Just before the end of 2014 we informed our clients that we were phasing out our domain registration and renewal services.

This was driven by market factors and a change in our business model. The market had lots of companies who specialised in this space and providing more competitive pricing and much better domain management tools.

We also wanted our clients to use this as an opportunity to consolidate their domain names with a single registrar and review their domain management needs.

We remain a founding member of Nominet and still actively participate in how domain spaces are administered.

As part of this process we asked our clients to consider a new registrar using the following advice.

Review your domain management process:

• Make sure you understand how and when domain names are renewed and billed and make sure that any alerts are directed to the correct people in your organisation. We have always recommended using a company broadcast list for this so that you don’t miss an alert when someone is away on holiday.
• Review who domain names are registered to and who has access to change, modify or migrate domain names.
• Use this opportunity to see if registering additional new domain names can benefit the business and protect your online identity.

Shop Around:

• Find a registrar that provides the services or services you require.
• Compare costs – but make sure you look for hidden charges such as transfer fees and update fees.
• Consider using specialist services if you have global domain name assets.

Check the small print:

• Review the Terms and Conditions and pay attention to your rights to move any domains to a different registrar.
• Confirm the domain renewal policy and its connection to other services such as web hosting, email forwarding etc.

Check the support offered:

• Confirm whether a support services agreement is in place and how easy is it to get support when you need it.
• Check that the registrar is available in an acceptable time zone or country of operation.