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Domain Registration Strategy

Domain Registration Strategy

Do you have a domain registration strategy? Its easier than you think.

Nowadays, maintaining the integrity a company's web presence can be vital. However, domain names are often an overlooked element in many companies' online strategy. In most cases, businesses don't even consider defensive domain registration until its too late.

In general, a small to medium sized business with an incorporated name, trademark, and a major product should have 20 to 30 domain names. As the number of business names, trademarks, and products increases, so should the number of domain names owned by that company.

 

The FastWebServer.com Domain Registration Strategy Guide

Below are some tips that will help you develop an effective domain registration strategy for your business. To help illustrate these ideas, we will use our example of Jim's new company "JK Industrial Widgets Ltd.". Jim has decided to use the domain name "jkwidgets.ca" for the main domain name of his website.

Defensive Domain Registration Strategy

  • Always register the official business name, even if that isn't going to be the main domain for your website.

    ex: Jim registers the domain names: "jkindustrialwidgets.ca", "jkindustrialwidgetsltd.ca", and "jkindustrialwidgetslimited.ca"

  • Register any generic names that are similar to your products or your company name. Be sure to include names with the specific region you are located in or focusing upon.

    ex: Jim, has an office in Toronto and a Factory in Sudbury so he registers: "industrialwidgets.ca", "industrialwidgetstoronto.ca", "industrialwidgetssudbury.ca", "widgetdistributiontoronto.ca", ... etc.

  • Register any all product names, trademarks, or other distinctive names related to your business.

    ex: Jim's company has invented the patented "WidgetWizard" widget counting machine. So Jim decides to register "widgetwizard.ca" and "widgetwiz.ca".

  • Register any and all acronyms, abbreviations, and short-forms of your company name, trademark, or product.

    ex: Jim registers "jkiw.ca" and "jkiwl.ca" for his company name, and "ww.ca" for his WidgetWizard product.

  • Register common misspellings and typos.

    ex:
    When typing out his company name, Jim notices that he often mixes up the "dg" part of the word "widget", instead spelling it "wigdet". He figures other people might also make this mistake so he registers "jkindustrialwigdets.ca" and "wigdetwizard.ca".

  • Don't forget about .com, .net, .org, .biz and the other domain extensions.

    ex:
    Jim definitely wants some .com names since that is the most widely used GTLD in the world, and some .biz names so he registers: "jkwidgets.com", "jkindustrialwidgets.com", "widgetwizard.biz", and "jkwidets.biz".

    Jim's company isn't really an organization, so he isn't worried about getting the .org name. However, he plans to create an online forum for the Widget industry to help connect suppliers to sellers. Therefore, he registers "jkwidgets.net" and "industrialwidgets.info"

    (In fact, if you register any domain name, you should also register as many other GTLD versions of that name as you can. So Jim should register .com, .net, .org, .biz, etc. versions of all of the domains he registers).

If you have any questions about how to develop your domain registration strategy, please feel free to contact us.

 

4 Great Reasons to Develop a Domain Registration Strategy
  A good domain name can drive traffic to your website more effectively than many other forms of advertising - at a fraction of the cost.
  Domain names are often related to new ideas. If you or your company has a novel idea, register the domain name to lay claim to that idea as "yours".
  A "Parasitic" website with a domain name similar to a legitimate one can steal its traffic, mislead customers, misrepresent the company, or attempt any number of fraudulent actions.
  Domain prospectors often register a domain name for the sole purpose of selling it to the highest bidder. If you miss out on registering a domain name for your business, it may be very costly to secure that domain in the future.

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