When it comes to your website, whether it is developed and/or hosted by Nicely Done Sites or not, there is one thing that must be done to keep it running. While we preach good security practices and keeping your site up to date there is one thing that may be more important to keeping your website visible to the world. That is your domain registration. It is easy to overlook this but by letting it lapse there could be consequences for not only you but your customers as well.
Your domain?
Domains like nicelydonesites.com are renewed on a yearly basis. If you are hosted by Nicely Done Sites the fee to renew the domain every year is included in the cost of hosting and we handle the registration for you so that your website stays operational. If payment lapses that not only shuts down the website but it also allows someone else to purchase that domain.
It is possible that a competitor might want it just to inconvenience you or another company with the same name across the country might want it for their own. Once they register it that domain is lost to you. That means that all of those customers who are used to going to your site by using that domain will now see something else. You will need to print new stationary and new business cards so that when you do get back up and running people will go to your site and not someone else’s. It is a cheap fee to renew your domain, don’t let it lapse.
Why should you renew your domain?
There is of course more. As detailed by security expert Brian Krebs an issue with domain registration led to a very comfortable situation for an Oregon photographer. A change in credit cards had led her registration to lapse since it was set to be auto renewed. That allowed someone to purchase the domain and that person set up a fake e-commerce website.
The photographer noticed it when they tried and failed to log into their Instagram account tied to the business. The account was tied to an email address from the website’s domain and was later changed. The new account was a .ru email address and due to a lack of access to the business email the photographer has not been able to regain control so they felt like they have lost the last 10 years of their life.
The website since has seemingly become an ecommerce site selling Reebok shoes in the Spanish language. It looks like any legit site but all products for sale are at a fraction of what they would cost from a typical retailer. The biggest tip off that the site is not legit is that it lacks a SSL certificate meaning it is an http website rather than an https site.
A growing amount of cybercrime
This photographer is not alone. Hundreds of other domains have been scooped up and rebuilt to try to harvest the credit card information of unsuspecting people thinking that they have found the deal of a lifetime. It is cybercrime at its finest and all because someone forgot to or neglected to renew a web domain for whatever reason. This could have been stopped by just renewing it but that is little comfort to the people who have been swindled.
Giving up a domain name may not be easy. You may have several and just want to cut down on ones that are not generating traffic. In that case it may be best to just have a redirect for that domain. The last thing you want is one of your customers asking you when you got into selling brand name shoes at bargain basement prices and why they can’t pick them up in your flower shop. You could also be closing a business. In that case it may be best to see if you can find someone to sell it (or give it) to. Don’t let it lapse!