Following an acquisition, merger, or other corporate event, it is important for a domain name manager to get control of a company’s domain names. They may be held in different registrar accounts, they may use different email addresses, or they may be registered at different domain registrars. Keeping corporate domain names safe is critical to the online success of a business.
I was helping a friend manage domain names owned by her business following an acquisition. I want to share some of the advice I gave that may be helpful to others going through similar corporate restructuring that could impact domain names.
- Consolidate all company-owned domain names in one account at one domain registrar.
- Make sure the registrant organization is listed as the company rather than an individual.
- Keep an active credit card on file so the domain names automatically renew each year. Make sure auto-renew is set up so domain names renew each year without effort.
- Use a domain name specific email address for the registrant (like domains@company) and make sure company / IT management know about that email address. Make sure this email address is monitored or forwards to the appropriate people at the company.
- Turn off marketing emails from the domain registrar so important emails like renewal notices are not overlooked or ignored.
- Set up forwarding on alternative domain names that should forward to the company’s website.