The importance of domains for businesses and a few things to be careful about.

Terri Guillemets, an American anthologist, once said, “Carelessness doesn’t bounce; it shatters.” Well, a recent incident with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) showed quite the opposite. For BCCI, not renewing their domain name resulted in a tremendous amount of cricket fans being ‘bounced’ from their website.

Failure to renew their domain resulted in BCCI’s website staying down for a full day. During this time, key documents for the function of BCCI couldn’t be uploaded and officials couldn’t use their email to communicate. BCCI’s website is also an important source of live scores across all cricket categories and this event unfolded while the India team was playing an important ODI against South Africa.

This is by no means the only instance. In January 2016, the most visited domain in the world, Google.com, was bought by a former employee for $12 (Google ended up paying around $6,000 to get their domain back). In June 2017, Dell forgot to renew the domain name for the website they use to store customers’ system recovery backups. That domain was quickly bought by TeamInternet.com, a German company that specialises in typo-squatting (hijacking traffic by hosting domains with names similar to other sites).

These examples illustrate that the domain name ownership isn’t permanent. When you purchase a domain, you’re really renting the license to use that website name for a certain period of time, with an option to renew the lease once it’s finished.

Whether you own a multi-billion dollar company or a small shop, if your business depends on a website, it is you who needs to be careful in making sure your website functions properly, not your registrar.

Mistakes happen.

If your domain does expire, you can still get it back. So if you miss your domain renewal deadline, don’t fall to your knees in despair, cursing yourself for your memory lapse. Thanks to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), you have a few days to obtain your domain name after it expires. But it’s always better to be proactive, right? There are a few things you can do to avoid all the hassle of an expired domain.

Set reminders.

Whenever you register a domain, add an item in your calendar to-do list app for a year from now, with a clear reference to the domain name in question. If you forget to add it to your to-do list, don’t worry: domain registrars usually send you reminder emails when your domain is nearing its expiration date.

According to ICANN, registrars are required to send renewal reminders thirty days and five days before a domain name expires, as well as five days after. The registrar must say on their website when and how often they send these notices.

Set up auto-renewal.

If you want to be sure your domain gets renewed, you can set your domain to auto-renew; as long as the payment details on record are valid, you’ll automatically get an invoice when your domain expires. Domains can be set to auto-renew via your billing area.

Buy yourself some time.

You can always just shell out a few more bucks and save yourself from all the stress. Domain registrars may offer multi-year registration options, so if you’re sworn to using some really fancy domain name, park the domain for multiple years, and keep it live for as long as you need.

Take care of your domain.

A domain name builds credibility, provides a unique identifier, and increases brand value. The right domain name can go a long way towards building your company’s reputation and generating traffic for your website, but only if you stay on top of your domain renewals.

Looking to buy a new domain for your business? Zoho provides domains along with a complete suite of cloud applications needed for your business starting at ₹99 or $2 per user, per month. Learn more about Zoho Workplace’s pricing and plans. And remember that caring for your domain is one of the best ways to care for your brand.