The most obvious way is to keep it…but let’s not simplify the situation too much. In most cases your domain is something you rent. You pay a fee and the domain name becomes yours, but then after a while, this agreement to allow you to have that domain name expires, a bit like renting a house.
Rent or pay for the domain name
This is when you have to either give up the domain name, or pay the fee again to keep the domain for another set period of time. If you do this then you can keep your domain name for as long as you wish; all you need to do is to keep paying the renewal fee.
Most terms will last a year or two, but depending upon where you bought your domain from, you may be able to rent your domain for a lot longer. Sometimes you are allowed to keep the same domain name for five to ten years if you wish.
There are other ways in which you may lose your domain name or have it damaged, and even though we do not want to write an essay about all the different ways, we have included a few reasons on this article on how to protect a domain name.
One that often comes out of left field is the fact that people may lose their domain name because they abandon it. Sometimes a domain name is so damaged (via reputation, search indexing, etc.) that the rental owner will simply stop using it, and not bother to renew it when its term expires.
Innocent mistakes with the domain name
Sometimes this happens for what seem like really innocent reasons. One of them is because someone else has used a name like yours and has damaged its reputation–to the point where people now think you are they. Let’s say for example that you have a website called “popularsecret.co.uk” and you sell something innocent such as cartoons. Then there is someone else who sets up a similar site but ends it with “.com”, (not co.uk).
The .com people may take advantage of the first person’s advertising efforts in the knowledge that some people will type in “.com” at the end by accident and land on their page. All the “.com” people have to do is damage the “popularsecret” reputation, and that stain will carry though to any domain name of the same name (.org, .net, etc.). Worse still it may even damage the reputation of similar domain names such as “thepopularsecret.” People will see the popular secret side of it and figure that it is the same company operating the site. In this case, the website owner may simply scrap his/her efforts on the domain name and start fresh elsewhere.
Buy more domain names
To avoid something like this happening to you, you should buy both “.com” and “.co.uk”. It is also a good idea to buy “.net” and “.org” if you have the money. Not only does it stop people setting up a similar website with a similar name, it also helps to redirect lost traffic. Many people may remember your domain name, but few are going to remember if it was “.com” or “.co.uk.” All you need to do is buy both, then set your site up on one of them, and have it automatically redirect from the other. That way, if someone types in the wrong version they will still end up on your site.
Avoid black-hat SEO techniques
If you would like to protect your domain name from being punished by a search engine you should avoid using any black-hat SEO techniques to get your site listed higher in search engine results. If you use black-hat SEO, you will eventually be caught and black listed.
This means that you will not gain organic traffic via that particular search engine anymore. You will also be disallowed the ability to use their affiliate (PPC) program. If you wish to protect your domain name then avoiding black-hat SEO such as keyword stuffing and spammy back-links will go a long way to making sure your domain is still listed on the bigger search engines.