Your domain name is the backbone of your online identity, and losing it can severely impact your brand, revenue, and credibility. This guide shares 10 best practices to safeguard your domain and website, ensuring maximum security and uninterrupted access for your customers.
Key Takeaways
- Choose a Security – Partner with a reputable registrar that employs advanced security measures and actively combats domain hijacking attempts.
. - Enable Strong Security Features – Utilize Domain Lock, Two Factor Authentication (2FA), and Whois Privacy to prevent unauthorized transfers, data breaches, and the exposure of personal details.
- Maintain Accurate Ownership Details – Always register domains in your or your company’s name and keep contact details updated to avoid disputes or loss of domain control.
. - Prevent Expiration Risks – Opt for multi year registrations and enable auto renewal to avoid accidental domain loss due to missed renewals.
- Defend Against Impersonation & Typosquatting – Beware of phishing scams targeting domain owners and register domain variations to block malicious actors from exploiting brand misspellings.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Key Takeaways
- 1. Choose a Reputable Domain Registrar
- 2. Always Register Domains In Your Name
- 3. Use The Domain Lock
- 4. Enable Two Factor Authentication (2FA)
- 5. Enable Whois Privacy
- 6. Choose a Secure Password
- 7. Multi Year Domain Registrations
- 8. Beware Of Registrar Impersonation Attempts
- 9. Register Domain Variations
- 10. Ensure Domain Contact Details
- Final Thoughts
Your domain name is your most important digital asset as an online brand. Whenever a new or returning customer wants to engage with your business, they only need to recall your domain name in their browsers.
Losing a domain is devastating for any business. Suddenly, your customers no longer have a way to reach you. What’s more? Since your domain is likely an exact match or similar to your brand name, starting with a new domain will often mean rebuilding credibility from scratch.
To ensure you never lose your domain in the first place, follow these domain protection best practices and learn how Trustname safeguards your portfolio with state of the art domain security features. Let’s dive in.
1. Choose a Reputable Domain Registrar
The registrar you choose to manage your domain names plays a big part in how secure your domains are. In the past, there have been several cases where registrars themselves have been hacked.
When a domain registrar is hacked, the damage can be severe, as the attacker can gain unrestricted access to domains they currently manage and make unauthorized changes to domain names.
You want a registrar that employs the latest state of the art security measures to ensure both its infrastructure and customers' accounts are never compromised.
You also want a registrar that’s aware and stays ahead of evolving tactics scammers and domain hijackers use. Trustname is the registrar for you. We have successfully boycotted innumerable domain hijacking attempts and have become a haven, particularly for ‘grey area’ businesses prone to abuse reports.
2. Always Register Domains In Your Name
When registering a domain name, you’ll be required to provide contact details - Registrant, Admin, Technical and Billing. The Registrant details indicate who owns the domain.
Your domain registrant details should always be yours or those of a corporate entity. You should never put an employee’s details as the domain registrant, so you don’t risk losing it if they ever leave your company.
This will save you the heartache, legal procedures, and funds you may have to spend if the said employee decides to hold your domain at ransom. If you don’t want your name tied to the domain for privacy reasons, then you should use Trustnames Two Tier Privacy, which allows you to register domains anonymously!
3. Use The Domain Lock
Most registrars give you essential security features out of the box. The Domain Lock is one of the most important features, as it prevents unauthorized transfers and modifications to your domain. Ensure that the Domain Lock is enabled at all times.
On Trustname, once you register your domain or transfer it to us, we’ll automatically enable Domain Lock on your domain, ensuring it is secured.
4. Enable Two Factor Authentication (2FA)
Two-factor Authentication (2FA) adds an extra layer of protection to your login credentials. With 2FA enabled, when logging in to your registrar account, you’ll need to provide your password as well as an additional method to verify that it’s you.
Depending on the registrar, the 2FA verification methods can be SMS, one time passwords (OTPs), or email codes. At Trustname, our 2FA is powered via Google Authenticator and linked to your mobile device.
With 2FA enabled on Trustname, anyone attempting to access your account must provide the correct username and password, followed by a one-time code generated by the Google Authenticator app, to gain access. This ensures that your account and domains remain safe, even if your password is ever compromised.
5. Enable Whois Privacy
When registering a new domain name, ICANN requires that you submit your contact information, which will be listed in the public Whois database. If left this way, scammers will have a field day with personal information made publicly available.
To protect customers, most registrars offer Whois Privacy, a service that replaces your contact information with proxy details so your personal information cannot be seen via a Whois lookup. This service may also be referred to as WHOIS Protection, Domain Privacy, or Privacy Protection.
At Trustname, we believe you shouldn’t be charged extra for domain privacy. And that’s why we offer this service to you for free. What’s more? Trustname offers a signature Two Tier domain privacy package that’s leaps and bounds ahead of what other registrars offer.
Trustname allows you to register your domains in the name of our partner proxy company, Perfect Privacy LLC, providing you with the most anonymity. Additionally, on the second layer, we provide you with generic Whois protection, which replaces your domain information.
Read for more details on why Trustname registers domains in the name of Perfect Privacy LLC.
6. Choose a Secure Password
When creating registrar accounts, many domain owners tend to choose weak passwords. Using passwords that are easy to guess is one of the main ways that bad actors gain unauthorized access to customer data.
- AVOID - Passwords that are easily guessed, such as your birthday, the names of loved ones, or the names of pets.
- USE - Passwords that contain letters (both upper and lower case), numbers, and at least one special character. Your password should be impossible to guess.
- NEVER - Share your password with anyone who shouldn’t have access to your accounts.
7. Multi Year Domain Registrations
Many domain owners lose their domains due to accidental expiration. From failed payment methods to missing renewal notices, running an online business is demanding enough, and business owners don’t have the time to keep track of their domain timelines.
If your domain expires, there’s a chance it will be claimed by someone else, who may then offer to sell it back to you for a significantly higher price or by a bad actor looking to exploit your brand reputation.
One of the best ways to ensure you don’t lose your domains is to register them for several years at a time. You can register a domain for a term of 1 to 10 years. The longer the registration duration, the less frequently it’ll need to be renewed.
You should also enable auto renewal so your domains are automatically reactivated before they expire. Setting up auto renewal on Trustname is super easy. Log in to your account, click on Domains >> Registered domains, click on your domain, and scroll down to Auto renewal settings.
8. Beware Of Registrar Impersonation Attempts
Registrar impersonation is a classic scam carried out by malicious actors in an attempt to obtain sensitive domain or account information from domain owners.
Basically, the scammer(s) create a fake website that looks like your actual registrar’s website or send messages that seem to be from your registrar to try to get you to submit your account login information via the fake website. These fake messages may also attempt to install malware that then monitors your activity as you log in to your domain management account.
- Please don't click links from suspicious looking sources.
- Always check that any domains or links sent are an exact match with your registrar’s domain name.
- Keep an eye out for fake emails that direct you to click on links to reset your password or messages that don’t address you directly with your name (e.g. Dear John) but instead use generic greetings like ‘Dear registrant’ or ‘Dear user’.
9. Register Domain Variations
Registering domain variations not only protects you but also protects your customers from bad actors. You should register as many similar domain names to yours as possible to combat typosquatters looking to exploit your brand reputation.
In typosquatting attempts, domain hijackers register domain names that are very similar to yours, with one name misspelled or with a different TLD. This way, they attempt to target potential visitors who misspell your domain name and redirect them to fake websites that are very similar to yours, to steal their data.
By registering domain variations, you can capture your visitors and save them from attacks even if they accidentally misspell your domain name. Domain variations to look out for include different TLDs, misspelled letters, homophones, and more.
Whenever you search for a domain on Trustname, our AI-powered domain search tool gives you a wide range of domain suggestions, including variations of the main domain you search for.
10. Ensure Domain Contact Details
And finally, please ensure that your domain contact details are accurate and that notifications are enabled for the relevant email addresses. Whenever your domain is about to expire or if you have any important notifications regarding your domain, your registrar will typically send messages to the email address in your Registrant contact. Please ensure that your domain contact details are accurate and that notifications are enabled for the relevant email addresses.
Whenever your contact details change, please make sure that you update them on your registrar account and in your domain's Whois contacts to avoid missing any important information.
It’s also important to have your domain contact information set to yours rather than that of an employee as explained earlier, to prevent the risk of losing your domain should the person leave your company.
That’s it!
Final Thoughts
Your domain is too important to your brand to be left to chance. You should take active steps to make sure you never lose access to your domain.
- Essential Safeguards – Some of these include choosing a reputable, security focused registrar, enabling domain locking, selecting secure passwords, enabling two factor authentication (2FA), and registering for multiple years at a time.
- Accurate Information – Please make sure that your domain information is linked to your details and up to date at all times. If you are looking for the very best domain registrar to transfer your domain to, choose Trustname.
- Our Commitment – We offer some of the most affordable pricing, free domain addons, straightforward domain management, and the best domain privacy on the market.