You are at the counter, or in the truck, and a customer asks for your email address. You say “it’s mapleleafplumbing1987 at gmail” for the fourth time this week, and then spell it out. Meanwhile your website address has been sitting in a stranger’s account for years, and nobody can say when it renews.
Your business domain name email setup is one of those things that works quietly until it suddenly does not. A lapsed domain can take your website and your email down together. A domain registered in someone else’s name can leave you stuck when you need to make a change. Here are six mistakes we see local owners in Innisfil, Barrie, Cookstown and across the GTA run into, and a plain fix for each.
1. Not Owning Your Own Domain
This is the big one. Many owners hired a web person years ago who registered the domain for them, often in their own name or their company’s name. It felt like a favour at the time. Now that person has moved on, stopped answering emails, or changed careers, and you cannot prove the domain is yours.
The owner of record, called the registrant, is the one who controls the domain. If that is not you, you may have to chase someone down just to change where your website points.
How to Fix It
- Look up your domain in a public registration lookup and check which name and email are listed.
- Ask your web person or former provider to move the domain into an account that you control, with your business name and your email on it.
- Make sure the account email is one you will always have access to, not an old address from a previous job or provider.
If the person has gone quiet, do not panic. Gather what you do have, such as old invoices and emails, and ask for help. A team member at ONLINEid.ca can look at where things stand and make a plan with you.
2. Letting Your Domain Renewal Slip By
Domains are registered for a set period and need to be renewed. When the renewal reminder goes to an inbox nobody checks, or the credit card on file has expired, the domain can lapse. When that happens your website can go offline, your email can stop working, and in the worst case someone else can register the name.
It tends to happen at the worst time. A busy fall season in Simcoe County is no moment to discover customers are landing on an error page.
How to Fix It
- Turn on auto-renew in your domain account.
- Check that the payment card on file is current, and update it whenever you get a new one.
- Put the renewal date in your calendar with a reminder a month ahead.
- Make sure renewal notices go to an email address you actually read.
3. Using a Gmail Address on the Van and the Invoices
A free email address is fine when you are starting out. But when it is printed on your truck, your invoices and your business cards, it can make a good business look smaller than it is. It also tends to be longer and harder to remember, because the short, simple names were taken long ago.
There is a practical side too. If your email address is tied to a free account and not to your own domain, you cannot easily carry it with you if you ever change providers.
How to Fix It
- Set up email on your own domain, such as [email protected].
- Use that address on your invoices, quotes, signage, vehicle wrap and Google listing.
- Keep the old address forwarding for a while so you do not miss messages from customers who still use it.
Having your business domain name email match your website is a small touch, but it tells people in Alcona, Bradford West Gwillimbury or Toronto that you are an established, reachable business.
4. Choosing a Name That Is Hard to Spell or Say
Try this test: say your web address out loud to a friend and ask them to type it. If they get it wrong, so will your customers. Hyphens, number swaps, creative spellings and very long names all cause lost visitors and bounced emails.
This matters most for local businesses that get word-of-mouth referrals. People hear your name at a hockey rink or over the fence, then try to find you later.
How to Fix It
- Prefer a name that is short, close to your business name and easy to spell after hearing it once.
- Consider a .ca address, which tells people you are a Canadian business.
- If your current name is awkward, register a simpler one and point it to your existing site, so nothing you have printed stops working.
- Consider also registering the most common misspelling and sending it to the same place.
5. Having No Clear Record of Who Handles What
Ask yourself three questions. Where is your domain registered? Where is your website hosted? Who runs your email? For many owners the answer is “I think it was my nephew,” or “somebody set that up years ago.” Those three things are often handled in different places, and a problem with any one can look like your whole website is broken.
When nobody knows who is responsible, small issues turn into long outages, because you lose days just working out who to call.
How to Fix It
- Write down your domain registrar, your hosting provider and your email provider.
- Record the account holder’s name and email for each, and the renewal dates.
- Note who to call for each one, whether that is a provider, a developer or yourself.
- Keep the page somewhere safe that a trusted person in your business can also reach.
If you would rather have one team looking after it, hosting and maintenance are part of what we do. You can see how our packages work on our Services & Pricing page.
6. Tying Everything to One Person’s Login
A single shared password, or one employee’s personal email on the account, works until someone leaves or is away. Then nobody can reset the password, approve a renewal or set up a new mailbox. Former staff may also still have access to your business mail when they should not.
How to Fix It
- Make sure the owner of the business is the main account holder on your domain, hosting and email.
- Give each team member their own mailbox on your domain instead of sharing one login.
- When someone leaves, remove their access and forward their mail to the right person that same day.
- Use strong, unique passwords, and store them in a password manager or another secure place.
If you are also thinking about the rest of your online presence, our post on common local SEO mistakes is a good next read, since consistent business details help customers find you.
Start With a Quick Ten-Minute Check
You do not have to fix all six today. Begin by finding out who owns your domain and when it renews. Then check that the email on the account is one you can open. Those two steps alone prevent most of the nasty surprises.
From there, set up an email address on your own domain and write down who handles your hosting. Your customers in Orillia, Newmarket, Aurora or right here in Innisfil will find you more easily, and you will have one less thing to worry about.
If you are not sure where your domain is registered, or you want a professional address on your van and invoices, we are happy to help. Book a free consultation with ONLINEid.ca. A team member will look at your business and make a plan with you, with no pressure.