We run into this more than you'd think. Someone buys a web address for their business, puts it on their cards and the side of the truck, and a few weeks later it stops working. Nobody tells them. A customer types it in, gets “this site can't be reached”, and figures the business closed down.
Why it happens
Most of the time it's something small. When you buy a new web address, the company that sold it to you has to confirm your email. They send a message with a link to click, and if nobody clicks it within about 15 days, the address can be put on hold until it's confirmed. That email tends to land in spam, or go to an inbox nobody checks.
The other usual suspects are an expired card on file or a renewal that didn't go through.
The good news
Caught early, it's usually a quick fix, and you rarely lose the address. The longer it sits, the more customers hit a dead end. Not sure where yours stands? Run our free website check, or give us a call and we'll find out for you.
How we keep this from happening to our clients
When we set up a website for a business, a switched-off address is one of the first things we guard against.
- It's yours from day one. We buy your web address in your name, on your card, so it never depends on us or anyone else.
- We confirm it together. We sit with you while you click that confirmation email, so it doesn't sit in a spam folder for two weeks.
- Auto-renew goes on. No surprise expiration a year later.
- We keep an eye on it. For clients on a monthly plan, we check every morning that the site is up and get an alert if it isn't, and you get a check-up report each month.
So if something goes wrong, we catch it quickly instead of you finding out weeks later.