Your Domain as a Business Asset

The first question I usually need to ask folks when they call us to create a new website or to redesign a site is "Do you control your domain name?".


Unfortunately, most folks don't know, don't know how to find out and they don't know how important it is.


Two TRUE nightmare scenarios that actual clients of mine have experienced:

1. Their domain name was purchased by an employee who left the company. The employee had made themselves the Registrant and so now controls the domain and will not relinquish control back to the company.
   
2. A domain was purchased by a vendor for the company and that vendor no longer exists. The vendor also made themselves the Registrant and Adminstrative contact and all email addresses associated with the vendor are now defunct. No one controls the domain and the company whose website uses the domain cannot change where their website is hosted. They may have to repurchase their domain at auction when it expires.

Sound bad? It is not uncommon, not at all. Part of the problem is the underlying belief that "This stuff is best left to the techies" and a lack of realization that YOUR DOMAIN NAME IS A COMPANY ASSET. It has value, and it should belong to your company and be controlled by your company.

How do you make this happen?

1. Know who your Registrar is. The Registrar is the company that maintains your domain record and from who you purchase the domain such as Network Solutions or GoDaddy. Keep the account login information printed out and on file where it can be found. The company should keep this information on file just like any other important account information such as your banking information. You would never lose your bank account information would you?
   
2. Be sure that your company is the Registrant for your domain. The Registrant has top level control and most importantly, the address associated with it should always be available. The Registrant ultimately owns the domain.
   
3. The Administrative Contact should be a person at your company who is your contact for all things website related. This person should be organized and detail oriented and responsible for making sure the domain is paid for and all information is up to date. If you change your phone number, the Adminstrative Contact can update your account information.
   
4. The Technical Contact should be your IT department or your Website Design company. This is where the techie comes in and the appropriate role for them to play. They can then control where the name points and when. And, as the Registrant you can change the Technical Contact at any time.

HINT: When selecting the email addresses that should be used for each of these, it is a good idea to create an "alias" or generic address so that when staff changes are made, you do not need to update the email addresses. For example: domain@yourcompanyname.com could be the Registrant email address, administrator@yourcompanyname.com could be the Administrative Contact and IT@yourcompanyname.com could be the Technical Contact. For example: When Jenny your assistant leaves, your IT department or consultant can forward the mail for adminstrator@yourcompanyname.com to the new staff member, and your domain record does not need to be changed and is always up to date.

How do you find out the current Registrar, Registrant, Administrative Contact and Technical Contact are for your domain name?

1. First you can check the Internic WhoIs database. Type in your domain name and the underlying information for your domain will be displayed. You can determine who your Registrar is from the results.
   
2. Then go to the Registrar's website and use their WhoIs service to determine the rest of the information. The Registrars are required to collect all of this information but not to display it, so the amount of information displayed may vary.

In most cases you can at least identify the Registrant. There are services available that help people to register domain names while keeping their information completely private or services that register the domains as a proxy. Determining the Registrants for those domains can be more challenging.

There are a lot more questions that arise such as "what to do if there is a problem or a dispute", but that is for another blog. Right now, ask yourself...

Do you know who controls YOUR domain name?