DNS, aka Domain Name System.
It might sound complicated, but there is one important thing you should keep in mind when it comes to DNS.
Keep it under your control! Don’t let your website company or tech people take it away from you. If you do, you’re putting your company at risk. Here’s why…
DNS—What does that mean, anyway?
First things first, DNS stands for Domain Name System. Simply put, when people type your website address into their browsers, DNS tells the internet where to find your website. Think of DNS as a bunch of internet pointers. There’s not much more to it. By the way, email works the same way—all using DNS.
Why is it important to keep access to your DNS?
Over the years, we’ve migrated quite a few websites away from other website providers. What’s surprising is that many times, other providers seem to have a practice of taking control of the agency’s DNS. This is risky and unnecessary. Here’s why.
Worst-case scenario.
What would happen if the website company went out of business or stopped responding to your requests?
The answer.
You’d be stuck. You wouldn’t be able to make any changes to your website, email, or anything else that relies upon your domain name or DNS to work. In other words, you’d be at the mercy of the other company and would need to move things around manually—which is a pain and requires the skilled hand of someone who knows how to do it without breaking everything in the process (we’ve seen that happen, too!).
But, even if that “worst-case scenario” doesn’t happen to you, it’s still a pain to wait for another company to update things that you should be able to do yourself. For example, if you have direct control and access to your domain name, we could launch your site within an hour. Otherwise, if your DNS is locked away at an outside third-party provider, it requires a lot of coordination, communication, and technical work to get things straightened out. And, guess who has to get involved? You! Sounds like fun, right?
Control yourself.
We realize DNS is a technical topic, which is likely why insurance agencies (and others) give up control so easily.
However, your domain name and related DNS are your intellectual property. Keep things under your control and limit the potential risk of losing your website, email, and other mission-critical stuff in the process!
The good news is that when you get a Forge website with Agency Revolution, we never take control of your domain, and we strongly encourage you to keep this advice in mind, whether you choose to get a new website with us or another vendor.