How to Protect Your Domain Name

If you have a website, blog or online store - then the chances are that you have registered a domain name at some point for your site. Some owners register domains for the brand visibility in email, that is having your brand name in your own email address. Other domain owners use a specific domain because it is a short and memorable web address. Still others use a specific domain name in the hopes that it will drive traffic organically to a website. Whatever the reasons you originally registered your domain name, it is valuable to you and should be protected.

Here is a case in point - on Sunday November 9, 2010 after getting pounded by the Green Bay Packers 45-7 to take their dismal record to 1 win and 7 losses on the season - the website of the Dallas Cowboys was taken down due to an expired domain name. The official website of the team is: www.dallascowboys.com and the domain was originally registered in November 1995. According to the Dallas News:

In the publicly available database on WhoIs.com, the domain's registrant is listed as Dallas Cowboys Football Club Ltd., but the specific e-mail address administrative contact is for Jerry Jones Jr., son of owner Jerry Jones and executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer for the team. A message to that email address and a phone call to Jones Jr. were not returned.

Although the domain name was quickly received and renewed by the Cowboys, the damage to their reputation remains

So how do you protect your domain name? Here are a few tips provided by engineers at dedicated web hosting company 34SP.com:

Keep Your Email Up-to-Date

Since domain names are tied to an email address, if there is a problem the registrar will try to contact you via email. Any notices about expiring domains, or fees that are coming due will be delivered to the email address on file for that particular domain name. Make certain that the email address connected to your domain is working and current in order to remove any confusion at renewal.

Ensure That You (not your hosting company) Are Listed as the Administrative Contact

Some hosting providers default their own contact info into your domain name registration Administrative Contact field when you use them. Double check this on your whois record to make certain that if there are technical issues with the domain name - you will be the one contacted.

Register Your Domain for 10 Years at a Time

The maximum length that most registrars will permit you to renew your domain name is 10 years. If you register the domain for the maximum duration, then you don't have to worry about renewing your domain again for 10 years. The downside? In ten years time you may not remember to renew it.

Keep All of Your Domain Names with One Registrar

If you have registered multiple domain names over the years, consider consolidating all of your domain names into one main account. That way the domains will all be accessible easily. Also, when you look at one domain in the account you can briefly glance over the others in the account to ensure that they are current.

Consider Consolidating Your Renewal Dates

Many registrars now offer the service of consolidating your renewal dates across multiple domains. Thereby ensuring that all the domains are expiring and renewable on the same date. This makes it easy to renew all of your domains at one time and only once each year.

Always Lock Your Domains to Prevent Fraud

Registrar-lock indicates that your domain name is locked. This means that your domain name can't be transferred until you manually 'unlock' it. A lock will prevent any unauthorized transfers from taking place. Therefore, be sure your domain is always locked unless you are moving to another registrar.

Keep the above tips in mind to maintain your domain name security. After all, you wouldn't want to end up like the Dallas Cowboys, would you?

Guest post by: Derek Vaughan is a web hosting industry veteran, marketing consultant and writer. Mr. Vaughan has architected the marketing growth of several prominent web hosting success stories leading to acquisition including Affinity Internet, Inc., Aplus.Net and HostMySite.com.

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