Who Registered Your Domain Name?

If you buy a house, do you want your house under your realtor’s name? If you have your domain name or web address registered by your web designer, it is no different from having the deed of your house signed by your realtor instead of you.

The ultimate control of a web site is in the hand of the person who is the official registrant of the domain name. If you have your web designer register your domain name, here are some of the real risks that can cost your business money

If you decide to fire your web designer, the web designer could hold your domain name hostage because your domain name technically belongs to the designer, instead of you or your company. You may take legal actions to get your domain name back. However, most businesses can’t afford having prolonged legal battles during which their web sites can be completely off-line.
If your web designer is not reachable anymore, you may lose your domain name or web site. Should your web designer die or your web design company go out of business, your domain name can be lost if it is not renewed on time. Many domain resellers scour expired domain names and resell them for $1,000s or $10,000s or even more. If you have already built your company on your web site, you have no choice but to pay whatever these resellers ask for.
If you are not the owner of your domain name, you may lose all your previous and future emails. Your email is tied to your domain name. Simply put, if you lose your domain name, your email will stop working.
If your web design company or web designer forgets to renew your domain name, your web site will be off-line and your email accounts will stop working. This happens quite often. The web design company that was in charge of building the George W. Bush library’s web site forgot to renew the Bush library’s domain name. The domain name was picked up by a domain reseller who was paid over $50,000 to give the domain name back.

Safeguard the Ownership of Your Domain Name

Many web designers register domain names for their clients without explaining these risks to their clients. Some dishonest web designers and web companies do so to ensure their job security. If your domain name is registered by your web design company, you may not be able to switch to another company without going through a lot of pain to get your domain name back. Don’t jeopardize your business by letting your domain name fall in the wrong hand.

Keep in mind that you only have total control of your web site if you are the registrant of your domain name. If you already have your domain name registered by your web designer, NOW is time to have the domain name transferred to you. This can be done, but it does need the cooperation of your current web designer or web design company.

At Site Revamp, we NEVER register any domain names for our clients. Instead we advise them to register the domain name themselves. We have helped some of our clients get their domain names back from those who first registered these domains. If you need help, please call us.