There are quite a few situations where you might ask yourself whether you want to keep a domain name.
Say you have a very inventive uncle in your family who has no idea what to get you for your birthday, but knows that you are dreaming of your own food truck. You even have a name and logo for it. So he gives you a domain name as a present. But after so many years, nothing has come of owning the business you were dreaming of...
Or imagine - and this probably happens more often - that your own business changes its name because a partner joins who wants to breathe a new wind in the company and proposes a real rebranding.
In such cases, should you keep your domain name and renew it annually and pay for it?
Protect your image and just keep it
There are good reasons for doing so. Let us assume for a moment that you decide not to renew your old domain name because it refers to your company's previous name, for example.
The domain name will then come back on the market and anyone can buy it. Even people with bad intentions can register your old domain name and abuse it to share their malicious messages and objectionable content. A domain name that previously had quite a few visitors is therefore particularly attractive to cybercriminals.
Traffic alas still comes to a domain name even after years. And imagine the damage to your image when people who are not aware of your name change surf to your old site and see pornographic content, for example.
Surely you want to avoid that at all costs?
Keep it safe and just keep it
But it can also happen that e-mail addresses and usernames are linked to the domain name. There are many shrewd cybercriminals who would gain access to tools you use with your company.
Or imagine that criminals build a new website on your old domain name and pretend to be your company and use all traffic and user data for their malicious purposes. In this way, you are indirectly throwing your customers' data for grabs.
Play it safe and just keep it
We therefore recommend keeping domain names and renewing them annually, even if you no longer use them. You can have your old domain name automatically redirect to your new website with a small intervention, in case of a rebranding for example.
And you are probably thinking "Yes, of course that is your advice, your business is all about domain names". That is a valid comment. But consider for yourself how much it is worth to avoid these risks. And then consider how much it costs to renew a domain name for a year. It is a small investment that can save you a lot of trouble.
Still want to delete your domain name?
Suppose that, despite our advice against doing so, you still want to delete your domain name. You need to contact your registrar (if you are the domain name holder) and ask him to delete your domain name. DNS Belgium cannot do this for you.
A quarantine period of forty days will start once the application has been filed. From then on, the domain name does not function, no updates can be made and the name cannot be registered by anyone else. Within this period, you can still revise your decision to delete your domain name.
Only after forty days is the domain name released for those who wish to register it.
With this article we support the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
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Crystal clear: domain drop catching
01 January 2018There are different methods to obtain a domain name. One of them is domain drop catching – registering a domain name once its registration has expired. How does it work and where lies the danger for you?
