Your domain has to be in your name
Your domain is your business's address on the internet and it has to be in your name, with your email and your card. Plenty of owners find out it isn't the day they want to change providers, and then discover the site, the email and years of Google history are in somebody else's hands. Checking takes two minutes, and fixing it before there's a problem is far easier than after.
Updated 2026-08-16
Why it matters this much
The domain is the only part of your online presence that can't be replaced.
A website can be rebuilt. A design can be changed. But if you lose `yourbusiness.com`, you also lose the email on that address, the printed cards, the truck lettering, and everything Google had associated with that address over the years.
And there's something worse: if the domain is in someone else's name, that person can point it wherever they like the day you fall out.
How to check in two minutes
**Look up who's listed as the registrant.** There are free whois lookup sites where you type the domain and see the information. Many registrars hide the details for privacy, so you may not see a name, but you will see the registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains and so on).
**What actually matters: can you get in?** Go to the registrar shown and try a password reset with your own email. If the link arrives, the account is yours. If it doesn't, the account is somebody else's.
**Check which email gets the renewal notices.** If they don't come to you, you don't control the domain.
The three situations
**It's in your name and you have access.** All good. Store the login somewhere safe and turn on auto-renew.
**It's in your name but you don't have access.** Recoverable: ask the registrar for account recovery with your business documentation. It usually gets sorted.
**It's in the name of whoever built your site.** This is where you act, and the sooner the better.
How to ask for the transfer
Write plainly, without accusing. Most of the time there's no bad intent: it got registered under their account for convenience.
"Hi, I'd like the domain to be in the business's name. Can you send me the authorization code to transfer it to my account?"
Transferring between registrars is a normal process, costs about $12 and usually takes a few days. What you need is the authorization code, which only the account holder can provide.
**If they refuse**, you have two paths. One is a claim with the registrar, especially if the domain is your registered business name. The other, faster, is registering a new similar domain and moving everything. It hurts, but you do it once.
The same applies to two other things
**The Google Business Profile.** You have to be the owner, not a manager. If somebody created it for you, request ownership transfer: it's an option inside the profile itself.
**The hosting and the files.** Even if the domain is yours, if you have no access to where the site lives you can't take it with you. Ask for access or a copy.
How to do it right from the start
- **Register the domain yourself**, with your email and your card. About $12 a year.
- **Turn on auto-renew.** Domains get lost to forgotten renewals more than to anything else.
- **Use a stable email of yours**, not an employee's who might leave.
- **If you hire someone for the site, give them access, not ownership.** Every registrar allows granting permissions without handing over the domain.
It's a five-minute difference at the start that prevents a serious problem years later.
doubts
What people usually ask
What does a domain cost?
$10 to $15 a year for a normal `.com`. Be wary of anyone including one "free forever" inside a package: usually that means it goes in their name, not yours.
What if my business runs entirely on Instagram?
Then you have no address of your own. The day the account gets shut down you lose every customer contact at once, with nobody to appeal to. A domain is $12 a year and it's yours.
Can I change websites without losing the domain?
Yes, and that's exactly the advantage of owning it. The site can be rebuilt entirely and the same domain pointed at the new one with nothing lost.
What happens if it expires?
There's a grace period of a few weeks to recover it at a higher fee. After that anyone can register it, and there are people who specifically buy expired domains from active businesses.
Do I need email on my domain too?
Not required, but it changes how you're seen: `info@yourbusiness.com` reads differently than a Gmail address. It's about $6 a month and uses the same domain.