites mimic legitimate ones to trick visitors into revealing sensitive information.
Even if you don’t have a highly desirable URL or a whole lotta traffic, your domain could still be valuable to the right (or wrong) person.
Turning on auto-renew can prevent your domain from accidentally expiring. It’s a simple, one-time setting. But, of course, credit cards expire. So…
Use current contact info. Your domain registrar will remind you when it’s time to renew or update your payment info.
But if your notices are going to the old coolgurl88@hotmail.com email address you haven’t checked since you stopped beating up your little brother, you’ll never get the notifications.
Make sure your contact information is up to date with your domain registrar so you don’t miss alerts.
Don’t freak out yet. If your domain has recently expired, you might still have a chance to recover it during what’s called the “grace period.”
Most domain registrars offer a grace period after the expiration date, typically from 30 to 45 days. During this time, you can renew your domain at the regular renewal price.
Phew.
Your website and email services might be down during this period, but you can still recover the domain without additional fees.
If you miss the grace period, your domain then enters the “redemption period.” This stage lasts about 30 days, during which you can still reclaim your domain, but it typically involves a higher fee.
This fee is significantly more than your normal renewal rate and is meant to deter domain abandonment.
If the domain isn’t renewed during the grace or redemption periods, it may be put up for auction where others can bid to register it.
If it doesn’t sell at auction, the domain will eventually be released and made available for anyone to register again.
Acting quickly during the grace period is your best bet to avoid extra costs and the risk of losing your domain permanently. Be sure to contact your registrar right away if your domain expires so you understand the specific terms and timelines they offer.
But seriously, staying on top of your domain details can prevent a ton of unnecessary stress.
Consider setting up auto-renew.
Keep your contact info updated.
Actually open those notification emails sent by your registrar.
By taking these simple steps, you’ll keep your site safe, secure, and strictly in your hands.
