How Long Can A Domain Name Be

Domain Name Expirations: What You Need To Know

• Domains

Website Domain names are the primary address a person or a business reserves to establish and distinguish themselves on the worldwide web. This name acts as a billboard, alerting potential customers of who you are, where you are, and what goods or services you provide. A website without a domain name cannot be found since it is not only the storefront sign, but also the doorway into the shop.

So, do domain names expire? Selecting the perfect domain name for your business can be a lengthy process that costs a good amount of your time, effort, and money. But once its yours, its yours until it expires. So, imagine this process: you get your domain name and link it to your website. You then spend months, if not years, building your brand around it. If successful, people begin to associate your product or service with the domain name. That domain is now an integral part of your business and the way people find you on the internet. Then, you log in one morning and receive a message that your domain has expired. All the hard work, all the time and money invested in building your brand around your domain name and domain name extension is simply not associated with your brand anymore. At this point, your expired domain name is up for sale and available to the highest bidder.

Domain.com has the tools you need to continue building your business into a success.

Tips When Making Your Ca Purchase

Always register the domain name yourself

Never let third parties, such as a marketing agency, complete a registration on your behalf. This can become a problem if you part ways and no longer have access to the account managing your domain name.

Register common variations of your name

If your company or product is commonly misspelled, register the alternate domain names and forward them to your primary website. This helps protect your brand identity and ensures no one else can register these domain names.

Provide accurate contact information

CIRA and your registrar will use the contact information provided during the registration process to communicate important information about your domain name.

Register a .CA with French-accented characters

The .CA domain registry supports French accented characters within domain names: é, ë, ê, è, â, à, æ, ô, , ù, û, ü, ç, î, ï, ÿ. When a .CA domain name is registered, all variations with accented characters are reserved for the original registrant exclusively.

Choose a registration term length that works for you

You can register a domain name from one to 10 years at a time. A longer registration period, combined with setting up auto-renewal with your registrar, can help you ensure your .CA domain name remains registered and active.

Protect your domain

My Domain Name Has Just Expired Can My Registrar Require Me To Pay For A Renewal Before I Can Transfer The Domain Name To A New Registrar

No. You have the right to transfer an expired domain. Registrars are not allowed to deny a transfer due to expiration or non-renewal. .

However, if the current registrar has begun to delete your domain ) shows the domain in Redemption Grace Period, the name must be restored by your current registrar before it can be transferred. This may result in an additional fee, sometimes referred to as a redemption fee.

Also Check: How To Transfer Squarespace Domain To Shopify

How To Save Your Website Traffic

Its important to change your domain name without losing rankings and organic search traffic. Backlinks to your website are important for SEO, and there are steps to take to help you keep your audience.

Create a sitemap and set up 301 redirects

Sitemaps show the internal structure of a website. They are used to direct search engines on how to navigate the pages on your site. Once you have sitemaps for both your old and new pages, you can compare and organize, so that each old page points to the correct new page, by using 301 redirects. This permanent redirect will send your site visitors to a different URL than the one they entered into the search bar.

This is important for SEO ranking, getting your , and visitor satisfaction. You can find out more on this topic by reading our Knowledgebase article, How to redirect a URL for a domain.

Use the Change of Address Tool

Connect your old and new site names with the Change of Address Tool. It tells Google about your website change, and helps the Google Search results page to understand what you have done.

Check for 404 pages

You may have come across a Page Not Found page. This is an error page where the correct URL path is missing, and therefore you will not be shown the page you intended to visit. Check all old URLs, and if you do have 404 pages, make sure they are redirected to the new 404 page.

Maximum Domain Name Length

Out of curiosity, does anyone know what’s the maximum length for a domain name?

Let’s exclude the http://www.

• Since stack and wikipedia keep referencing each other, I found some good summaries here: blog.sacaluta.com/2011/12/ and blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2012/04/12/10292868.aspxDec 10 ’13 at 16:07
• Demonstration: the following website has a 63 characters domain name: http://63-characters-is-the-longest-possible-domain-name-for-a-website.com

This is an example of the domain with longest possible label : http://www.abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijk.com/. The domain name length = 71 characters.

This will be an example of longest domain name: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcde.abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijk.abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijk.abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijk.com

• RiteshJul 17 ’11 at 13:04
• 4Maybe you want to add a normative reference: RFC 1123, chapter 2.1 defines the 63 character limit. But where is the 253 limit defined?Apr 22 ’16 at 6:54
• RFC is RFC 1035, section 2.3.4, and it looks like it is 255 characters, not 253.

It depends on what you want to do with the domain really.

You May Like: How To Access Google Domain

Truth In Domain Names Act

In the United States, the Truth in Domain Names Act of 2003, in combination with the PROTECT Act of 2003, forbids the use of a misleading domain name with the intention of attracting Internet users into visiting Internet pornography sites.

The Truth in Domain Names Act follows the more general Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act passed in 1999 aimed at preventing typosquatting and deceptive use of names and trademarks in domain names.

Backorder/bid On The Domain Name

A backorder allows you to monitor a domain name status and be notified of the start of an auction. To place a domain name backorder or bid, you will first need to sign up for an account at the auction partner you identified in Step 2.

Not sure how much to bid? Start by learning how to value generic domain names.

If the domain name has already expired and has not gone to auction at the partner auction service, then you will need to use a drop catching service.

Recommended Reading: Io Domain Cost

Domain Name Length Best Practices

You may wonder what are the best domain name length practices to follow. It isnt necessary that a shorter domain is better than a longer one. So dont reject a domain name only because it is long. A short name difficult to pronounce is worse than a longer name that you can easily pronounce, remember and it says something directly or indirectly for your business.

As a general rule of thumb, I said earlier that a domain up to 17 characters and up to 3 words is a good approach to follow. Of course, remember to include real words because 17 characters and made-up words at the same time, it is a very bad combination. These numbers are still short enough to not harm the overall user experience and at the same time, they dont limit your options of getting a domain name available or at a very good price.

In any case, dont use hyphens or numbers since in combination with a long domain you will probably send your clients to the site with the similar shorter domain and hyphens is also the first thing the user forgets to include.

Some years ago having a domain even with many characters that matched a particular google search like buy auto insurance online was an advantage to the sites that used this kind of domain for SEO purposes.

What Happens To My Domain Name After It Expires

renewedremain in your Namecheap account for 30 days after the initial expiration dateDomain ListGrace Expired reactivate themRedemption Grace Period24/7 Customer Support Teamadditional redemption feeNOTEthis articleparking pageNOTE30-day Grace PeriodDNS propagation information for expired domain names cannot be changedEdit Domain Contactsrenewed privacy protection subscriptionNOTEfor freeGDPR implementationemail reminderson the expiration dateautomatic renewal

Read Also: How Much Should A Domain Name Cost Per Year

Keep Your Domain Name And Website Up And Running

Domain names play a crucial on the virtual marketplace. Choosing a creative domain name is a time-consuming and important aspect of giving your business the tools to thrive. Such an investment is essential for success, which is why a domain name expiration can be a demoralizing and business-crippling issue, that is only made worse if a competitor manages to snatch up your domain name. All the time and effort spent on building that brand and linking it to the domain name might be all for naught.

The best way to prevent this issue is to do everything in your power to prevent such a disaster from occurring in the first place. This includes regularly checking your email and spam folders for renewal notices, setting personal alerts of expiration, always ensuring that your domains billing info is up to date, and setting your account to auto-renew. If you take the right steps, you can save yourself a serious headache, so, do not be anything less than proactive when it comes to one of your domain names possibly expiring. With the right infrastructure in place, this should never be an issue!

Domain.com has the tools you need to continue building your business into a success.

Kristin Crabb

Content Marketing Strategist working in the digital marketing industry. Skilled in SEO-focused content creation, keyword research and competitive analysis, interactive content, web content optimization, and landing page creation.

How Do Domains Work

Domain names work by acting as a shortcut to the server that hosts your website.

Without a domain name, anyone who wanted to visit your website would have to enter the full IP address. But the problem is that an IP address is difficult for people to memorize or to include on advertising materials.

In our case, Hostinger.com is the domain name. Lets say it points to the IP address 100.90.80.70. The IP address points to a server, but it doesnt resolve the website if visitors try to use it. Thats because for an IP address to resolve a website, the remote server needs to be using port 80 with a default page stored in its web-apps directory.

As you can see, messing around with server defaults and IP addresses can be both confusing and time-consuming. Thats why the vast majority of website owners opt to utilize a service like Hostinger which offers bundled domain names with annual web hosting packages.

Domains can also use redirects, which essentially allow you to specify that if people visit your domain, theyre automatically forwarded to another. This can be useful for campaigns and microsites or for forwarding people to dedicated landing pages on your main site. They can also come in useful for avoiding confusion around spellings. For example, if you visit www.fb.com, youll be forwarded to www.facebook.com.

Read Also: How To Transfer Squarespace Domain To Godaddy

Frequently Asked Questions About Auction House Partners

Questiondrop catching services, like Pool.com and others

Answer: No. While this was the best process years ago, today most major domain name registrars are exclusively partnered with one auction house. As a result, the domain name will either sell at the partner auction house or be dropped.

If a domain name is dropped, then a drop catching service like Pool.com will work fine. At Pool.com, you only pay if they are successful at catching your domain name. But if you are going to pay $60 for Pool.com to catch it, why not just go to the auction and bid on the domain name you will have a better chance of obtaining it.

Question

Answer: Many auction sites will allow you to backorder the domain name for free. Follow the process above to find the domain name registrar and auction partner site. Then sign up for an account at the auction partner site and enter a backorder. But remember, the domain name may transfer to another registrar at some point so refer to Step 1 above periodically.

Alternatively, you can monitor a domain name for free at a number of locations. DomainTools.com offers a free domain name monitor tool, as does DomainHole.com . Once you receive an email notification that a domain has changed status from active to expired, you can follow the process listed above to enter a bid at the auction partner site.

QuestionQuestionQuestionQuestionQuestionQuestion

Do I Own The Domain I Have Registered

Domain names are technically digital addresses that you lease under a domain registry.

Domain registries get these domains from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers , who have control over domain names.

Hence, when you get a domain name, you are leasing it from ICANN, through a domain registry, that acts as a broker.

What happens when you register a domain name is that a domain registry checks with ICANN the domain name you plan to use and its availability.

If available, ICANN lets the domain registry award the name to you, under a lease agreement.

Also Check: Gg Domains

Once I Register A Domain Name How Long Does It Last Can It Be Renewed

When you register a domain name, you’re able to use it for the period of time you registered it for, which is typically between one to ten years. If you want to keep using the domain name and any of the services associated with it you need to renew the domain name registration prior to its expiration.

How Do I Buy A Domain Name

Its easy to get a new domain. Here are the steps:1. Decide on a domain name extension. The extension is the part at the end of the domain name .net, .biz, .org or .com, for example.2. Think about what you’d like on the other side of the dot. It could be your business name or your specialty.3. Type the domain you want into the box at the top of this page. We’ll tell you if that particular domain is available and show other you may like better.4. Pick a domain, add it to your cart and check out. You are now the proud owner of your very own domain. As long as it’s registered to you, no one else may use it.

Also Check: Connecting Godaddy Domain To Squarespace