What Happens When Your Domain Expires?

Your domain name is rented, not owned forever. Each registration lasts a set period, usually one year, and has to be renewed. If a renewal is missed, the consequences go well beyond a broken website.

Many owners only find out when a customer says the website is down, and by then the clock has been running for days.

What happens, step by step

The exact timing depends on the domain extension and the company you registered with, but the pattern is usually similar:

• The renewal date passes. Your website and email may stop working within hours or days. Some providers show a parking page with ads in place of your site
• A grace period begins. This often lasts around a month. You can usually still renew at the normal price
• A redemption period follows. You may still be able to get the domain back, but often with an extra fee, sometimes a large one
• The domain is released. After that, anyone can register it, including competitors and people who buy expired names to resell or misuse

What you stand to lose

• Your website, offline until the domain is fixed
• Your business email, along with any customer messages sent in the meantime
• Search visibility you have built up over the years
• Control of your name, if someone else registers it

That last one can be the most damaging. A stranger holding your old domain can show customers anything they like. Rebuilding trust with customers who were sent to the wrong place can take far longer than the renewal itself.

How to keep it from happening

• Turn on automatic renewal, and keep the payment card on file up to date
• Send renewal reminders to an email address you actually check, and not one that uses the domain itself, since that address stops working if the domain lapses
• Register the domain in your own name and your own account. See the difference between a domain, hosting and a website
• Consider renewing for several years at a time
• Add the renewal date to your calendar as a backup
• Keep your contact details current. Domain privacy protection can hide them from the public while the provider still reaches you

If it has already expired

Act quickly. Log in to the account where the domain was registered and renew it. If you do not know where it was registered, a public domain lookup can show the provider, and your web designer may know too. Sometimes the domain was registered under a designer's own account, which is worth finding out now. Our article on what happens if your web designer disappears explains why. If the domain has already been released, you may still be able to register it again if nobody else has, but you would then need to rebuild your email setup and check your website settings.