How to protect your domain name when working remotely

With COVID 19 rampaging across the globe and businesses either closing down or moving to a remote working environment, you domain name is often overlooked until it is too late and expires.

Checklist to protect your domain name

We have put together a short checklist of some things that you should do to protect your digital assets –

1. Check to see that the Whois details (also known as contact details) are current and up to date. Often the registrant email belongs to a person who has long left the business, so renewal reminders can be missed;

2. Check to see when your domain name is due to expire. You can do this by logging into your Registrar account, if you are unsure, just check with your Registrar. It’s always a good idea to diarise this date so that you don’t forget;

3. With many domain name extensions such as .com domains, you can renew your domain for another year or two, this is a great thing to do now. If you have a .au domain name then you can only renew within 90 days immediately preceding its expiry, so if your .au domain falls into this category renew it for at least 1 or more years;

4. Turn on auto renew on your domain name, so that it is automatically renewed (it is best to use this only as a back up – it is still best to manually renew your domain name). Don’t forget to ensure that you have a current credit card, Paypal or credit with your Registrar to enable auto renewal;

Consequences

The consequences of your domain name expiring can be catastrophic and may include –

1. A competitor registering your domain name when it becomes available;

2. Your email and website will stop functioning;

3. Your website may be negatively effected in search engine rankings if it is not visible to search engines;

These are just some of the measures you can put in place to protect what is most often most important digital asset.

In the meantime, don’t forget to wash your hands, stay at home and stay safe.

DNJ Team