Why It’s Important to Retain Access to Your Domain Registrar Credentials

Maintaining continuous access to your domain registrar credentials is crucial for businesses. At Mediagistic, we frequently encounter companies that have misplaced these essential credentials, hindering website upgrades and, more importantly, jeopardizing their business operations. Think of your domain registrar credentials as the keys to your castle: a minor detail that, if misplaced, can leave you locked out.

Understanding the significance of safeguarding these credentials can prevent negative consequences for your brand identity and help secure your business’s online presence. This article outlines why it is essential to protect your domain registrar credentials and provides practical tips for keeping them secure.

Why It’s Important to Safeguard Your Registrar Credentials

Losing access to domain registrar credentials is a common issue for businesses. These credentials are the key to your business’s online identity. They are more critical than the actual site files, especially if you change marketing companies, website solutions, or frameworks like WordPress. If access to your domain is lost and you need to change it, you lose all your SEO progress and must start from scratch. An expired domain may be costly to reacquire, or a squatter could purchase it and refuse to sell it back or demand a high price.

Tips to Retain Access to Your Domain Registrar

1. Store with Relevant Business Info: Keep domain credentials with essential business documents such as articles of incorporation, licensure, etc.
2. Treat Your Domain Registrar Like Financial Credentials: Handle domain credentials with the same care as bank and financial credentials.
3. Secure 2-Factor Authentication: Be cautious with email accounts or devices used for two-factor authentication. Losing access to these could mean losing access to your domain.
4. Designate Multiple Trusted Stakeholders: Ensure that multiple trusted individuals in your organization have access. Have at least 1-2 stakeholders with vested interest as keyholders. Mitigate risks associated with a single employee leaving your company; we suggest taking a “what-will-happen-if-this-person-wins-the-lottery-or-gets-hit-by-a-bus-tomorrow” approach.
5. Use Password Management Software: Tools like LastPass, 1Password, and NordPass can store and share credentials securely. They also allow updates from a central interface, and you can share those credentials internally without revealing sensitive information. Many of these platforms even have free options!
6. Work with a Trusted Marketing & Technology Partner: Fly-by-night technology partners will sometimes close shop or even withhold your domain registrar credentials, even if your account is in good standing with them. Be very careful and do your research before entrusting the keys to your kingdom with a marketing or technology provider.

Work with a Trusted Technology Partner

Managing your domain registrar credentials is essential to safeguarding your business’s online presence. By following the tips outlined above, you can ensure that your credentials remain secure and accessible, protecting your business from potential risks and setbacks. Don’t let a simple oversight jeopardize your company’s future.

As a final note: Many companies don’t have strong offboarding processes and will often fail to provide (or even actively withhold) credentials when you stop working with them. Working with long-tenured, reputable providers like Mediagistic will ensure this never happens to your business.

We’re your trusted partner when it comes to all things related to your business’s marketing technologies. Reach out to Mediagistic today to learn more about all we can do for your business.

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Brent Blackwood is Mediagistic’s Web Design Manager. He’s a digital marketing professional with more than 10 years of expertise in design, development, SEO, and PPC. Passionate about helping businesses grow, he creates effective and aesthetically pleasing websites, applications, and advertising campaigns that exceed expectations. Connect with him on Linkedin.