Why You Should Protect Your Domain Name
Don't get stuck in the awful position of losing your domain. If you've ever had need to deal with this, or had an acquaintence with this problem, you have doubtless learned an ugly lesson about why it's so valuable to register for well more than a year at a time. Your domain name is an important business holding, and ought to be treated as such. Domain name registrations are very inexpensive. Protect your domain. Don't just register it for a year at a time.
Domain Hijacking
People out there want your domain name. You've spent years building up search engine authority and driving traffic to your site, and they want it all. Your domain is quite a bargain! Sound bad? Well try this on for size; they'll be able to intercept any email sent to the domain and map your website address to a porn or gambling site. Many domain squatters are ready to jump on your name as soon as it becomes available.
A lot of people think they're protected because they have an obscure domain name. "After all," tells me the owner of StacyHendersonMacyCPA, "What are the odds of there being another accounting website wanting the same name?" Unfortunately that doesn't matter, the domain has value to these guys even if they can't resell it. More often than not they'll use it to link to SEO clients, so don't be surprised if they start directing your clients to some really sleazy sites. They might sell it to a competitor, but they don't need to sell your domain to make money off it. They can harvest valuable information from your emails using something called a catchall or they can set up a competing website of their own.
If a hijacker gets your name it's going to the highest bidder. If there are no other bidders expect to pay $500-$1000 to get it back. Be polite and professional with the squatter. A lot of these bottom feeders think of themselves as businessmen, and once they take over the domain they hold all the cards. Hijacking a domain by squatting on it when it expires is completely legal. If the hijacker walks away from the table he's only out about ten bucks, but you're out your domain.
Massive Hassles
Under the best of circumstances it can take hours to get your domain back if it expires. If you've forgotten your login information and you've changed emails since you got the domain it can take a day or more just to prove to the registrar that you are who you say you are. Dealing with a squatter can take days or even weeks.
Some owners decide to start over with a new domain. This is a huge hassle in and of itself, and if there's a squatter sitting on your old domain the consequences can be pretty ugly. Most domain hijackers are just plain nasty people. They can be pretty vindictive in their attempts to get you to buy back your domain name. They'll map your domain to porn sites, gambling sites, or landing pages that loudly announce "This Website Is Closed Because the Owner Doesn't Pay His Bills".
Service Interruption
Your website is going to go down. That's how most people notice their domain has expired, but it get's worse.
Another real problem is that your email is going to go down, and it's going to stay down until you can get control of your domain and map the DNS. This will take at least a few hours, and if there are challenges it might be a lot longer than that. This is enough to hurt any business, but for many it's enough to shut you down altogether.
Who hasn't had their email go down for a few hours at some point? You already know how frustrating that is. Can you imagine how much worse it would be if it went down for a whole day? Or over a whole weekend? I've seen people loose access to their domain names for more than a week dealing with squatters. How angry will you be with yourself when you realize it's all your own fault?
Fees
There are actually some reputable registrars out there that won't sell off your domain as soon as it expires. As a rule they'll hold on to your domain name for up to a month before releasing it for resale. That's good, but the bad news is that it's going to cost you somewhere in the range of $80 just to get it back.
Do you really want to have a sense of panic every year when your domain name renewal date arrives? Running a business is a lot of work. Don't make more by being stingy with your domain name.
So, how long should you register your domain name for? As an absolute minimum get 5 years, but it would be ideal to get 10 years. Domain names are economical. Why take the chances of losing it evermore when lots of registrars offer a discounted rate for multiple year reservations anyway?
Special Guest Author
Ken Marshall is a marketing consultant and former Officer of CPA Site Solutions, one of the nation's leading website firms oriented entirely to accounting websites.