This week UKIP’s website was in the news again after it appeared their official webpage had disappeared, and could not be seen for a period of several hours.
Twitter was awash with different theories about why the site was no longer accessible. There was speculation that the political party had forgotten to renew their domain and as a result had lost their site. An Oxford based record label attempted to purchase the domain in the interim, paying £200 to Godaddy.com for the privilege of owning UKIP.org.
However, just a few hours later the site’s new owner was informed that it had all been a mistake and that he would be refunded for his purchase. Apparently the disappearance of the website was merely due to “technical problems” and after being down for several hours the UKIP site is now back up and running.
It remains unclear why UKIP’s site was actually up for sale, but one thing is for sure – it’s vital for businesses to make sure that their website is always renewed on time, otherwise you run the risk of losing out if another company or individual manages to snap it up quickly enough. If you have a high value, sought after domain name, it’s even more vital to keep a close eye on renewal dates and keep everything up to date. Your website registrar should contact you before the renewal date to make sure you wish to renew it. If not, it will become available for others to buy.
An excellent domain name is a highly valuable asset in the world of online business, so make sure you don’t lose out by simply forgetting to renew.