Knowledge Base

Domain name management is one of the key elements of protecting your brand in today's digital world. It's no exaggeration to say that your domain is your business. Poor domain management can cause all sorts of problems for your business, including cyber invasion, business impersonation, and loss of sales. In this article, we will discuss what domain management is and why it is important.

Summary:

Cybercriminals exploit weak domain security to lower brand reputation
Domain protection reduces internal risks such as domain registration expiration and external risks such as cyber invasion
A strong brand protection strategy includes domain name management

What is domain management?
Domain management is the process of protecting a domain portfolio from external threats and ensuring that all domains have valid registrations. Domain owners need to be able to renew the registration and access the hosting provider. They also need access to name servers that connect websites to services such as email providers and Google's search performance and advertising tools.

Remember, a domain is not the same as a website. The domain is the name of a website and therefore gives it identity. People can find your website only with a URL with the correct domain name. Think of domain registration as the key that allows customers to access a company's website. Even the most comprehensive website can be taken offline if there is a problem with the domain.

Some businesses may register a wide variety of domain names to prevent competitors or bad actors from forging domain names. It is important to properly manage a portfolio consisting of more than one domain name. If a domain name expires, a reseller can buy it and charge the business a high fee to get it back.

Domain name management isn't always the most pressing issue on business leaders' minds, as domain names must be renewed annually. However, if a company's debit card changes or an IT person leaves and forgets to share the domain name registrar's credentials, it's easy for a domain name to expire.

Businesses can protect their domain names from falling into the wrong hands by proactively renewing them. However, there is another part of domain protection: monitoring the web for external threats.

Why is domain name protection important?
Your domain name is the center of your web presence. Without proper domain protection, any successful business can be at risk of phishing and cyber-invasion. Phishing websites may use a variation of your domain name to entice unsuspecting consumers to provide their personal information. Bad actors can even spoof your email addresses to fool customers.

Cybersquatters will register domain names similar to yours in the hope of making a profit by selling them back to you. Or fake sellers can set up their own webshops based on variations of your domain name.

To avoid the problem, you can register other public top-level domains (gTLDs) with your main website and point them to your primary domain. For example, in addition to registering YourCompany.com, you can also register yourCompany.net, YourCompany.biz, and YourCompany.org domains. You can also register domains based on common misspellings or mispronunciations. Finally, you should also consider registering regional domain names (TDLs) such as YourCompany.es, YourCompany.de, YourCompany.fr.

Even when taking this precaution, it may not be possible to pre-purchase all domain names that may be relevant to your business. Therefore, a monitoring system is required. A domain monitoring tool can tell you that someone has registered a fake domain.

For example, you can figure out if someone bought YourCompany-Deals.com, and then research and find out if they're holding property, redirecting traffic to their site, or running a fake site.

What is domain privacy protection?
Domain privacy protection is a subset of domain protection. When you register a domain address, you must provide contact information for you or your organization, such as legal name, address, phone number, and email address. The logger's information is entered into a public Whois database, and savvy internet users can look it up.

Domain privacy protection is an optional service that hides business and personal information. When someone looks at your domain's listing in the Whois directory, they'll see a notification that the information is protected by a privacy service. They will not be able to find their contact information. Whether you want to add privacy protection to your domain is up to you. It can provide extra security against spam, data theft and privacy threats.

How to brand a domain name
Some domain names can be trademarked and some cannot. A trademarked domain to enforce your brand name and prevent others from using the relevant domains

You don't need a name, but a trademarked domain name can help improve your implementation efforts.

A trademark is a symbol or name that distinguishes a company from its competitors. For example, public domain names like CheapShoes.com are not unique enough to be trademarked. In general, if your brand name is a trademark and you use your brand name as a domain name, you can brand the domain name. Interestingly, Hotels.com lost a trademark suit because the domain name was too generic.

Here's how to trademark a domain name in the United States:

Search the USPTO trademark database to ensure that your trademark does not conflict with existing marks
Submit an online application with the USPTO. You don't need a lawyer, but it can be helpful to have.
Expect a response, which can take about four months. If the application is approved, the trademark registration will be counted from the date of the first application.
You will need to renew the trademark registration every ten years.

Why does a strong Brand Protection strategy involve domain management?
Today, a domain name is just as important as the business name itself. Your domain name builds your brand online and you don't want to lose your reputation or your customers to bad actors who take advantage of it. As more businesses set up shop online, cybercriminals look for weak domain security to take advantage of.

Any strong brand protection strategy, whether you have a trademarked domain or not, should include domain name management. A good strategy can help your domains run smoothly and online, and that means your customers will trust your website. Brand protection includes combating counterfeit products, unauthorized vendors, and piracy, and these efforts are made easier when domain names are secure.

At Red Points, we offer a wide range of services to help keep your brand safe. Our domain management service identifies and applies all registered domain names that violate your trademark so that you can always protect the integrity of your brand.