Your domain is more than your website address. Your company email runs on it, your customers find you through it, and many of your online accounts can be reset through an address on it. If someone takes control of the domain, they can redirect your website, read your email and lock you out.
The good news: a few settings at your domain provider make this much harder. Most of them cost nothing.
1. Turn on two-factor authentication
Most domain takeovers start with a stolen password for the provider's customer account. With two-factor authentication, a password alone is no longer enough to log in. This is the single most effective step, and it takes five minutes.
2. Use a strong, unique password
If your provider account still uses a password from years ago, or one you also use elsewhere, change it. A password manager makes long, unique passwords painless.
3. Check the transfer lock
A transfer lock stops the domain from being moved to another provider without your approval. Most providers enable it by default, but it's worth checking that it's on.
4. Switch on automatic renewal
More domains are lost to an expired credit card than to hackers. Turn on automatic renewal and make sure the payment method on file is current.
5. Keep your contact address independent
Your provider sends important notices, like renewal reminders and transfer requests, to your contact email. If that address is on the same domain, a problem with the domain also cuts you off from the warnings. Use a second address you control, on a different domain, as the contact.
Some providers sell an extra lock for domain settings, which asks for confirmation from a separate email address before critical changes. It's sensible insurance for a domain your business depends on, once the five steps above are in place.
These steps take less than half an hour, and they protect the address your customers, partners and inbox all depend on.