It’s common for most domain name owners to renew their domain names on an annual basis. However, this might not be a wise move.
The minimum period that you can renew your domain is one year. So every other year that goes by, you have to renew your domain name otherwise it expires. When the domain name expires, you risk losing it to someone else. Depending on what you use your domain name, this can be unacceptable. Imagine Google or Facebook losing their domain names google.com or facebook.com respectively!
Avoid losing your domain name
So to avoid losing your domain name, it’s advisable that you renew it for the maximum renewable period. For instance, on name.com, the maximum renewable period is 9 years. So, if I renewed my name for 9 years today, it wouldn’t expire until 2031. This will reduces that chances that you forget to renew your domain name.
However, if you don’t think you’ll need your domain for that long period of time, then consider 2-5 year renewal periods. sitemonki.com for instance is renewed every year. However, I am planning to change this since I intend to keep the site running for a long foreseeable future.
Prepare for price changes
The domain name market is getting highly competitive. While prices haven’t changed much in years, the prices are beginning to be unpredictable. For instance, Verisign, the registry for .com changed prices of the top-level domain in August of 2021. This cascaded across all registrars who in-turn increased the price of the .com. For instance while I used to pay $12 for sitemonki.com on name.com, today, I pay $15.99. According to The Verge, these prices are even expected to increase in the coming decade. So if you renewed your domain name for a long period of time, you will not have to incur the upcoming price hikes.
So how long do you renew your domain name for? 1 year, 2 years, 5 years or 9 years? Let me in the comments below. Regardless of the time period you renew your domain name for, you still need to make sure that you get that notification when your domain will expire. If you forget to renew your domain name, the consequences can be catastrophic. That’s why we created sitemonki.com. We offer website uptime monitoring and domain name monitoring. Sitemonki will send you email notifications, two weeks before expiry, one the expiry date and after the domain has expired if you haven’t already renewed it. Sign up today. It’s free.