January 7th, 2020
Another year has passed, and your website has gone down because you forgot to renew your domain name. You scramble to get it back up, but because it expired and was just renewed, your website now has to cache throughout the internet, which in some instances, can take 24 to 72 hours to propagate. This unfortunate scenario is all too common. So here are a few reasons why you should not let this happen and what you can do to prevent it from happening in the future.
- Always make sure that your email address with your domain registrar is up to date. This is the number one reason why most domains expire.
- The second reason why your domain expires? Your credit card information is not updated.
- Make sure that you have auto-renew turned on.
- You miss your auto-renewal notices or expiration notices. This typically starts around 90 days before the domain expires.
- Enter the expiration date in your phone, work, or personal calendar. Also make sure that you have it repeat 90, 60 and 30 days before the expiration date.
- If you use more than one domain registrar, make sure on all your reminders you note which registrar the domain is registered with.
When your Domain Expires
- Prior to expiration, you will receive notices to renew
- Your domain expires, your website and email go offline
- During expiration, you have 30 days to renew your domain
- Once 30 days has passed:
- Some registrars place your domain in a redemption period for another 30 days. At this point, to renew your domain, your registrar will charge you an extra fee, which can cost more than $100.00.
- Other registrars will place your domain up for auction, which means if you want your domain back, you will have to outbid all the other bidders.
- If the domain is not purchased, some registrars will often have a closeout sale for domain names and place the domain on a list.
- If, after all of the above, the domain still does not sell, it will end up being deleted and available to register again.
Conclusion
In a few words, don’t let your domain expire. You do not want your website to go offline.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this blog, feel free to contact us.