Domain Management Checklist

How to use this checklist

Domains fail quietly. An expired card, a verification email in spam, a registrar account under someone who left. None of it announces itself until a name you cared about is gone. The fix is not vigilance, it is rhythm: a short monthly pass for the urgent stuff, a quarterly reconciliation, and one honest annual review.

The recurring passes are below, followed by the one-time checks for buying, transferring, and letting a domain go, and the ownership checklist for teams. A copyable plain-text version of the whole thing is at the bottom of the page.

Monthly checklist

The monthly pass exists to catch the two losses that cannot be undone: a missed renewal and a locked-out account. Fifteen minutes is usually enough.

• Review domains expiring in the next 90 days and confirm each one has a decision attached: renew, or release on purpose.
• Confirm auto-renew is on for every domain you intend to keep.
• Check that the payment method on each registrar account is current and not about to expire. This is the single most common way domains are lost.
• Scan registrar emails, including the spam folder, for renewal, transfer, or verification notices.
• Confirm you can still log in to every registrar account, and that two-factor authentication works and is recoverable.

Quarterly checklist

The quarterly pass reconciles the inventory against reality. Whatever you track domains in, this is where drift gets caught.

• Reconcile the full inventory: every domain you own appears exactly once, with its registrar, expiration date, and renewal cost.
• Confirm the registrant email on each account is one you still control and actually read.
• Review DNS on each domain and remove records pointing at services you no longer use.
• Check SSL certificates on every domain serving a live site.
• Confirm transfer locks are on for the domains you are keeping.
• Update estimated values if you track valuations, and note any meaningful change.

Annual portfolio review

Once a year, every domain earns its renewal or it does not. This is the pass most owners skip, and it is the one that separates a portfolio from a pile.

• Make an explicit keep, build, sell, redirect, or release decision for every domain, and write it down.
• Total the annual renewal cost across all registrars and compare it to last year.
• Flag any domain renewed two years running without a decision. The expensive state is not "unused"; it is renewed without a decision.
• Review who has access to each registrar account and remove anyone who should not have it.
• Refresh the purpose note on every domain you keep, so future-you knows why it survived the review.

After buying a domain

The first hour after registration is when good habits are cheap.

• Record it in your inventory immediately: registrar, price, renewal cost, expiration date, and the idea you bought it for, while you still remember it vividly.
• Turn on auto-renew and the transfer lock.
• Complete any verification email the registrar sends. An unanswered one can suspend the domain.
• Store the credentials in a password manager and note which account holds the domain.
• Point the domain somewhere on purpose, even a single page, or write down the decision to leave it dark for now.

Before transferring a domain

• Confirm the domain is unlocked and get the transfer authorization code from the current registrar.
• Check timing: new registrations and ownership changes often carry a 60-day transfer restriction, so plan around it rather than discovering it mid-move.
• Copy the current DNS records before anything moves, so you can recreate them exactly at the new provider.
• Keep the old registrar account open until the transfer fully completes.
• Update your inventory with the new registrar and the new expiration date once the transfer lands.

Before letting a domain expire

Releasing a domain is a legitimate outcome. Doing it by accident is not, and doing it carelessly can hand someone else your email and logins.

• Make it a written decision, not a lapsed payment.
• Check for anything still depending on the name: email addresses, redirects, third-party logins, DNS verification records, printed materials.
• Remember that an expired domain can be registered by someone else, and anything still pointing at it, including email, goes with it.
• Turn off auto-renew deliberately. Do not use a canceled card as your expiry mechanism; it fails in both directions.
• Do not count on a grace or recovery window. Rules differ by registrar and registry, and some names are simply gone at expiration.

Business and team ownership checklist

For companies, most domain disasters are ownership problems wearing a technical costume. These items are structural, so they get checked when things change rather than on a cadence.

• One named owner for the domain portfolio. Not a committee, not "IT".
• Registrar accounts live on a role or shared email, never a personal inbox.
• Credentials sit in the team password manager, with two-factor recovery documented.
• The registrant organization is the company, not an employee.
• Finance can see renewal costs, and the owner signs off on renewals above an agreed threshold.
• Domain and registrar access is a line item in the employee offboarding checklist.

Copy the plain-text checklist

The whole checklist as plain text, ready to paste into your notes app, task manager, or team wiki.

DOMAIN MANAGEMENT CHECKLIST (sitewarming.com/domain-management/domain-management-checklist/)

MONTHLY
[ ] Review domains expiring in the next 90 days; confirm each has a decision (renew or release)
[ ] Confirm auto-renew is ON for every domain you intend to keep
[ ] Check the payment method on each registrar account is current and not about to expire
[ ] Scan registrar emails, including spam, for renewal, transfer, or verification notices
[ ] Confirm you can still log in to every registrar account and two-factor auth works

QUARTERLY
[ ] Reconcile the full inventory: every domain appears once, with registrar, expiration date, and renewal cost
[ ] Confirm the registrant email on each account is one you still control and read
[ ] Review DNS: remove records pointing at services you no longer use
[ ] Check SSL certificates on every domain serving a live site
[ ] Confirm transfer locks are ON for domains you are keeping
[ ] Update estimated values if you track valuations

ANNUAL
[ ] Make an explicit keep / build / sell / redirect / release decision for every domain
[ ] Total the annual renewal cost across all registrars; compare to last year
[ ] Flag domains renewed two years running without a decision, and decide
[ ] Review who has access to each registrar account; remove anyone who should not have it
[ ] Refresh the purpose note on every domain you keep

AFTER BUYING A DOMAIN
[ ] Record it in your inventory immediately: registrar, price, renewal cost, expiration, and the idea behind it
[ ] Turn on auto-renew and the transfer lock
[ ] Complete any verification email the registrar sends; an unanswered one can suspend the domain
[ ] Store the credentials in a password manager and note which account holds the domain
[ ] Point the domain somewhere on purpose, even one page, or write down the decision to leave it dark for now

BEFORE TRANSFERRING A DOMAIN
[ ] Confirm the domain is unlocked and get the transfer authorization code
[ ] Check timing: registrations and ownership changes often carry a 60-day transfer restriction
[ ] Copy the current DNS records so you can recreate them at the new provider
[ ] Keep the old registrar account open until the transfer completes
[ ] Update your inventory with the new registrar and expiration date

BEFORE LETTING A DOMAIN EXPIRE
[ ] Make it a written decision, not a lapsed payment
[ ] Check for anything still depending on the name: email addresses, redirects, logins, verification records
[ ] Remember an expired domain can be registered by someone else, along with anything still pointing at it
[ ] Turn off auto-renew deliberately; do not use a canceled card as your expiry mechanism
[ ] Do not count on a grace or recovery window; rules differ by registrar and registry

BUSINESS / TEAM OWNERSHIP
[ ] One named owner for the domain portfolio
[ ] Registrar accounts on a role or shared email, not a personal inbox
[ ] Credentials in the team password manager, with two-factor recovery documented
[ ] The registrant organization is the company, not an employee
[ ] Finance can see renewal costs; the owner signs off on renewals above a set threshold
[ ] Domain and registrar access is part of the employee offboarding checklist

If you would rather not run the checklist by hand at all, the SiteWarming asset dashboard keeps the inventory, renewals, and valuations side of this list current for you. The decisions stay yours.

Limitations

• Grace, redemption, and renewal windows differ by registrar and registry. Never plan around a recovery window you have not confirmed with your own registrar.
• This checklist covers operations. It does not cover valuation strategy, purchase decisions, or legal questions like trademarks.
• The cadences are a starting point. A two-domain portfolio can fold the monthly and quarterly passes into one; a five-hundred-domain portfolio may need the monthly pass weekly.

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