Results
- grmelectricinc.com recovered and secured in the client's name
- Recovery cost far less than rebranding everything built around the domain
- Branded coming soon page live in under 48 hours from first contact
- Full site built on private staging while the public page stays up
The situation
GRM Electric Inc is a west-side Rochester electrician serving Greece, Gates, Spencerport, and nearby towns. When the business changed hands, the company domain should have come with it. It had expired instead, and someone else had bought it without the owner's knowledge. The only web presence left was a Facebook page. For a trade business, that means customers searching for an electrician find nothing official.
Why not just pick a new domain?
grmelectricinc.com is part of the GRM logo, so it was on everything the business owns. A new domain would have meant changing all of it. Recovering the original cost far less than a rebrand.
What we did first
- Recovered grmelectricinc.com and secured it in an account the client controls.
- Set up hosting and SSL.
- Published a branded coming soon page with the essentials: services, service area, hours (Monday to Friday, 9 to 5), and how to call.
Time from first contact to a live page: under 48 hours.
What is next
The full site, an $800 build with home, services, about, and contact pages, is being built and reviewed on a private staging environment while the public sees the coming soon page. The client can approve content without a half-finished site being public.
Why it matters
Owning your domain is owning your front door. If you are buying or selling a business, put the domain name, the registrar login, and the email accounts on the purchase checklist, right next to the equipment and the customer list. And check the expiration date.
Read the full story and a checklist in Bought a business and the domain didn't come with it?, or see website development.
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