Tow Truck Website Best Practices: Domain Renewal
Renew Your Tow Truck Website Domain for 10 Years to Prevent Lapsing
Your tow truck website domain (e.g., www.my-towing-site.com) is as much a part of your towing brand as your wrecker or shop – it’s a part of your business identity and so it’s vital that you protect it. One of the best and easiest ways to protect your domain is to renew your tow truck website domain for the maximum allowable timeframe – typically 9 or 10 years.
Benefits of Maximum Renewal of Your Domain
Set it and forget it. Well, don’t actually forget it. But you won’t have to worry about it every year. You have enough towing business keeping you busy, so it’s helpful to have this once-a-decade to-do item.
What about 10 years from now? Set a reminder. Computer, mobile phone, and e-mail calendars can easily go ten years into the future. And you’ll still probably get reminder e-mails from your domain provider as a safeguard. If you’re lower tech, print out your receipt and file it in the company safe with other important certificates like truck titles, hang it on the wall along with your business license, or ask your accountant to put a reminder in their system.
No hassle with payment method updates. An annual auto-renewal might seem like a fine idea. But if you get a new credit card or switch banks, your domain account will have to be updated accordingly.
Decreased risk of losing your domain. You are likely currently getting annual e-mails notifying you that your domain is close to its expiration date and that it is time for renewal. But how often do e-mails get overlooked, deleted, or automatically siphoned into a “junk” or “spam” folder?
And letting your domain lapse, or expire, can start your tow truck website on the road to recovery…
Dangers of Domain Lapse
Lapsing on domain renewal negatively affects your organic positioning. Google and other search engines,will recognize that your site is no longer active. And the last thing the search engine wants is to lead a person to a dead link. That looks bad on you and them. The solution? Remove your website from tow truck search results.
If this happens to you, all hope is not lost. You can be found again in important online searches for a tow truck website, but only after you renew your domain, and it will likely take some time to climb back into a good organic search position.
Your domain is held hostage. If a competitor notices that your domain is no longer valid and they know your company is operating, they might spend the few dollars to purchase your domain name. At that point, you might be left paying extra to get it back from them, or having to choose a new domain.
Final Tip
Make sure you own your domain. If you are working with a marketing agency, don’t let them hold any ownership over your tow truck website domain. That can lead to a messy breakup, when or if that ever happens. Again, your domain is a part of your towing identity. Guard it and take care of it.
