Managing More Than One Domain

How the collection happens

Nobody decides to hold eleven domains. They arrive one at a time.

The main name. The other extension, defensively. A campaign name from three years ago. A product idea that went nowhere. A misspelling somebody suggested. A name bought during a rebrand that did not happen. One a previous developer registered on your behalf.

Each was reasonable at the time. Together they are a recurring cost, spread across registrars and payment methods, with nobody able to say what any of them is doing.

The list nobody has

The first task, and it takes an hour.

For every domain: the name, which registrar holds it, which account and email it is under, the expiry date, whether auto-renewal is on, what it currently points at, and what it is for.

That last column is the one that does the work. A domain nobody can explain is a domain to decide about.

Where to find them: a year of card statements, the registrar accounts you know about, your email archive searched for renewal notices, and your DNS records.

Expect surprises. Businesses routinely find domains renewing on a card belonging to somebody who left, or under a personal account nobody else can reach.

Consolidating registrars

The single change that most reduces the ongoing problem.

Domains spread across four registrars mean four accounts, four sets of credentials, four renewal processes and four places to check. Most of the failures in this area trace back to that scattering.

Moving them to one registrar takes a while, since transfers have waiting periods and cannot happen immediately after registration or a previous transfer, but it is done once.

What to look for in the one you keep: bulk management, the ability to see everything on one screen, sensible renewal pricing rather than a low first year, two-factor authentication, and support that answers.

Do it gradually as renewals come up rather than all at once, which spreads the cost and the effort.

Account structure

Where small businesses create problems for their future selves.

Domains should sit in an account belonging to the business, under an address the business controls, not under an individual's personal email.

That sounds obvious and is frequently not the case, because whoever registered the first one used their own address and everything followed.

The failure mode is specific: that person leaves, or is unavailable, and the account holding every domain the business depends on is unreachable. Recovery is possible and slow, and it happens while the site is down.

The registrant contact details matter too, since they are what a registrar uses to verify ownership. An old address on a domain is a problem waiting for the moment you need to prove something.

What each domain should be doing

Four legitimate states, and anything else is a decision waiting to be made.

The main site. One domain, serving the business.

Redirecting to the main site. Variants, other extensions, and misspellings, pointed at the main domain so somebody typing the wrong one still arrives.

Held deliberately for a stated purpose, such as a planned product or a name you intend to use.

Genuinely separate, where a distinct business or brand justifies its own site.

What is not a state: registered, pointing at a registrar parking page carrying advertising, and renewing annually. That is paying to show somebody else's ads, sometimes for your competitors.

Renewals

The practical failure point and it is straightforward to remove.

Auto-renewal on for everything you intend to keep. A payment method that is not a personal card belonging to one person. Renewal notices going to an address more than one person reads.

And a calendar reminder ahead of the main domain's expiry as a backstop, because auto-renewal fails silently when a card expires.

Longer registration periods reduce the number of chances to fail, and for a domain the business depends on, registering several years ahead is cheap insurance.

The annual pass

1. Update the list, including anything new.
2. Check every expiry and auto-renewal setting.
3. Confirm the payment method is current.
4. Check what each domain points at, and remove records aiming at services you no longer use.
5. Decide about anything with no stated purpose.
6. Confirm the account contact details still reach somebody.

An hour, once a year, against a bill you cannot explain and a failure you cannot predict.

The consolidation half of this is covered in moving a domain between registrars.

Frequently asked questions

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.