Recover your expired domain name

If you have a website, you’re almost guaranteed to have a domain name. But if you’re not careful, your domain name can expire and you may even lose it, which results in your website being offline.

You’re probably familiar with GoDaddy. Among other things, they provide domain name registration services, which means they’re a domain name registrar. One of our clients who registered a domain name through GoDaddy ran into an issue recently.

Their domain name had expired. Unfortunately, the person who had originally purchased the domain no longer worked at that organization. The person currently responsible for the website was faced with an inoperable site and no clear path to a solution.

Luckily, there are three methods you can use to handle an expired domain name.

Way 1 – Contact the account holder

This is the ideal course of action. The person who created the account with the domain name registrar (the former point of contact) can then log in and renew the domain.

Then they can either make you the point of contact for that account, or they can transfer the domain to an account you have with that registrar or a different registrar.

Way 2 – Call your registrar

This is the second-best option for regaining access to an expired site. When you call your domain name registrar, most likely they’ll ask for some basic information to verify you’re the actual owner of the domain name.

Typically once you supply the information they need, they’ll give you access to the account the domain is set up under.

Way 3 – Make a change online

The third-best option is to visit changeupdate.com, which is a site where you can gain access back to your expired website. This site may also work for other registrars in addition to GoDaddy, but it consistently works for GoDaddy’s websites.

Bonus Way – Contact a professional

Of course, if you’re already working with a web professional or know one, you can call them and have them help you through the process. We’ve helped many of our clients regain control of their domain name, although sometimes it’s too late.

So what happened to the client I mentioned earlier? We shared the different options with them, and they were able to reach the original point of contact. Then they got the domain renewed and the website back online.