When it comes to establishing and building a strong online brand, many companies often overlook the strategic management of their domain portfolios. However, centralising and actively managing your domain portfolio is essential in helping your brand establish and maintain its online presence.
Let’s discuss the strategic importance of centralising to one managed domain portfolio and how they can help your brand overcome domain attacks and achieve growth and success. Effective domain portfolio management is important for unlocking and safeguarding your brand online, whether you're launching a new product or representing a large corporation.
As a brand with an online presence, you have created an image that sets you apart from competitors; therefore, managing and consolidating your domain portfolio effectively is an essential strategy you must adopt. Transferring and registering new domains into your portfolio that align with your brand will give you control to reinforce your brand identity and increase brand recognition. Apple is an excellent example of owning many domains, including Apple.com, AppleTV.com, and AppleMusic.com. Each domain is consistent with the brand, making it easy for customers to find the products and services, reinforcing Apple's brand identity and recognition. By adopting this strategy, you, as a brand, can ensure that you control your image and protect it from brand misuse.
It's no secret that cybersquatting is a destructive online practice that can harm your brand's reputation. This malicious tactic involves registering domain names that resemble established brand names to exploit brand recognition, deceive customers, or attempt to resell the domain to the brand at a high price. Cyber squatters can cause customers confusion and loss of trust, redirecting a brand's web traffic and ultimately hurting your brand's online presence and profitability.
This adds more weight to why active domain portfolio management is critical to protecting any brand looking to establish or maintain a robust and secure online presence. By keeping track of all registered domains, you can control which domains are associated with your image, preventing malicious sites and content from being created by cybersquatters and posing as your brand.
Having a well-managed domain portfolio also allows you to quickly expand into new areas of business or new geographical territories. You can target specific audience segments or regions using strategic domain name registration, facilitating growth using country-coded Top-level Domains(ccTLD), Generic Top-level domains (gTLDs) or new Top-Level Domains (nTLDs).
Let's briefly review the definitions:
ccTLD - A ccTLD, or Country Code Top-Level Domain, represents a distinct class of top-level domains corresponding to specific nations. For instance, .uk and .in are ccTLDs associated with the United Kingdom and India, respectively.
Google has smartly localised their services for different countries by registering ccTLDs. For example, "google.de" for Germany, "google.fr" for France, "google.co.in" for India, etc. This strategy is for search engines and services they offer, such as Google Maps, Google News, and Google Play. Localising domains in such a way shows respect for local customers, meets legal requirements in some countries, and serves geo-specific content, which can significantly improve user experience.
gTLD - A gTLD, or Generic Top-Level Domain, refers to a category of domain names not linked to any particular country and available globally. Common gTLDs include .com, .net, .org, .biz, and others. But note some ccTLDs are reclassified as gTLDs due to popularity such as .AI
Google demonstrates an example of this. The brand operates primarily under the ".com" gTLD, globally recognised and widely regarded as authoritative for international and reputable entities. However, they also strategically use other gTLDs like ".app" for Google's mobile application development platform (Google Play), ".dev" for developer resources, and ".ai" for their artificial intelligence projects, among others. These domain extensions are purposeful and relevant to their specific business sectors.
nTLD – a nTLD for New Top-Level Domain, categorises a group of top-level domains. These domains are globally available for registration, presenting brand owners with new custom choices. For example, .online, .tech, .site, .store. This helps categorise companies into specific sectors in which they operate.
Global giants such as BMW, Barclays, Canon and more are already leveraging branded nTLDs, for example, BMW - drive.bmw, Barclays – home.barclaycard, Canon (global.canon) Many firms employ nTLDs in-house to reinforce their defences against potential phishing assaults by redirecting registered domains. Also, employees can instantly trust any email received with that extension and be more cautious of other emails. But note there aren't just branded nTLDs; there are also specific sector ones—for example, .loans (home.loans), .rentals (vacation.rentals), .community (Github redirects github.community). Click here for a complete list.
As you can see, having an active domain management strategy will enhance your brand identity, offer protection against cybersquatting, improve your SEO, and support your brand growth and expansion. Most importantly, centralising your domain extensions in one place will safeguard them against potential domain-related loss or oversight, saving your business thousands in revenue.
Undeniably, a well-crafted domain portfolio strategy and proficient management are essential to any brand's digital success. Moreover, engaging in consistent actions and adopting practical measures to maintain and optimise this vital aspect is key. Working closely with a single knowledgeable registrar is extremely valuable in meeting your brand goals. We present a strategy for your reference to review and consolidate your brand domain portfolio to get you started.
An accurately planned and executed domain portfolio strategy and revisions are fundamental for maximising your brand's digital presence. From setting clear objectives and auditing your existing domains to strategically acquiring, managing, and monitoring your domain portfolio, each step plays a pivotal role in achieving your brand's ultimate success.
Download our comprehensive domain portfolio management checklist; this will help you with a proactive approach to your online branding and digital assets
Remember: Domain portfolio management is an ongoing process that requires adaptation and continuous improvement, and maintaining a proactive stance in your domain management efforts will ensure your brand image is in control and protected. By partnering with us, a reliable domain registrar with over 20 years of industry experience, we will provide valuable guidance and support throughout this process.
Adhering to the preceding strategy and checklist will enable you to create, maintain, and elevate a domain portfolio that actively delivers tangible outcomes and supports your brand's long-term digital goals.
Ready to dive in? Contact our experts now to get a personalised strategy tailored to your brand. Together, we'll design a custom domain portfolio strategy that accelerates your digital success and unlocks new opportunities.
Rahim Haji
Principal Cyber Security Consultant
We can customise a solution to fit your business needs.
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