Domain Name Renewal Guide,Domain Name Investment Tips

All domain owners need to make decisions about the ownership status of their domains, and of course, taking no action is also a form of action. Some domain investors adopt a "hands-off" strategy for domains they are no longer interested in or have been deemed as having no or low value after careful consideration. However, a friendly reminder here is that forgetting to renew a domain, especially a high-value one, could potentially lead to serious issues for individuals, businesses, or organizations.

I. Why is Domain Renewal Necessary?

There are many reasons for domain renewal, but the ultimate goal is to maintain ownership of the domain. Theoretically, domains do not have permanent ownership. Once you lose a domain, the website hosted on that domain will also become inactive. For high-value domains that you are currently using or planning to hold for the long term, this is something you definitely want to avoid!

Even if you accidentally lose a domain, there is a chance to re-register it after the domain expires. However, when a domain re-enters the domain market, someone else might quickly register it through domain market services or manual registration. This is especially true for high-value domains, as they may have already caught the attention of other domain investors who are waiting for the moment they expire to quickly register them.

II. What is the Domain Renewal Process?

Regardless of the platform where your domain is registered, the domain renewal process is usually straightforward. In general, you only need to log in to your user page, find the domain you want to renew, add the domain renewal request to your shopping cart, and proceed to checkout.

When renewing a domain, you typically need to consider the following two factors:

1. Renewal Period:

When renewing a domain, you need to decide how long to extend the ownership of the domain. The shortest renewal period is one year, and the longest is ten years. The decision on how long to renew usually depends on the expected value of the domain in the coming years. If you are uncertain, it's advisable to renew your domain for one year initially and then enable the automatic renewal feature.

2. Renewal Price:

Each top-level domain (TLD) has a specific renewal price, and the price may vary depending on the platform where the domain is registered. In general, the renewal price is higher than the registration price. Compared to domain registration, there are relatively fewer discounts or promotions for domain renewals. To save costs, pay attention to opportunities for multi-year renewal discounts or renewal promotions.

In addition to duration and price, timing is also crucial. Do you want to know when the last renewal deadline for a domain is? Look at the next section!

III. Domain Timeline and Lifecycle

A domain goes through a lifecycle of registered and unregistered states. With the domain market saturated, high-quality domains in an unregistered state have become rare, and many registered domains may never expire. The ownership period of a domain is determined by the user during registration or renewal, typically ranging from 1 to 10 years.

The expired domain process includes a renewal grace period, during which the renewal price is the same as the regular renewal price for that top-level domain (TLD). Starting from day 31, the expired domain enters a 7-day auction, followed by the domain redemption period. After the redemption period ends, the domain returns to the open market. During most of the domain ownership period and the expired domain processing period, users can renew their domains. When renewing, the expiration date is directly extended by the renewal period. The new expiration date remains the same whenever you renew, regardless of the renewal timing.

IV. Methods of Domain Renewal

The domain renewal process may vary depending on the registrar/reseller, but generally, there are several methods for renewing a domain:

1. Standard Renewal:

Renewal periods typically range from 1 to 10 years.

2. Bulk Renewal:

An option to update multiple domains at once to save time. You can choose to add different renewal years individually for each domain or add the same number of years to all selected domains.

3. Auto-Renewal:

Enabling automatic domain renewal means directly linking a valid payment method to your account. Once set up, the system will automatically deduct fees for domain renewal at the appropriate time, ensuring your domain is not lost.