Domain management (1): The ideal domain portfolio for companies

Nowadays, having your own domain name is a matter of course for every company. However, it is often necessary to cover brand names and foreign markets in addition to the main domain in the home country. In the first episode of our series on domain management, we provide practical domain name tips for putting together an optimal domain portfolio.

The second part deals with effective domain management in companies.

Nowadays, a newly founded company or start-up often faces the problem that the majority of attractive domain names with the most popular domain extensions are already taken. But if you were smart, you might even have chosen your company or brand name based on the fact that the corresponding domain for the desired extension was still available.

Tip: Do not link domain administration with web space

In the start-up phase of a company, everything often has to happen very quickly. In this phase, people often opt for a low-cost web hosting package that also includes one or more domain name registrations. However, you should not use these domain registrations for your most important main domains. It is often difficult to remove the domain from the package at a later date (e.g. when a hosting move is imminent).

Always register your central domain names with your hoster or a specialized registrar independently of a web hosting package.

Which domain ending (= top-level domain, or abbreviated TLD) is aimed for should be decided primarily according to the target group. Internationally oriented companies can decide for a worldwide used TLD like .com or .net. If the field of activity is limited to Europe or Germany, .de or .eu domains are more suitable. Ambitious founders cover other countries besides these obvious TLDs, into which they want to expand later on.

With most domain registrars, which assign and administer domains for end customers, it can be checked in advance whether the desired domain name is still available for the desired destination. In the case of more exotic TLDs, the corresponding main registrar can be determined via the official IANA list for an availability query.

If the desired names for all known endings are already taken, the new generic Top-Level-Domains (gTLD) like .info, .web or .store offer themselves as an alternative. Here, however, it is not worthwhile to select more than one or two ideally matching endings.

Tip for newcomers: Limit yourself to a few domains at the beginning. Prefer established top-level extensions.

The quality of a domain name is primarily measured by its memorability. For direct entries in the browser window, the shorter the better, of course. In addition, the ideal domain name should be easy and unambiguous to spell on the phone. For complicated company names, think about a catchy abbreviation that you can also use for social media profiles, for example. The main brand name can also make sense as a domain name for the entire company.

If a name combination is now only available in a complicated spelling (e.g. with hyphens), it should be checked as a precaution what is hidden behind the same domain without a hyphen. Otherwise, potential customers may experience unpleasant surprises there. The same applies to umlaut domains. In the meantime, it is possible to register domains with special characters, but many users still tend to unconsciously and automatically dissolve umlauts in domain names. Therefore, we rather recommend domain names without umlauts. More arguments against umlaut domains can be found here.

Fortunately, less and less domain addresses are entered directly. Mostly, only a company or brand name is entered as a search word in the browser address line and the correct domain is then accessed via the search engines.

Therefore, this factor is no longer as important as it used to be when choosing a domain name.

If the desired domain is already taken in all TLDs, you can try your luck again at domain trading exchanges like Sedo. In exceptional cases, a direct purchase offer to the owner of an obviously unused domain can also help.

Before starting price negotiations, it makes sense to check whether the domain is a "burnt domain" that has been penalized by search engines for spamming in the past. There are ways out of a penalty, but they cost time and effort. Therefore, a penalty should definitely be taken into account when pricing a domain.

Unfortunately, suing for a domain is usually not very promising. Trademark law may possibly help to suppress unwelcome content on a domain held by a third party by means of injunctive relief, but it does not automatically mean that the domain can also be taken over by the owner of a trademark. This approach therefore only promises success in exceptional cases.

Short answer: No.

More detailed answer: For a long time, keyword domains - or more precisely, "exact match domains" (EMD) - were considered the royal road to ranking for a desired search phrase. However, this effect has recently been significantly weakened by some Google algorithm changes.

Nevertheless, such domains are still traded at high prices. For companies that have a strong brand or invest in brand building, the price-performance ratio is often no longer right. The required resources should rather be put into content-related work and the strengthening of the own main domain.

The own main domain will also rank for the desired search phrase if there is enough high-quality content on the topic. Topic sites will then ideally benefit from the higher authority of a corporate domain compared to a simple keyword domain.

Further aspects to the domain portfolio with regard to search engine optimization are highlighted in this detailed article at Ryte.com.

For established companies, in addition to the company name, the brand names of the most important products or services are often covered in different countries. In doing so, a large number of domains comes together very quickly, which ideally has already been held for a longer period of time.

The main goal is to keep the domains available in case there should be a locally adapted version of the company or brand presence at a later date. In addition, the domain is prevented from being taken over by unfair competitors.

New country code TLDs can always be added additionally, if the central registry/NIC decides to relax a previously strictly regulated domain allocation.

Nevertheless, for some more exotic country-code endings it is still necessary to have a local contact or an internationally valid trademark entry. For these problem domains it is in any case helpful to engage a registrar who is a member of the respective responsible TLD registry. Some registrars offer a trustee service as an additional service, if local contacts are required.

For complicated TLD cases, we are happy to recommend our long-standing registrar, ingenit GmbH & Co. KG. (This is not an affiliate link, as it is a genuine recommendation 😉)

When changing the business concept or abandoning brand names, it may make sense to reduce the existing domain portfolio.

Neutral keyword domains can be offered in domain exchanges without any problems and may even bring in a small profit.

Brand names and company names that are no longer needed can be placed on the registrar's "close list". This way, at least no additional costs are incurred for these domains anymore. If an immediate closure of the domain is necessary for trademark reasons, an additional fee is often due.

Be careful when abandoning actively used domains!

Tip: We strongly advise against releasing previously actively used domains sight unseen. Some providers have specialized in buying up domains that become free and publishing rather unpleasant content on them, which can then possibly lead to disturbance among visitors with old bookmark entries.

The background to this practice is, of course, that the original owner often wants to buy the domain back (at a high price). It should therefore always be checked beforehand whether customers or employees are still actively using the domain name.

The second episode of our article series deals with effective domain management in companies.