For any internet-centric business, the website’s domain name can make or break your company. Think about it — when giving somebody your domain name (or your “URL”), they are going to immediately make judgements about it. Before seeing a single pixel of design. Before seeing a single word of content.
There are plenty of guides on how to register a domain name — they will help you avoid some common mistakes when registering your domain. But let’s assume you nailed it. You have an absolutely perfect domain for your business, and it’s been organically driving lots of good traffic to your site. Unless you have control of your Domain Name Servers DNS, you could potentially lose that domain, either by accident or by malicious activity.
The place where you originally purchased your domain is called the “registrar” — if you are the controller of a business and don’t personally have a username/password to your registrar, you are at risk! Either your domain might expire (on average a registration lasts 1 to 2 years), or someone might be able to log in and delete/redirect traffic from that domain.
I once knew a mother/son real estate team — their last names were the same so they both used the same domain name, let’s call it “smithRE.com”. This domain saw incredible traffic due to its generic nature, but eventually the two parted ways to start their own offices. The son actually logged into the registrar, changed all the passwords, and held the domain for ransom from his own mother!
Don’t let this happen to you! Make sure you have all the passwords — and all the control — of your domains!