A Beginner’s Guide to Domain Management

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of domain names. Your choice of domain can have a significant impact on your website’s success. However, registering the right name isn’t the only challenge you’ll face. You’ll also need to understand what domain management is and what it entails, in order to keep your site running smoothly.

Domain management is a term that encompasses many tasks and processes. Those include registration as well as ensuring or configuring domain privacy, name servers, security settings, and more. As the domain owner, it’s your responsibility to be on top of these tasks.

In this article, we’ll talk about the importance of domain names and domain management. Then we’ll discuss the concepts involved in managing domains, and explore some best practices. Let’s get to it!

Why Are Domain Names So Important?

Your domain name is often the first thing users see when they encounter your website. It can also be the first thing they hear about your business, especially if someone recommends your site to them.

The more unique the domain name is, the easier your site will be to remember and find. Great domain names should also be easy to type and spell, so users can get to your site faster.

Most companies and websites never change their domain names (for good reason). The name you register will likely be associated with the website for as long as it exists, so it’s essential that you take the time to choose the right one.

After that, however, your job isn’t done. You’ll also need to concern yourself with domain management. Let’s talk about what that means.

What Is Domain Management (And Why Is It Important)?

Domain management encompasses all the tasks that involve registering and taking care of your domain portfolio. The processes that can be involved include:

• Domain registration. Registering a domain involves paying for it and providing your contact details (or those of your organization).
• Domain Name Server (DNS) configuration. Determining nameservers involves configuring the domain so it points towards your website. After registering a domain, you’ll need to configure it to use your web host’s name servers. Some web hosts will do this for you automatically.
• Privacy settings. By default, domain registration information is available to the public. To protect your privacy, you can configure the domain to hide these details.
• Domain forwarding. This process involves configuring the domain to point towards another URL. This is often necessary if you have multiple domains connected to the same website.
• Subdomain management. You can create subdomains and use them to host various sites. This can be useful for setting up related websites, or for one site with multiple sections.
• Domain renewal. After a set period of time (usually a year) you’ll need to renew the domain registration, update the associated contact details, and pay for the new period.

As you can see, domain name management involves a lot of diverse tasks. This can seem intimidating, but they’re all relatively easy to handle (and not all of them may be relevant to your particular situation).

What’s more, a quality domain registrar can make these processes easy thanks to proper documentation, helpful support, and an intuitive user interface.

Registrars are accredited platforms where you can pay for domain registration. These platforms enable you to find available domains and add ownership records to the DNS.

If you run a company, you can also choose to pay for domain management services. This means finding an individual or company to take care of domain management for you, so you can focus on other aspects of running a website.

Proper domain management becomes even more critical at the enterprise level. An improperly configured domain can cost your site dearly in terms of traffic. It can also impact how users see the business, since it gives the impression that it’s not well-maintained. Plus, negative impacts on security from domain mismanagement are often more extreme for enterprise organizations.

In some cases, failing to renew a domain can cost even a large corporation dearly. In 2016, someone at Google forgot to renew the google.com domain. An ex-employee managed to snag it, and Google had to pay thousands of dollars to get the domain back.

3 Best Practices for Domain Name Management

Proper domain management doesn’t need to be complicated. Here are some tips that will help you stay on top of your domain portfolio, and keep every web address you own working perfectly.

1. Choose a Reputable Registrar

The best decision you can make when it comes to domain management and security is choosing the right registrar. A quality domain registration service like SirsteveHQ will offer features to make your life easier and simplify key management tasks.

Some of the features to look for include domain privacy and security options, auto-renewals, and an easy-to-use interface.

While you’re at it, we also recommend comparing domain prices among multiple registrars. Some platforms charge a premium for domain registration, which is something you can avoid by exploring all your options.

2. Opt for Auto Renewal

One of the biggest sources of domain management problems is forgetting when each property is due for renewal. Domain registrars should (and often do) send renewal reminders before your registration expires.

However, these reminders are easy to miss, especially if you have multiple domains. If you plan on using a domain for the long term, the best option is to enable auto renewal.

Most domain registrars will ask if you want to enable this setting during the registration process. With auto-renewal on, the domain provider will automatically renew the registration before it expires, typically once per year.

3. Use Domain Locking (or Protection) Services

Domain locking is a feature that restricts some key domain management actions. These include domain transfers, changes to the associated DNS records, and deletion.

The goal of this feature is to protect the domain even if someone other than the rightful owner gains access to the necessary credentials. Without domain locking services, anyone who manages to log into the registrar could transfer domain ownership to themselves.

Typically, only the registrant can turn domain locking on or off. Depending on the service, it might ask for additional authentication methods to disable domain locking, since its purpose is to prevent unauthorized changes to the property.

Aside from domain locking services, we also recommend the use of strong, unique passwords and Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for the account associated with the domain.

Combining locking functionality with strong credentials means you’ll neutralize most security threats to the domains you own. If your registrar doesn’t offer this functionality, you might consider moving your domains to a different provider.

Conclusion

Understanding the basics of domain management is essential, whether you own one or multiple domains. These domains are key components to your site’s identity. You’ll be using them for years to come, so it makes sense to know how to secure them and keep them working smoothly.

To recap, here are three important domain management practices you’ll need to keep in mind:

1. Choose a reputable registrar, such as SirsteveHQ.
2. Opt for auto renewal.
3. Use domain locking services.

Do you have any other questions about domain management? Let’s talk about them in the comments section below!