What happens if I don't renew my domain name?

• Your customers won’t know where to find you anymore. This means no more access to the information you provide about your company online, your customers won't know where to shop, and all that brand equity you’ve built up will be undermined.
• You'll need to completely rebuild your search engine ranking. This will undoubtedly mean losing customers and revenue.
• You'll need to change all of your email addresses. This means no more contact with clients, no more email orders and even potentially losing touch with friends and colleagues.
• All the online services you use, like internet banking, which use your email address as a log-in will need to be changed.

All of these points could be a hassle for you and your company. However, if you don’t renew your domain anyone else can register it.

Statistics show that 15% of non-renewed domain names are re-registered by someone else within one day. Astonishingly 7.5% are re-registered within 10 seconds.

As soon as this happens, someone else will immediately receive all your web site traffic and the search engine rankings associated with your domain name.

If you don’t renew, and someone else registers it, you can challenge this through our Dispute Resolution Service, or through the courts. Although it's free to make a complaint in the DRS, and mediation often resolves cases, it's certainly not as quick or cheap (in terms of your time or professional advice) as just renewing a domain name that you want to keep.

Of course, there is the chance that you don’t want the domain name anymore. If this is the case, please keep in mind that it’s just like moving house or changing your business premises. It needs to be carefully planned and could become a major headache if you’re forced into it.

Your domain is valuable, so look after it.