If you have your own domain name for your holiday rental website, likelihood is that you registered it yourself.
Therefore all contact details relating to that domain should be yours, which means you’ll be the point of contact to receive domain notifications – the most important being when it’s due to expire.
If that’s the case, perfect. You’re all set.
(Just remember to pay attention to those notifications – you won’t want to miss renewing your domain name and have your website go offline.)
But what about those of you who have taken ownership of an existing website?
Perhaps you recently purchased your holiday let business and along with it, an established website.
And with everything that comes with owning a new business, it’s easy to overlook the finer details.
Including the website’s domain name.
Instead you concentrate on marketing and getting those coveted bookings filling your calendar.
Things are going great. You’ve got enquiries coming in, business is booming.
Until …
… one day you realise your website is no longer appearing online.
You check, double check, triple check.
Nothing.
You write your domain name into the address bar again. Slowly. Checking each letter to make sure you spelt it correctly.
Nothing.
You start to panic.
Where’s your website? It was there yesterday, why the heck isn’t it appearing today?
There is a very simple, yet potentially serious, reason …
… You do not own your website domain name.
And because you’re not the registered owner, you’re not set up to receive notifications letting you know when it needs renewing.
So the domain name has expired, and your website has gone offline.
In fact, your domain name is now up for sale.
Meaning someone else could buy it. Use it for their holiday let website. And most disturbingly, benefit from any SEO and traffic you’ve built up over time.
Sadly, this is a common occurrence in cases where an existing holiday let business has been purchased and continued by a new owner.
Completely unintentional of course – just a part of the purchase that’s been overlooked.
So the domain name is still registered with the previous owner.
Consequently, the domain expiry notifications have gone to them. Not you.
Clearly you want to avoid this happening.
And doing so is really very simple.
All you need to do is to keep a few things in mind as outlined below:
Purchasing a domain name?
- Register it in your name
- Make sure you enter up-to-date contact details
- Ensure the email address you add is one that you check regularly to receive expiry notifications
Taking on an existing website with domain name?
- Find out who the domain name provider is
- Get the previous owner to transfer ownership of the domain to you, straight away
- Once ownership has been transferred, log into your account to confirm you’re the registered owner
- Enter up-to-date contact information
- Ensure the email address you add is one that you check regularly to receive expiry notifications
And that’s all there is to it!
Oh and one last thing, this doesn’t just apply to recently purchased holiday let businesses.
It can also happen if you had a web designer create the website on your behalf.
Often they’ll register the domain name for you, but in their name, with their contact details.
So again, when the domain name comes up for renewal, it’s them, not you, who’ll receive the domain expiry notification.
For these situations there are a few options, depending on what stage you are in the process.
1. Just starting out with your website designer
Register the domain name yourself – it’s a simple process that takes minutes to complete. Then give the domain name information to your developer.
Or, ask the website designer to register the domain for you, but with your contact information.
2. In the process of getting a new website created by a web designer
If you haven’t registered the domain yourself, you know that your designer must have.
So check with them a) if they’ve already registered a domain name, b) if yes, then check if it’s in your name, c) if it’s not in your name, make sure they transfer ownership to you before the project is finished.
3. Website development has been completed and / or site is live
But you’re not sure if the domain has been registered in your name or not.
Simply do a Who.Is lookup for your domain name.
- Enter your domain name in the field provided
- Click the blue search icon
- Scroll down the next page that appears until you come to the field ‘Registrant Name’
If the registrant is your designer, or it could be their company name, you’ll need to get in touch with them asking that they transfer ownership to you as soon as possible.
By following these simple steps to ensure you are the registered owner of your domain name, you will prevent the stress of your website disappearing without your knowledge.
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