Can My Domain Name Be My Company Name?

A domain name represents everything that a website entails. Therefore, if you plan to display a website for your company, you should register your company name. You should also register domain names for your products and services. This is very important because people searching for your company, product, or service want to be able to locate your website easily.

For example, if your company name is 123Company and you sell 123Product and 123Service. You should register each of those domain names. Therefore, you would register www.123company.com, www.123product.com, and www.123service.com. The product and the service domain names should then be linked to the company homepage. This ensures that you maximize sales. You would not want to miss potential customers who could not find your website. No matter how an individual recognizes you - whether it is by company name, product, or service – they will always be able to find your website. If you have a small business, you may want to register your personal name as a domain name, also.

Another thing to consider is purchasing variations of your company, product, or service domain name. You’re probably asking why you would ever do such a thing. There are three reasons. The first reason why you should do this is because people often misspell domain names. They also might include dashes in the domain name. They might be searching for your site and accidentally type www.123compeny.com or www.123-company.com. These websites would take them to some random place not affiliated with your website if you do not purchase them. Another reason is that there are cyber squatters who purposefully register variations of your domain name in an attempt to hijack your web traffic. If you preemptively purchase these variations and reroute them to your website, you can avoid losing customers. If you do not purchase them, you may feel repercussions in the future. You may be forced to sue the cyber squatters or try to by the domain name from them.

If you think that cyber squatting is not a big deal, consider what happened to this company name. The popular game Candy Land is owned by the Hasbro Company. They soon discovered that an adult entertainment provider had hijacked the domain name www.candyland.com. Imagine the havoc this scheme wrecked on their brand image and brand value. Young, Internet-savvy kids in search of a family-friendly board game were exposed to adult material. Fortunately, Hasbro gained control of the company domain name, but not after weeks of litigation.

Registering your company name and its variations may seem like an unnecessary expense. But, you should consider it an investment in the image and reputation of your product, your company, and yourself.