The Importance Of Managing Your Domain Name

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Key Takeaways:

  • Domain Names are the Internet’s equivalent to a phone book. A domain name is the web address people use to find your website and business
  • The correct domain name is easier to remember, connect with your customers and enhances your online presence.
  • Understand where your domain name is hosted and when it’s due for renewal.
  • Dovetail Group can help rebuild your website, host your website or simply find where your domain name is hosted.

We recently finished developing new websites for two of our clients. Although the build process was straightforward, we hit some hurdles at deployment because each client had very little history in managing their domain name.

In one case the client had done nothing with their website in more than 15 years and no one really knew who hosted their domain name and whose actual name and email address was associated with it. Our other client had purchased their business from someone else and had not transferred ownership of the domain name. 

Each example is a common area of challenge and risk for businesses who rely on their online presence, and let’s be honest, who doesn’t rely on this these days?!

What is a Domain Name?

When you are looking for a website, the common first step is to enter the web address into the web browser (Chrome/Firefox/Safari) address bar. This address is also known as a domain name e.g. www.www.dovetaildigital.com.au.

What is a Domain Name System and why is it important?

The Domain Name System (DNS) – Domain Names are the Internet’s equivalent to a phone book. A Name server maintains a directory of domain names and matching Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

When your domain is set up, information about your domain name is added to the name servers. These servers translate web addresses (like ww.www.dovetaildigital.com.au into their IP addresses (like 121.167.89.127) so users don’t have to remember strings of numbers for every website they want to visit.

Why is DNS important?

DNS underpins the World Wide Web. It works transparently in the background, converting human-readable website names into computer-readable numerical IP addresses. Forgetting who hosts your domain name can make it very difficult (almost impossible) to transfer your domain to another host. 

Here are 3 questions you may want to get answered to ensure you don’t suffer the same experience.

  1. Do you know where your domain name is hosted? [Not to be confused with website hosting] 

Domain Name Hosting is tied directly to your online presence and therefore critical to your business and how it is found online. You should know where it’s hosted and that you can change it should you need to. 

TIP: The hosting of your domain name is often associated with organisations called domain registrars, like GoDaddy or Crazy Domains. There are many domain registrars so it also possible that your IT team is hosting it somewhere else.

 

  1. Do you know who owns your domain name?

If you don’t know, you can use this lookup tool to find out. Simply type in your domain name and hit ‘search!

  1. Do you know when your domain name is due for renewal?

Once you know where your Domain Name is hosted you should check when it is due for renewal. You should get a notification from the host as long as the email address that is used as the billing contact for the domain is up to date. You can and should set your domain to auto-renew to help avoid accidental expiry. The minimum renewal period for most domains is 12 months but you can generally choose to renew for a longer period if you wish.

Dovetail Group can help rebuild & host your website and connect your website to enable better results for your business! Get in touch!

[email protected]www.www.dovetaildigital.com.au 

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