Who should own your business's domain name?
The business should own its domain name, registered in the business's name, in a registrar account the business controls, with a login the owner can reach. A web designer, agency or former employee can be given access, but should not be the registrant. When someone else holds the domain, your website and email depend on them renewing it and handing it over when you ask.
Why it matters
Your domain is the address for your website and usually your email. Whoever controls it can point it somewhere else, let it lapse or refuse to move it. A business that has to ask a past vendor for its own web address is in a weak position.
ICANN, which coordinates domain names, lists the registrant's responsibilities in "Registrants' Benefits and Responsibilities". One of them is that the registrant takes "sole responsibility for the registration and use of your domain name." That is a good reason for the registrant to be the business itself. This is a plain summary, not legal advice.
What often goes wrong
- A designer registered the domain in their own account years ago, and has since moved on or stopped replying.
- The renewal notices go to an old email address, the card on file expires and the domain lapses.
- An employee who set things up leaves, and nobody else has the login.
- The business cannot move its website or email without the cooperation of someone it no longer works with.
How to check who owns yours
ICANN says it runs a free Registration Data Lookup Tool at lookup.icann.org that lets anyone look up publicly available registration data for a domain. Type in your domain to see which registrar holds it.
Some contact details may not be shown publicly. The surest check is to log in to the registrar account yourself and confirm that the registrant name is your business and the contact email is one you read.
Renewal and access
ICANN's list says registrants must give accurate information and update it when it changes, respond to registrar inquiries within 15 days, keep their registrar account data current and, if auto-renew is on, keep payment details current.
In practice that means: turn on auto-renew, keep a current card on file, use a business email that more than one person can see, and store the login somewhere safe. If someone else needs access, add them as a user rather than handing over the account.
Sources
- ICANN, "Registrants' Benefits and Responsibilities"
- ICANN, "WHOIS and Registration Data Directory Services"
Related answers
- How do you choose a website platform for a small business?
- What does looking after a small business website involve?
- Should you upgrade your website or rebuild it?
Websites, upgraded or built
Most businesses do not need a new website. They need the one they have to load fast, say clearly what they do and ask the visitor to take one step.