Frank Domains essential guide to domain names

A domain name is a vital part of your brand’s identity and should be treasured as a pride possession. Fail or forget to renew at your peril because it’s can become a very expensive and time-consuming mistake . It could be the difference from maintaining or losing your precious domain name.

So to make sure you don't lose out on your domain, here at Frank Domains we thought we’d pass on our vast industry knowledge giving you an essential guide to domain names.

1.      First things first, register your domain names for multiple years and if possible, set-up auto renewals. It sounds simple but you will be surprised how many people don’t realise that they have only signed up for 1 year ownership, with the misassumption, believing once registered it is owned for life. This certainly is not the case, although if kept ahead of renewals technically it can be, but owners must remember to renew or else it could be hijacked by another company once expired. Try to register your domain for 5-10 years, not only will this   decrease the chances of you forgetting to renew each year, it could also bring with it cost savings for ‘buying in bulk’.

2.      Following on from the point above, auto renewals are extremely handy as long as you are comfortable with domain registrars storing your credit details and managing the process for you. By giving the registrar permission to charge your credit card and renew the domain automatically on your behalf, this is your safest option to help prevent your domain from expiring, and subsequently in the worst case scenario, being bought by another company.

3.      Take reminders seriously! Domain registrars always send out multiple reminder  messages to keep you informed that your expiry date is looming, and quite often one click of a button could take away or the related stress which could come from not renewing.. Typically these renewal messages will firstly arrive 60 days prior to the expiry date with frequent reminders after.

4.      In the event that you unfortunately miss your renewal date and the grace period either side, you get one final chance to take ownership of your domain before it is made public. This however comes at a cost and you will need to pay a redemption fee of anything from £52 upwards. Think of it this way, domain names are like baseball (three strikes and you’re out!)

5.      Keep to one domain registrar. If you have multiple domains, be wise and keep them in once place; it will be.  a lot easier to manage and keep track of them this way Although typically we are told ‘don’t put all of your eggs in one basket, in terms of domains, in this case, DO!

Remember, if you are ever in need of advice please talk to Frank. Not only can we help with any domain queries, we can help advise how you can swap and store your domains in one place.