Closing website

Just let the domain expire?

[jack38]

I am closing down a website and am wondering if there is anything else I should take care of. I guess the domain will expire when the time comes. Anything else come to mind?

[fabricator]

Delete all the pages off the server, that way google et all will remove it from the search results, and hence any fake domain camping site won't make money from the hits.

Any do a search for any sites that link to yours and ask them to remove the links.

[Realbrisk]

why dont you try to sell the domain name

[Staffa]

Email address.

If you used an email address with that domain make sure to change it wherever you want to keep receiving mail from.

[Marshall]

IMHO, don't let the domain expire. Keep ownership. I made the mistake of not doing that once and later decided to re-launch the web site and found that someone bought the name and wanted an outrageous sum for it. My loss. You could also consider putting up just one page with "This domain name for sale. Contact ...." if you are sure you are not going to use the name again.

Marshall

[MatthewHSE]

Keeping the domain name also removes any possibility of a - ahem - "adult" site from getting it and shocking visitors who meant to visit you.

[piatkow]

Leaving the site in place means that people will see out of date information which could reflect badly on you. My own preference as somebody who might follow a link would be a positive "closed" message.

[onlineleben]

remove content from site as described above and add a mesage that the business is closed.
Keep the domain alive for some time (1 or 2 years) to manage incoming emails.

[Rosalind]

I guess the domain will expire when the time comes

Not always, some hosts will renew automatically unless you instruct them otherwise.

Do you want the content indexed indefinitely in the Internet Archive? If not you need to put something up while it's live that bans the IA Archiver bot. There are people who will re-appropriate the content of expired domains using this resource, assuming that no-one will bother to pursue them for copyright infringement.

Finally, webmasters and directory editors often appreciate being informed of dead links.

[lorax]

>> keep domain name

Absolutely keep the domain name. Even if you have no plans now (you could always park and monetize it) you may think of something later. It's an investment - don't give it up.