If your domain expires, your website and your email stop working, often at the same moment. If it is registered to the wrong person, getting it back can take weeks. Both problems are common and both are avoidable.
This guide covers what to check about your domain today, in about ten minutes, and what to set up so it does not depend on one person remembering a date.
Who actually owns your domain
The owner is the registrant: the person or organisation named in the registration. The registrar is the company you pay, and whoever controls the account at that registrar can change everything. These are three separate things, and all three should point to your business.
The registrant should be your company, not a former employee, agency or developer.
The registrar account should be in your business’s name, with a shared email address the business controls.
At least two people should be able to sign in, with two-factor authentication turned on.
If a web agency registered the domain for you, ask for it to be moved into your own account now, while you are on good terms.
What happens when a domain expires
Turn on auto-renew and keep a valid card on the account. Registrars send reminders, but they go to the account email, which is often an old inbox nobody reads.
After the expiry date there is usually a grace period when you can still renew at the normal price, although the site and email may already be offline. After that the domain can enter a redemption period, when it can only be restored for an extra fee, and then it is deleted and anyone can register it. The exact timing depends on the domain extension and the registrar, so check theirs rather than relying on a rule of thumb.
Moving a domain to another registrar
Unlock the domain at the current registrar.
Request the authorisation code, sometimes called the EPP or transfer code.
Start the transfer at the new registrar and pay for the renewal year it usually includes.
Approve the confirmation email and wait for the transfer to complete, which can take several days.
Many registrars block transfers for a period after a domain is registered or transferred, often 60 days. If your DNS is hosted at the registrar, copy the records to the new provider before you move, or the website and email can stop working during the move.
Status codes worth recognising
A domain lookup shows status codes such as clientTransferProhibited, which means the domain is locked against transfers, normally what you want day to day. redemptionPeriod and pendingDelete mean the domain has expired and is close to being lost. ICANN’s guide to EPP status codes explains each one.
Check yours now
My free domain lookup shows when your domain was registered and when it expires, its status codes in plain language, the registrar, the DNS records and the hosting and email services it points to. If the expiry date is close or a status looks wrong, you will see it straight away.
A ten-minute checklist
Our domain is registered to: …
The registrar account belongs to, and is used by: …
Auto-renew is on, and the payment card expires: …
The domain expires on: …
Our DNS is hosted at: …
Two-factor authentication is on for: …
If something on that list is unclear, or the domain is held by someone you can no longer reach, tell me what you know and I can help work out the safest way to bring it back under your control.