The phone book your business runs on
Every domain name is an entry in a global phone book called DNS, the Domain Name System. When someone types yourbusiness.co.uk, DNS answers two questions: which server holds the website, and which server receives the email. Get those answers wrong, or lose the ability to change them, and your business is offline in the most literal sense.
Most owners never touch DNS until the day it breaks: a migration gone wrong, an email outage, or the discovery that an old developer registered the domain and can no longer be reached. Twenty minutes with this guide is cheap insurance.
The records worth knowing, in plain English
- A record: points your domain at your web server's IP address, for example yourbusiness.co.uk to 82.x.x.x. The AAAA record does the same job for newer IPv6 addresses.
- CNAME: an alias. The www version of your domain is usually a CNAME pointing at the bare domain, and services such as Shopify ask you to add a CNAME so shop.yourbusiness.co.uk points at their platform.
- MX records: decide where email arrives. Point them at Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace and your email lives there, regardless of who hosts the website.
- TXT records: text notes with jobs. They prove domain ownership to services like Google, and they hold your SPF, DKIM and DMARC entries: the settings that keep your email out of spam folders and stop fraudsters sending mail as you.
- NS records: name the DNS provider itself, meaning which company's servers answer all the questions above. Change these and you move the entire phone book.
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Registrar, DNS host, web host: three different jobs
Confusion here causes most DNS disasters. The registrar is where the domain is registered and renewed (Namecheap, 123 Reg, GoDaddy, Hostinger and others). The DNS host runs the servers that answer queries: often the registrar, but frequently Cloudflare or your web host instead. The web host stores the site's files. One company can do all three jobs, but for many businesses they are three separate logins, and only one of them, the registrar, ultimately controls the other two.
Find out today which companies play each role for your domain. A free RDAP or WHOIS lookup (lookup.icann.org, or Nominet's WHOIS for .uk domains) shows the registrar and name servers in seconds.
Why your developer should never register your domain
The registrant of a domain is, in practical terms, its owner. When a developer or agency registers your domain under their own account 'to keep things simple', your trading name now depends on their goodwill, their inbox and their continued existence. Every agency has heard versions of the same story: the freelancer who emigrated, the agency that folded, the fee dispute where the domain became the hostage.
The rule is simple. The domain is registered in your company's name, under an account your company controls, paid for on your company's card. Developers get delegate or technical access, which most registrars support, never ownership. If your domain currently sits in someone else's name, ask for the transfer now, while relations are good: for most extensions that means an authorisation (EPP) code, and for .uk domains it is usually a change of the IPS tag to your chosen registrar plus a registrant update at Nominet, the UK registry.
Making changes without breaking email
Every DNS record has a TTL, or time to live: how long the answer may be cached around the internet. If your records carry a 24-hour TTL, changes can take a full day to reach everyone, which is awkward mid-migration. The professional habit: a day or two before any planned change, lower the TTL to five minutes, make the change, confirm it works, then raise the TTL again.
The classic self-inflicted outage is switching web hosts and letting the new host 'take over DNS', which silently drops the MX records. The website moves; the email dies. Before any migration, export or screenshot the complete zone file, every record, and confirm the MX and TXT records exist at the new provider before you flip the switch.
The lockout rescue plan
If you cannot get into your domain, work this sequence in order.
- 1. Identify the registrar with an RDAP lookup at lookup.icann.org (or Nominet's WHOIS for .uk domains). This tells you exactly who to contact.
- 2. Recover the registrant email address first, because password resets flow to it. If it is an old employee's mailbox on your own domain and your email still works, recreate that mailbox.
- 3. Contact the registrar's support with proof: company registration documents, photo ID, and evidence linking the business to the domain. Registrars handle this regularly and have established processes.
- 4. For .uk domains, Nominet can correct registrant details if you can prove you are the rightful registrant, which helps when a defunct agency is the named owner.
- 5. If a third party holds the domain and refuses to cooperate, formal routes exist: Nominet's Dispute Resolution Service for .uk, and the UDRP process for .com and most other endings. Take advice before escalating; documented prior use of the domain by your business is your strongest evidence.
One deadline worth knowing: after a domain expires there is normally a grace window to renew at standard cost, then a redemption period at a much higher fee, and then public re-release. Do not test the timeline.
Key Takeaway
Your domain is a business asset: register it in your company's name, at a registrar you control, with two-factor authentication and auto-renew switched on. Give developers delegate access, never ownership. Keep an exported copy of your DNS records, and before any migration lower the TTL and leave the MX records untouched. If you are locked out, identify the registrar via an RDAP lookup and recover the registrant email first; everything else follows from it.
Fifteen minutes of DNS housekeeping
- Confirm the registrant is your company, at your registered address, using a monitored company email address.
- Turn on auto-renew and two-factor authentication at the registrar, and check the payment card has not expired.
- Enable the registrar's transfer lock so the domain cannot move without you.
- Export a copy of your DNS zone and store it with your other business records.
- Write down the three roles: registrar, DNS host and web host, with logins kept in a password manager.
- Diarise the renewal date anyway, auto-renew or not.
None of this needs a technical background, just ownership. If you would like a second pair of eyes on your setup, or you are mid-lockout right now, our team sorts out DNS and domain rescues regularly.