Who Owns Your Website & Domain? What a Small Business Needs to Know & Back Up
A .au domain is licensed, not owned. See who controls yours, why the ABN and contact email matter, and what to back up so your website and email keep working.
Your website and your email both depend on one thing you probably do not own: your domain name. If it lapses, sits in someone else’s name or is tied to an account nobody can open, your website goes offline and your email stops.
This guide explains what you need to know and what to keep safe. It focuses on .au domain names, which come with rules of their own.
A domain is licensed, not owned
.au domain names are administered by auDA, the body that sets the rules for them. You do not buy a domain outright. You hold a licence to use it for a set period, and you renew it to keep it.
The person or business named on that licence is called the registrant, and the registrant is who controls the domain. It is not your web designer, and it is not the company that hosts your website.
Check who the registrant is
A common problem is a domain registered years ago by a web designer, a former employee or the owner personally, while the business is now run by a company or a trust. In that case the business does not really control its own domain.
Ask your domain provider who the registrant is, or ask us to look it up. The domain should be held by the company or trust that actually runs the business. If a trust runs the business, expect to be asked for the trustee’s full legal name as well.
Keep the contact email current
Renewal reminders are sent to the registrant’s contact email, and so is the domain password you need to move the domain to another provider. If that address is out of date, you may never see a warning that the domain is about to expire.
Use a business address that more than one person can read, not the personal inbox of someone who may leave. Do not use an address on the same domain. If the domain lapses, that email stops working too, and so do the reminders.
Australian presence and your ABN
A .au domain must show a real connection to Australia. For a business that usually means a current ABN or ACN. Your domain provider has to check this when the domain is registered, renewed or moved to a new owner. A com.au name is also meant for a business, and the name needs to relate to that business.
If the ABN linked to your domain has been cancelled, for example when a business is closed and restarted under a new structure, renewal can be blocked. When that happens the website and email can go offline. Check that the ABN or ACN on your domain is still current, and that it belongs to the business that holds the domain, well before the renewal date.
Renewals
Put the renewal date in your diary, and set a reminder at least a month earlier, so you have time to fix any problem with the details. If a domain is allowed to lapse, your website and email go offline, and after a time someone else may be able to register the name.
Changing who holds the domain
You can move a domain to a new owner, but the new owner has to be eligible, sign a new licence agreement and pay the licence fee. Only full years left on the licence carry across, up to a maximum of five, so part-years can be lost.
If you buy or sell a business, the domain does not move automatically. When the sale contract covers the domain, the licence needs to be transferred within 28 days unless the contract says otherwise. Make it part of the handover.
Moving to a different provider
Moving a domain from one provider to another needs the domain’s authorisation code, which works like a password for the domain. It is sent to the registrant’s contact email. Keep it safe and only give it to someone you trust. It is another reason to keep that email address up to date.
Your website: what to hold and what to back up
Your website lives on a hosting service, and your domain points to it. Make sure the hosting account is in the business’s name, with a login the business controls, and not in your web designer’s account.
Make sure you have an administrator login for your WordPress site, and that your web designer is not the only administrator.
Keep your own backup of the website, stored somewhere other than the hosting account. The host’s backups are useful, but if the hosting account is lost, those copies go with it. Check from time to time that the backup can really be restored.
Your domain also holds a set of settings, called DNS records, that tell the internet where your website and your email live. Keep a written copy of them. Moving a website or a domain without copying them across is a common way for email to stop working.
Your email depends on your domain
If your staff email addresses end in your business domain, as they do with Microsoft 365, losing the domain means losing your email as well. Our guide to setting up Microsoft 365 for a Mac-based business explains how the pieces fit together.
Questions to answer this week
Who is the registrant on your domain? Which email address receives the renewal notices? When does it renew? Is the ABN linked to it current? Who holds the hosting login and the WordPress administrator login? Where is the backup of your website kept, and has anyone tested it?
If you cannot answer any of these, find out now. It is far easier to fix before there is a problem.
Need a hand?
We provide Australian website hosting, domain registration and WordPress support. We can check where your domain stands, tidy up who holds it and set up backups. See our Website Hosting, Domains & WordPress service, or contact Your Mac Tech.
