Should You or Your Agency Manage Your Domain Registration?

A Missed Renewal Took Down a Business’s Website and Email for 10 Days

A client recently came to us with a problem.

Their website was down.

Not slow. Not showing an error on one page. Completely down.

And so was their email.

The problem wasn’t their website hosting or an email server. Their domain registration had expired.

Three years earlier, the business had registered its domain name and paid for three years of registration. The account was connected to a general company email address using the business’s own domain.

During those three years, several people moved through the position responsible for that email account.

When the domain renewal notices eventually arrived, the person receiving them didn’t understand what they were or why they mattered.

So, they ignored them.

The domain registration expired. The website went down, and because the company’s email was connected to the same domain, email stopped working too.

To make matters worse, no one knew the login information for the domain registrar account.

It took 10 days for the business to identify the problem, verify its identity, regain access to the account, and get its website and email functioning again.

Ten days without a website or business email.

It raises an important question: Should you manage your domain registration yourself, or should your web agency manage it for you?

Your Domain Registration Is Part of Your Business Infrastructure

Your domain name is your business’s address online. It’s how customers find your website, and, for many businesses, it’s also part of every company email address.

Your domain may also be connected to customer portals, marketing tools, account logins, and other online services your business uses every day.

That’s why forgetting to renew your domain isn’t the same as letting an ordinary software subscription lapse.

When your domain expires, the impact can reach multiple parts of your business at the same time.

If you choose to manage your domain registration internally, it needs to be treated as an important business responsibility, not another renewal email sitting in someone’s inbox.

The Pros and Cons of Managing Your Own Domain Registration

There’s nothing wrong with choosing to manage your domain registration yourself.

In fact, for some businesses, it makes perfect sense.

When your business manages the account, you have direct access to the domain registrar. You control the account settings and billing information, and you can make changes without contacting your web agency.

But someone inside your business needs to clearly own that responsibility.

And that’s where problems can begin.

Employees leave. People change positions. Responsibilities are reassigned. Passwords aren’t always documented, and recovery information isn’t always updated.

Credit cards expire. Renewal emails get overlooked.

There’s also the issue of time. A domain can be registered for several years at once. The person who registered your domain three or five years ago may not even work for your company when the renewal notice arrives.

If your business is going to manage your domain registration, you need a documented process that continues to work even when the people in your business change.

The Pros and Cons of Having Your Web Agency Manage Your Domain Registration

For many businesses, having a web agency manage your domain registration removes a potential point of failure.

Your web agency understands what a domain renewal notice is and what happens if the registration expires. Domain renewals aren’t dependent on an employee recognizing an unfamiliar email and understanding its importance.

There’s also continuity.

The person answering your info@ email address may change several times over the life of your website. Your website agency is already responsible for managing critical parts of your online presence and is more likely to recognize and quickly address a domain-related issue.

At WMSH, we manage your domain registration as part of managing your website, so there’s never an interruption in registration.

Of course, there are considerations when an agency manages your domain.

You’re trusting the agency to manage a critical digital asset. You should understand how the domain is registered, how renewals are handled, and what happens if you decide to move your website to another agency.

Which brings us to an important distinction.

Your web agency can manage your domain without owning your domain.

Your business should retain ownership of its domain name. If the relationship with your web agency ends, there should be a clear process for transferring management and access.

So, Who Should Manage Your Domain Registration?

The answer depends on how your business operates.

It may make sense to manage your domain registration internally if you have:

• one clearly designated person responsible for the account
• documented login information
• a company-controlled recovery email address
• current billing information
• a process for transferring responsibility when employees leave or change positions.

If you have those systems in place, managing your own domain registration can work perfectly well.

But if domain management is going to be another administrative task that floats between employees, having a trusted web agency manage it may be the safer choice.

The question isn’t whether your business can manage a domain registration.

The question is: Who is most likely to make sure it never accidentally expires?

The Real Risk Is a Lack of Continuity

The people at the business who didn’t renew their domain registration were perfectly capable of managing its own domain.

The problem wasn’t capability.

It was continuity.

Three years passed between the original registration and the renewal. During that time, employees changed and responsibilities shifted. By the time the renewal notices arrived, the person receiving them had no idea why they mattered.

At WMSH, we manage your domain registration for our website clients because we know how critical your domain is to your business. Renewals aren’t dependent on the right employee seeing the right email at the right time.

If you don’t know where your domain is registered, who has access to the account, or who is responsible for renewing it, now is the time to find out.

Not when your website and email stop working. Not sure who’s managing your domain or whether your current process is putting your business at risk? Let’s talk about it. Schedule a Virtual Coffee, and we’ll help you understand what’s happening behind the scenes of your website.