When launching a new brand name or campaign, as a business it sometimes can be difficult to determine which TLDs are important for that specific brand or campaign. Here are a few recommendations we believe every business should consider when registering domains in order to maximise value and reduce risk.
Consider the commonly used TLDs as part of your strategy
Aside from .com.au for most Australian companies, its important you also consider .com, .net, .biz, .org & .info. These are common gTLDs that companies should register across to mitigate risk against domain infringements. The .co domain space (which is the country code for Columbia) is also one to consider as it can be seen as a typo or alternative for .com.
Review your local presence strategy
Consider registering domain names in the countries you currently operate in, and markets that you plan to enter. For example, if you have presence in New Zealand or perhaps presence in Asia such as Singapore or Malaysia, its beneficial to register domains for these countries TLDs to avoid any issues with cyber squatters or brand abuse. It will save the business time and money down the track.
Typos
we strongly recommend reviewing variants of your new brand or campaign. These include misspells, typos and hyphenated versions. This is considered important in a bid to cover any potential risk of cybersquatting or brand abuse. In recent years, we have seen companies ignore common typos only to then come across domains that have typos infringing on their brand. The minimal cost to register these typos will outweigh the burden of time and money later down the track if your brand is infringed upon.
New gTLDs
Its important to also consider some of the new extensions which might be specific to your new brand/campaign. For example, if you are a real estate company and launching a new campaign, you might want to consider .property and .realestate as part of your overall domain registration strategy. Or you might be a software company launching a new product and may want to consider registering across .software and .solutions. There may be requirements to register across some of these new gTLDs but its still important to review to ensure there is no risk from potential cybersquatting.
At brandsec, we can provide you with a detailed recommendation and analysis on which TLDs to register in order to optimise your domain portfolio. Contact us for more information on how we can help assist your business with your online brand assets.
About brandsec
Brandsec is a corporate domain name management and brand protection company that look after many of Australia, New Zealand and Asia’s top publicly listed brands. We provide monitoring and enforcement services, DNS, SSL Management, domain name brokerage and dispute management and brand security consultation services.
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