Domain Management

The thing nobody thinks about until it breaks

Your website answers on it, your email routes through it, and your certificates and any service that sends on your behalf all refer back to it. It is a small piece of administration that quietly holds up everything else you do online.

So it is worth one place knowing what you own, when each name renews and what its records point at. We keep that record and act on it, which means renewals go through on time and changes get made with the website and the email already in view.

New domains registered, and every renewal kept current
DNS set up and maintained for your website, email and services
Domains brought in from a previous supplier and kept in one place
Held on your own registrar account or managed on ours, your choice
Additional and defensive names registered and pointed where you want
One supplier who knows what you own and what each name does

2008

Managing since

Some clients as long

100%

UK-based team

Local & nationwide

Place to ask

Domain, site and email

DNS

Records handled

Site and email together

The domain stays yours

This is worth being explicit about, because the industry has a poor record on it. Domains we register for you are registered to you. If you ever want to move to another supplier, you can, and we will help you do it rather than making it difficult.

You can keep the domain on your own registrar account and give us access to manage it, or let us hold it on ours and handle the administration. Both are fine. What matters is that you know which arrangement you are in, and that somebody is definitely watching the renewal date.

DNS is where most of the damage happens

Domain records are what point your name at your website and route your email, and they are edited far more often than people realise: every time you change mail provider, add a service, or set up something that needs to send on your behalf.

Getting them wrong is quick and the consequences are not. A wrong mail record can send everything to a provider you stopped using, and a missing authentication record can leave your legitimate email going straight to other people’s junk folders while making it easier for someone to send mail pretending to be you.

As we also run the hosting, the email and the website itself, changes on one side do not get made without the other side being considered. That is the practical benefit of the three sitting together rather than with three different companies.

Taking over from someone else

Plenty of clients arrive not knowing who holds their domain, what the login is, or when it renews, sometimes because the person who set it up left, sometimes because the company that registered it has gone. That is a normal starting position, not an embarrassing one.

A transfer is also the natural moment to check the certificate and the mail records hanging off the domain. See security.

We can usually establish what exists and who controls it from public records, and take it from there. Occasionally a transfer is genuinely awkward, and if yours is one of those we will tell you what is involved rather than quietly running up time on it.

What's Included

Everything covered under Domain Management

Registration through to the records that make the domain actually do something.

Registrations

New domains registered in your name, including the variants worth holding so somebody else cannot take the near-miss of your own name.

Renewals

Every domain tracked with its expiry date, and renewed before it lapses, without depending on a reminder reaching the right inbox.

DNS Configuration

The records that point your name at your site and route your email, set up correctly and changed carefully when something moves.

Transfers

Moving domains in from a previous supplier, including finding out where a name currently sits and getting it onto the right account.

Questions

Domain questions

Who owns the domain if you register it for us?

You do. It is registered in your name. If you later want to move it elsewhere, you can, and we will help rather than obstruct.

We do not know who holds our domain. Can you find out?

Usually, yes. A lot of what is needed is in public registry records, and that is enough to work out where it sits and what moving it would involve. It is a common starting point.

Can we keep the domain on our own account?

Yes. Keep it on your registrar account and give us access to manage it, or let us hold and administer it. Both work. The important thing is that one of us is definitely watching the renewal date and you know which.

Do we need more than one domain?

Sometimes. Common reasons are holding the .com as well as the .co.uk, or a name you trade under alongside the registered one. It is worth a short conversation rather than either ignoring it or registering a dozen you will never use.

What happens if a domain expires?

The website and the email on it both stop. There is normally a recovery window afterwards, but it costs more and it is not guaranteed, which is exactly why the renewal date is tracked rather than trusted to a reminder email.