Hey there,

This is a public service announcement – a skimmable bit of knowledge that is critical for any organization, business, or individual who owns a website.

If you do nothing else today, at least skim this email.

I’m also inviting you to a free workshop this Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. ET, where you can check this off your list. Read more and register here.​

Here’s the #1 thing every website owner needs to do:

You need a domain management protocol.

If you don’t know where your domain is registered, how to log in, or who in your organization has that access, you’re at serious risk. If your domain expires—even by accident—it can be bought by someone else, and even used in malicious and damaging purposes that cause harm to you, your work, and even your customers. And yes, it’s completely legal.

Once you lose your domain, recovering it is incredibly difficult and expensive.

This isn’t hypothetical. It’s happened to me—and to numerous clients—where domains were either held hostage or became associated with disturbing content. In both cases, the only real option was to start from scratch: new domain, new email, rebuilding trust with search engines from the ground up.

Here’s how to protect your domain:

1. Don’t let an obscure email, password manager or staff/IT turnover leave you locked out.
2. Ensure your contact and payment details are current with your domain registrar so you don’t miss renewal notices.
3. Set a recurring reminder on your calendar near your domain’s renewal date. Use this as an annual task to check and make sure everything is good to go.
4. Assign a technical contact (like us) who can receive and verify important notices and ensure it’s locked, privacy is protected, and set to renew. This gives you at least 2 points of safety.
5. Forward any domain-related emails (even suspicious ones) to a tech-savvy person you trust—or to us at support@buildwithmaple.com​
6. Make sure your registrar is trustworthy and supportive. A lot of companies offer domain registration, but most use it as a hook to upsell you on more services. We often migrate our client’s domains to Hover.com because they include all the essentials. No games or gimmicks and their support is fast and helpful.

During onboarding for our care plan services we confirm where client’s domains are registered and ensure everything is in working order. We also offer a domain management service for organizations that need continuity and security beyond a single point of contact.

If you're ready to lock this down, join our free workshop this Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. ET.

We’ll walk you through how to set up a simple domain management protocol and make it part of your organization’s standard practices.

→ Click here to register​

And if you’d rather have us handle it for you, just reply to this email and we can discuss domain management for your website—we’ve got your back.

Stay secure,
Ryan Clover

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