Who owns my domain name?
The domain is the one part of your online presence that is genuinely irreplaceable. A website can be rebuilt in a fortnight. A domain that somebody else controls, or that lapses and gets bought, can cost you years of accumulated search visibility and every customer who tries the address on your van.
Most business owners have never checked who holds theirs. It takes two minutes.
How to check
For a .uk domain, use Nominet's own WHOIS lookup. For .com and most others, any WHOIS service will do.
You are looking for two things: the registrant, which is the legal owner, and the registrar, which is the company the domain is held with. Privacy services may hide the registrant's details publicly, but the registrar is always visible and that tells you where to start.
Then check the expiry date and write it down. That is the only genuine deadline in this whole subject.
What the answers mean
If the registrant is you or your company and you can log in to the registrar, you are in good shape. Turn on auto-renew and make sure the billing card and the contact email are both current and both yours.
If the registrant is you but you cannot get into the account, the registrar can restore access to the legal owner with proof of identity. Inconvenient, not serious.
If the registrant is your web designer or their company, you do not own your domain. It may be an administrative habit rather than anything sinister, and most designers will transfer it if asked. Ask in writing, and ask now rather than when you next fall out.
Why it matters more than the website
Everything is attached to the domain. Your email addresses if they run on it. Your search ranking, which is built up against that domain over years. Your Google Business Profile link, your printed material, the signage on your van and every customer who remembers your address rather than your name.
Losing the website costs you a rebuild. Losing the domain costs you all of that at once, and there is no way to buy back a domain somebody else has registered except by asking them.
What to do if somebody else holds it
Ask politely first, in writing, and be specific: you would like the domain transferred to an account in your business name. Most of the time that is the end of it.
If they refuse or have vanished, there is a formal route. For .uk domains Nominet runs a dispute resolution service for cases where a registration is abusive or the rightful owner has been locked out. Other registries have equivalents. It takes time and evidence that the domain belongs to your business, and it does work.
In the meantime, do not let it lapse while you argue. A lapsed domain can be bought by anybody once the grace period ends, including firms who register expiring business domains to resell them.
Getting it right from the start
Register the domain yourself, in your business name, on an account with your own email and your own card. Let whoever builds the site point it wherever it needs to go; pointing a domain does not require owning it.
Use an email address you will still control in five years, not one tied to a supplier or an old employer.
Turn on auto-renew and check the card on file every year, because an expired card is the commonest way domains are lost by people who genuinely own them.
Consider registering both the .co.uk and the .com. It is cheap and it stops somebody else trading on your name. When I build a site I buy both and register them in the client's name for exactly this reason.
Common questions
- How do I find out who owns my domain?
- Look it up on a WHOIS service, or Nominet's lookup for a .uk domain. The registrant is the legal owner and the registrar is the company it is held with. Note the expiry date while you are there.
- My web designer registered it in their name. Is that normal?
- It is common and it is not good practice. Often it is habit rather than intent, and most designers will transfer it on request. Ask in writing, and do it now rather than when you want to move.
- What happens if my domain expires?
- There is a grace period in which you can usually renew, then a redemption period at a higher fee, then it is released for anybody to register. Businesses have lost their domains permanently this way, almost always because the card on file expired.
- Should I buy both the .co.uk and the .com?
- For a UK business, usually yes. They are cheap, it prevents somebody else using your name, and you can point one at the other. It is the sort of small precaution that only looks obvious afterwards.
- Can I move my domain to a different company?
- Yes, provided you control it. You request an authorisation code from the current registrar and give it to the new one. It usually takes a few days and your website and email keep working throughout if it is done properly.
If you would rather somebody just did it
I build websites for self-employed tradesmen and small businesses across the UK: £249 to build, then £49.99 a month to host, maintain and update it. The sites I have built currently hold 97 page-one Google rankings between them.