Read more: what to do when your website expires.
What we found. Across the 28,046-site study, 1,579 sites (5.6%) had lapsed domains where the URL still resolved to a parking page.
Day 0: the domain expires
Your site stops loading. Your email stops delivering. Anything that depended on the domain — your booking page, your contact form, your invoices — stops working. The DNS still resolves for a few weeks, but it points to a parking page, not your real site.
Day 1 to 30: the grace period
You can still renew at the registrar for the original price. After day 30, the price goes up. If you renew during this window, your site, your email, and your Google ranking come back exactly as they were.
Day 31 to 60: redemption
You can still get the domain back, but the registrar charges a redemption fee on top of the renewal. Email is gone. The Google ranking starts to drop because the page is not your page.
Day 61 to 90: the domain goes back on the open market
Anyone can register it. If you want the same name, you are now competing with people who will buy it the moment it drops, sometimes within milliseconds. Most owners find out at this point because somebody else has bought it.
Questions we get about this
How do I know my domain is about to expire?
Your registrar emails you 30 days out and again 7 days out. The reason people get caught is that those emails go to an address on the same domain that is about to expire, and that address is no longer receiving.
Can someone else buy my domain while I am in the grace period?
No. The grace period is for you only. The domain cannot be sold to anyone else during that window.
If I lose the domain, can I get it back?
Sometimes. See the page on what to do if someone has taken your domain.
Ready to what happens when your domain name expires?
Email shoaib@localsiteshop.com and tell us about the site. We will reply same day with a fixed quote and a date.
Email usOr first, run your site through the free checker and see the verdict in 10 seconds.