Why a business needs a domain audit
A domain is not just a website address but an asset that supports your email, services and the brand itself. When there are dozens of such assets, it is easy to overlook a renewal date or lose control of a registration without a single record. An audit brings scattered domains into one clear picture and reveals weak points in advance.
- understand which domains the company actually owns;
- check in whose name they are registered and who manages them;
- rule out the loss of key domains due to a missed renewal;
- prepare for a transaction, an audit or a change of contractor without surprises.
What the audit covers
The audit covers not only the list of addresses but also the legal side: who is recorded as the owner and how closely that matches the company's actual interests. The basic scope of work looks like this:
- Domain registry. We consolidate all of the company's domains into a single list, mapped to the relevant projects and services.
- Owners and management. We check in whose name each domain is registered and who has access to manage it – this matters in particular when some domains are registered to employees.
- Renewal dates. We record the registration and renewal expiry dates to rule out an accidental loss.
- Risks. We flag problematic situations: domains held by individuals, by former contractors, or without confirmed control.
If it turns out that an important domain is not registered to the company, we examine the consequences separately – more on this in our article "A corporate domain registered to an individual".
How we carry it out
We follow a clear sequence so that at every step it is evident what is being checked and why. Some checks rely on public registrar data, others on information provided by the company.
- we collect the initial list of domains from the company and supplement it with related services;
- we carry out a domain audit – verifying the registration, the dates and the status of each one;
- we confirm the owners and, where necessary, perform a domain owner check;
- we build a risk map and propose a plan to put the portfolio in order.
If the owner of a particular domain is unknown, we start with a basic check – how this works is described in our article "How to find out the owner of a domain".
What the company gets
The result is a transparent view of the company's domain holdings and a clear understanding of what to do next. This reduces dependence on individual people and on anyone's memory of old projects.
- a single domain registry showing owners and renewal dates;
- a risk map – where the portfolio is vulnerable and why;
- an action plan: what to transfer, what to renew, what to consolidate;
- a clear basis for keeping domains under control going forward.
An audit offers no magic guarantees, but it removes the main problem – uncertainty. The company stops learning about problems after the fact and starts managing its domains as a full-fledged asset.