SiteBento Web Presence

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Maine Website Development: Affordable, feature rich, and scalable websites for business powered by Joomla!

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Google Sites

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Utilize Google Sites to build a simple, professional, and inexpensive web presence for your business.

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Sitebento and Google

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Companies seeking an advanced website design and Google Apps for business email.

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Managing Your Domain Name

The domain name is your business address on the Internet.   Even though the process acquiring a domain name is simple, most small business owners will quickly learn that it the management of domain names is far more perplexing.  In this blog, I will attempt to break down the entire process into several key concepts; here is PART 4 of "Managing Your Domain Name".

Unless you are working with a responsible, respectable, and knowledgeable IT/web/email provider, retain DNS control within your registrar.  Regardless of what you are told, you can make all of your web-based services work without ever relinquishing control of the DNS records to another company.   At SiteBento, we prefer to take DNS control because it makes our jobs easier, but we clearly disclose the fact that we can work around that.  Be involved, stay involved, and use tools to verify domain integrity.   One of the easiest ways to check your domain us using a WHOIS query, like the one available at http://www.whois.sc.  Simply put in your domain and see the records.

Your domain name is linked to an email address. Even though you may transition to a @yourbusiness.com, that’s not the address the domain name should be linked to.  If you have a problem with the domain name, you will also have a problem with the email going to it.  Setup a backup email account that you maintain periodically, and use it for all domain related needs.  You probably already have a GMail account - use it!  If that’s not enough, ICANN requires you to annually verify that your domain records are accurate.

Domain Name Renewals

There are plenty of companies out there looking for good domain names.   You can lose your domain name by unintentionally releasing it,  changing DNS records,  letting it expire, and letting it lapse. Fortunately, the law is on your side and there is plenty of means of re-establishing your domain name should you lose it.  However, that process is difficult; it is a lot easier to prevent a problem than it is to fix it.