Check the expiry and auto-renewal, the payment method, the registrant contact, the transfer lock, two-factor on the account, and what your DNS records still point at. Each failure on that list takes the site or the email down.
Why this list and not a longer one
Every item here has the same property: when it fails, something stops working entirely rather than degrading.
The site goes down, or the email stops arriving, or somebody takes control of the domain. There is no partial version.
Which is why ten minutes annually is proportionate, and why it should be diarised rather than remembered.
The list
Expiry date and auto-renewal
Confirm both. Auto-renewal being on is not the same as it working, which is the next item.
For the domain the business depends on, extending the registration several years removes several chances to fail.
The payment method on file
The most common cause of an unintended lapse. A card that expires, or belongs to somebody who left, means auto-renewal fails silently.
Check the expiry date on the card, not just that a card is present.
The registrant contact details
The address on the registration is what a registrar uses to verify ownership and where renewal and transfer notices go.
An address belonging to a former employee, or a personal one nobody checks, is a problem that surfaces at the worst moment. It should reach more than one person.
The transfer lock
Confirm it is on. It prevents a transfer being initiated without your involvement and costs nothing.
It has to be turned off deliberately when you genuinely move a domain, which is the point.
Two-factor on the registrar account
The account controlling your domain controls your website and your email. It deserves stronger protection than most businesses give it.
Confirm it is enabled and that the recovery codes are somewhere other than the account itself.
Who can get into the account
Former developers, agencies and staff frequently retain access nobody revoked.
The DNS records
Read the list and identify every entry. Remove anything pointing at a service you no longer use, since a record aimed at an abandoned service is both clutter and, in some cases, a route somebody else can claim.
Confirm the mail records are what you expect, since these are what determine whether your mail is delivered.
The one nobody checks
Whether the renewal notices are actually arriving.
Registrars send them to the registrant address. If that address has a filter, or forwards to somebody who left, or lands in a junk folder nobody reviews, the notices are being sent and not read.
The test is simple: can you find last year's renewal notice in the mailbox it should be in. If not, the warning system you are relying on is not working.
Monitoring as a backstop
Because an annual check leaves eleven months uncovered.
External monitoring that watches the domain expiry, the certificate expiry, and whether the site responds will tell you about a problem before a customer does.
Those are three separate checks and a service doing only the third will not warn you about the first two.
Alerts should go to more than one address, for the same reason the registrant contact should.
Where to record it
The output is a short page, kept with your other operational records.
Which domains you hold, where, under which account, expiring when, and what each points at. Dated, so next year's pass is a comparison rather than a fresh start.
That document is also what somebody else would need if you were unavailable, which is the scenario worth designing for.
Attach it to something
An annual task that depends on being remembered will not happen.
Attach it to the same point in the year as your other housekeeping, so it recurs without anybody scheduling it.
Ten minutes against the failures that take a business offline entirely is a reasonable trade, and most years it confirms everything is fine, which is what a check is for.
The account structure that makes all of this simpler is covered in managing more than one domain.
Frequently asked questions
Why these items and not more?
Each one fails completely rather than gradually. The site goes down, the email stops, or somebody takes the domain. There is no partial version.
What causes most unintended lapses?
The payment method. A card that expires or belongs to somebody who left means auto-renewal fails silently. Check the card's expiry, not just its presence.
Why do registrant details matter?
They are what a registrar uses to verify ownership and where renewal and transfer notices go. They should reach more than one person.
What should I check in DNS?
Every record identified, anything pointing at a service you no longer use removed, and the mail records confirmed, since those determine delivery.
What does nobody check?
Whether renewal notices are actually arriving. Look for last year's in the mailbox it should be in. If it is not there, your warning system is not working.
Is an annual check enough?
It leaves eleven months uncovered, so add external monitoring for domain expiry, certificate expiry and site response, alerting more than one address.
West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.
Never checked what your DNS records point at?
We go through the list once, which usually finds a record aimed at something that no longer exists.
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