How to Protect Your Web Domain?

Captivating and valuable domain names are hard to come by these days. There are millions of web domains registered and the short, easy-to-recall domain names are practically all taken. So are common domain names like cars.com and corporate names like sprite.com.

People often must resort to using web domains like i-cant-find-a-simple-domain-name.com. A web domain like that is not likely to garner any internet traffic at all. It’s too hard to remember, too long, and too difficult to type into a browser. It’s essentially worthless. No one is going to remember that web domain. If they do, they won’t visit the website because they won’t want to type in a long internet address. These facts make simple, memorable web domains all the more significant.

Recognizable domain names receive a great deal of internet traffic. This traffic translates into lots of dollar bills when you consider paid advertisements, internet purchases, and other financial factors. Valuable domain names must be protected, because there are unscrupulous individuals who try to profit from a registered web domain.

Web domains can be violated in several ways. The first way is by registering a domain name that is very similar to a well-known domain name. An individual might also register a commonly misspelled version of a recognized domain. For example, someone might be trying to reach the McDonald’s corporate website. If he enters www.macdonalds.com, the registrant of that website is essentially stealing internet traffic from www.mcdonalds.com (the correct web domain). Another tactic is to create a site that sells products similar to that of a renowned company. This is a problem when an unauthorized or unlicensed person sells artifacts bearing that company’s logo or a logo very similar.

A very crooked scheme called cyber-squatting has risen in popularity in the past several years. Cyber-squatters purposely register the web domain of a well-known company for the purpose of selling it back to the company for a profit. People could gain thousands, even millions, from cyber-squatting. Fortunately, this practice has dramatically slowed due to the introduction of the anti-cyber-squatting laws. Laws protects trademarked companies from cyber-squatters and web domain hijackers.

With so many ways to steal a domain name, how do you protect yourself from prying eyes and sticky fingers? There are several preventative measures that you can take as well as post-incident procedures if your web domain is hijacked.

Very effortless, but vital tasks like protecting your registry information with a password should occur. Also, read all web domain related emails from your registrar very carefully. They may contain information about registry expiration or other important details. If you ignore these emails, web domain ownership could slip right out from under you. If you are serious about your website, you should renew registration early. You should also purchase variations of your web domain using all possible top-level domain extensions. The most common extensions are .com, .net, .info, and .org.

More active measures should be taken also. Every month or two, check your domain name and variations of the web domain in the WHOIS database. Confirm that your registrant and administrative contact information is correct. If it is not, alert your registrar and have the information corrected.