Imagine that you sit down at your computer one
day, type in your domain name, and instead of the business website
you've worked to build you see some crazy page that's definitely not
your website. What happened? What do you do next?
You may see a
suspended hosting page asking you to contact your website host, or a
domain parking page that says your domain expired and displays links to
your competitors! It can happen to you if you don't know how to keep
your website safe.
Here are the two things you must know to keep your website safe.
1. Who is your domain registrar and when does your domain name expire?
A
domain registrar is a company who offers domain name registrations. Do
you remember where you registered your domain name? Did you save your
registration emails that listed the date your domain expires?
You *must* know who handles your registration and when it needs renewed. If you can, extend the registration for several years.
Also
be sure that your contact information at the registrar is kept up to
date so that they can reach you with notices of approaching domain
expiration and other important information related to your domain name.
If you change email addresses, or move to a new address, you need to
update that information with your registrar or you may miss important
messages and accidentally allow your domain name to expire.
2. Who is your website host and when does your hosting package expire?
Your
website host may be the same company that registered your domain name
or it may be a different one. It's the company you pay for the space on
the server that your website lives on.
Contact information needs
kept up to date with your website host as well. You should save a copy
of your original welcome email and be sure to note what your payment
terms are (for example, monthly or yearly) and what payment method you
chose. Keep your email address and billing information current.
