Keep your brand afloat in a sea of domain name pirates…
To state the obvious, the internet has changed massively over the past ten years. The majority of people in Britain use the web on a regular basis, whether to shop, sell or socialise. This huge shift in consumer behaviour has seen a shift in attitude for many business owners, many of which now depend on web-generated revenue as their main source of income.
The growth in the number of ecommerce websites on the web is vast. No longer limited to a primarily local audience, smaller enterprises are now playing ball in the global market, shipping their products all over the world from a tiny little warehouse in Ottley. Some businesses are bypassing a physical shop altogether, and spending their money on developing their website and improving their rankings in the search engines.
What’s unfortunate is that as the internet business society grows, the competition for brand recognition gets fiercer, and some companies are risking losing their identity all together.
At the beginning of March this year, Nominet announced their 10 millionth .co.uk domain name registration, further highlighting the demand for much coveted web space. Many businesses that are new to world of ecommerce have had great difficulty in securing a domain name that reflects their brand.
Cybersquatting refers to internet pirates who scour the web for a desired domain, then sell it on for a huge chunk of profit – if they sell it at all. This practise makes it increasingly difficult for business owners to gain access to what many believe should be their property, and is causing an increasing number of problems as the web grows.
Some companies, like UK based Domaincheck, are advising companies to register their domain name before they even register their business at Company’s House, in order to secure their place in the dot com bubble. Thankfully, with .co.uk domain names from just £8.99 bi-annually, you’ll hardly be breaking the bank. Advice to start-ups is also to register multiple domain names, such as the .com or .co version, in order to avoid dispute when your business gets bigger. Many companies register around 12-15 domain names just for security reasons, to protect their brand from cybersquatters.
Companies that reserve domain names, also known as ‘parking’, can apply re-directs or traffic building sites to the unused domains, further helping improve their online presence.
Companies like Domaincheck are designed to help businesses gain a presence on the web, and even offer hosting services from just £1.60 per month, including mailbox facilities. Don’t let your brand be washed away, and register your domain names today.
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