Blog

Read Time: 12 minutes

Table of Contents

1. What are the common causes of brand domain name loss?
2. Expiration of domain name
3. Outdated or inaccurate registrar contact information
4. How to prevent domain theft from happening to you?
5. Tips on avoiding buying stolen domain names
6. How to recover stolen or hijacked brand domain names?
7. What is the threat landscape?
8. Conclusion

Your brand domain name has become your business’ most valuable asset. Now imagine someone with whom you are in dispute, such as a business competitor, website developer, marketer, or an ex-employee, has redirected or hijacked your website by gaining control over your brand domain name. This is the worst thing that can happen to you and your business. After all, brand domain names are more than just web addresses. They are the reflection of the brand’s identity. So, whether you own one domain name or multiple ones, have been using it for years, or just acquired it, you should be obviously sure to protect it.

If you don’t do so, you are highly vulnerable to losing your brand domain names to illegal activities, fraud, or oversight. Yes, unfortunately, all these situations are possible. Hence, you need to be vigilant when it comes to the security of your brand domain name.

With that in mind, in this post, we will be exploring different aspects of how you can secure brand domain names and will tell you about the necessary measures you must take.

Let’s get started.

What are the common causes of brand domain name loss?

There are several reasons why you lost your brand domain name, with the most common ones being:

As we discussed earlier, domain name theft is the most common cause. However, failing to renew the domain name or providing inaccurate contact information to the registrar is also most common.

Let’s discuss each of the causes in detail.

The common causes of brand domain name loss

Expiration of domain name

Like your car insurance, brand domain names get expired too after a certain period. When you are registering for a particular domain name, you secure ownership of that domain for a defined period (mostly 365 days). Year after year, you renew the ownership over the domain name before it reaches the end of its registration term.

One of the worst things you can do to your business is to let your domain name expire. Don’t forget the debacle of 2010 when professional American football team Dallas Cowboys overlooked to renew its domain name that led to other miss-happenings or in 1999, when Microsoft forgot to renew two of its major domain names, causing Hotmail to be impossible to reach for many users.

This can happen to anyone. It is not like that you deliberately chose not to renew the domain. Since the renewal period is due every once a year, you may fail to realize the domain has expired. To overcome this dilemma:

• Ensure that your domain name registrar’s email isn’t in your Spam folder. It often happens that when you are using a spam filtering service, updates and renewal notices from the registrar are sent directly to the Junk or Spam folder. So, you need to filter out the important email addresses, especially your registrar’s.
• Make sure that your contact information, especially your email address, is up-to-date. Most domain name expirations happen to owe to the failure to receive renewal notices. If your email address is out of date or you have changed your email address and informed the same to your registrar, you will not receive any updates or notifications from the registrar.
• The best way to overcome this issue is to regulate the domain name auto-renewal. If your domain name registrar offers this service, then you don’t have to worry about anything. The registrar will execute auto-renewal just before your domain expires.
• If your brand domain names are valuable to your business, renew them early and for a longer period. Domain name ownership lasts based on the package you have bought. You can opt for a 5-year plan, but it can be expensive. Renewing your domains for a longer period means you can focus on your business without worrying about your domains getting expired.
• You need to keep track of your domain name renewal date. And in case, if you own multiple domain names, check with your registrar whether or not they offer domain consolidation features. Consolidating your domain names means you will have all your domains and expiration dates placed inside a master account with a single dashboard. This ultimately means that you can access all your domain names at once.

Outdated or inaccurate registrar contact information

You need to understand that registrars don’t send out notifications and renewal notices via postal mail. When you are registering for a domain name, you will be asked to provide your valid email address.

• When providing your contact information, ensure that everything is up-to-date. Give the permanent email address that you use on a daily basis. And refrain from using free-service emails that expire if you don’t use them regularly.
• You need to keep your domain account billing information accurate. It is because if you use the auto-renewal feature, you need to provide the right payment information so that the registrar can renew your domain from your bank. If you change the payment mode, say to credit card, update the details as soon as possible.
• Your domain name registrar will use your contact information. Not only to send account summaries or renewal notices but will also use it for account management features like sending forgotten passwords, account verification, new deals and offers, and more.

Domain Name theft

Brand domain names are always vulnerable to hijacking or getting stolen. Domain theft, also known as domain stealing, is criminal activity on the internet.

It includes transferring domain names illegally to another domain registrar without the consent of the owner.

The majority of online businesses rely on their brand domain name. So, when domain theft, your entire business can suffer.

It is always daunting to imagine that your web-based services, including email, have stopped working. While your web hosting technical may say that your web server is working just fine, it can be the DNS that no longer points to your name servers.

It could be your worst nightmare finding that your brand domain now belongs to a new person.

Why did this happen?

You might be thinking how could this happen to you! Well, bluntly speaking, someone hacked you. Your brand domain name was too hot, appealing to many competitors out there. Or someone did it to take revenge, say an ex-employee or partner.

Most often, hackers try to access the email address linked to your brand domain name. Since your email address is publicly available (by fetching a WHOIS query), it is not often protected. If the attackers get access to your email, the first thing they will do is try logging in to your registrar and if you are a fool and have been using the same password for both the services – email address and domain registrar – it won’t take much time for you to lose the ownership of your brand domain name.

Once they access your domain name registrar account, they will unlock the domain name, retrieve the EPP (Extensible Provisioning Protocol) code (also known as transfer secret), and will transfer your domain to another registrar.

How to prevent domain theft from happening to you?

Experts at Brandnic have suggested some tips, or you can say measures you can take to ensure that your brand domain names remain protected from being illegally moved to another registrar.

• You need to leverage two-factor authentication (2FA) on your domain contact email because the hackers will target the email linked to your domain name. This is the email you use for executing every domain related queries, such as changing password, making changes to the domain contact, etc.

A weak password will only make it easy for the domain thieves to hack into your account. So, you need to set a strong password that contains the right mix of characters, followed by activating 2FA protection. This ensures that even if the hacker cracks your email, they can’t log into your inbox. That means you will be immediately alerted about the attempt. Most importantly, only use 2FA protection that is integrated with Google Authenticator.

Preventing domain name from being hacked

• Legacy email providers: Yahoo, Comcast, Verizon, AOL, etc. use ISP-based email addresses that are old and vulnerable email systems. Refrain from using them since they are easy targets for attackers. There have been cases of data leak attacks on these email systems in the past. Always use email systems like Gmail or ProtonMail that have two-factor authentication.
• Unless you have strict and intelligent authentication mechanisms: Such as limited logins by region/country with GeoIP technologies or two-factor authentication, refrain from hosting your email in your own infrastructure. Popular third-party servers like ProtonMail, Business Premium accounts, Office 365, and Google’s G Suite, among others the best platforms for hosting your email.
• Always use a trusted password manager that will allow you to boost security: Password managers can generate complex random password combinations and can also keep all your passwords in a secure place.
• If you receive any suspicious email from your domain registrar: Do not click open the link. Contact the customer service of your domain provider and ask for the details about the email that they have sent to you. It could easily be fake email by the attackers. You have to make sure that the email is legit and isn’t spoofed that will open up a phishing page.
• Attackers know how you think and what you think: They can easily guess the most common security answers you will provide to the default security questions. So, ensure that the answers you provide to the security questions aren’t the real ones. Hackers are smart enough to run intel research on you. So, be creative with your security answers but not authentic. Always generate a random password using a quality password manager because they won’t be able to crack the hard-to-guess password.
• Opt for Domain Privacy: It is a feature that most domain registrars offer to their customers for free or at a small monthly charge. This feature prevents contact details, address, and your name from being made public in WHOIS records.
• Last but not least: You need to be careful about who else is listed in your contact details. Only you or your organization must be listed as the administrative contact and the owner of the domain name, and not your assistant or web developer.

These measures have to be considered if you are the legal owner of the brand domain name. However, this issue also has a different perspective.

Let’s take look at it.

Tips on avoiding buying stolen domain names

What if you were on the other side – say you were a domain name buyer?

You came across a very good deal on a short, simple domain name, say 4-6 characters that you want to purchase.

To read about – how short letter domain name makes a great impact on the audience?

Now, before you purchase the domain name, you would want to find all the necessary details about the individual who is selling the domain. It turns out to be all good – the person you are buying from seems legit, the authentication code has been passed, and now you are the brand new owner of the domain name.

Tips on avoiding buying stolen domain names

But, hours or days later, suddenly, the real owner contacts you stating that he/she is the legitimate owner of the domain brand name you are using and that it was stolen.

What now?… What can you do in this situation? … Well, all you can do is file a dispute with the payment processor used for making transactions to get your money back. It is the wisest thing to do at this time. And most importantly, you would want to give back the brand domain name back to its original owner since using a stolen domain is illegal.

Tips to avoid getting involved in illegal brand domain-selling activities

Consider the following tips to avoid getting deceived by domain thieves:

• First and foremost: You need to determine the trustworthiness of the domain name seller. Perform thorough research about the company or the person who is selling brand domain names. The best way to do this is by asking for opinions on specialized domain forums. You need to determine whether the seller has any trouble with other members of the forum, does the seller have had any suspicious selling activity before, and is their profile trustworthy. You need to keep all these aspects in mind before making your final decision. If you feel suspicious of any of the mentioned factors, immediately take your step back.
• You can take the help of third-party intermediate services: Who are known for handling such cases, like Escrow. Such service providers boast all the necessary tools to help you cope with the problem.
• If you are suspicious but still want to buy that domain, make the transaction using bank transfer. This is because the legal authorities can easily trace the seller in case of any fraud.
• Most importantly: You need to investigate the IP details, DNS changes, nameserver, and WHOIS history of the brand domain name you are about to buy. You need to look for irregularities, especially about the contact details and last update date. If you find anything weird about the domain, don’t go for it before asking the seller about it. If you feel like the domain name address has been changed recently, immediately contact the owner.
• Think twice: If the name you are about to buy has a good 3-4-letter combination, then its price will no surprisingly range from 15-20 thousand dollars. If you are getting it way cheaper than expected, don’t you think it’s suspicious, ask yourself, is it worth wasting time and money? Well, sometimes, the real owner may sell the domain for a cheap rate, but you must dig deep into the owner before making the purchase decision.

How to recover stolen or hijacked brand domain names?

If your domain names have been hijacked or stolen, the first step you should take is to contact your respective domain registrar. Explain the support team about the entire situation. You will have to complete any required paperwork and provide the relevant details about your stolen domains. If the name has already been transferred to another domain registrar (which is probably in some other country), the registrar itself is of no help. Hence, there is no other way to recover your stolen domain than getting legal help.

Recovering by getting legal help

The only entity that can help you in this situation is ICANN – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. It is a non-profit organization that coordinates the procedures and maintenance of numerous databases related to the numerical spaces and namespaces of the internet. Without this coordination, we would not have one global internet.

When you approach ICANN, as usual, they will ask you several questions, including whether you have contacted your domain registrar, hosting provider, and even law enforcement. You will have to prove or demonstrate that the domain that was stolen or hijacked is rightfully yours.

Unfortunately, many victims who contact ICANN fail to prove that the stolen brand domain is theirs to use.

What is the threat landscape?

There are two types of consequences when domain theft happens –

1. The hacker changes registration contact details and takes control over the brand domain names registered under the compromised account
2. The hacker alters DNS configuration so that the DNS resolution (a process of translating IP addresses to domain names) is performed by the name server and not operated by the victim.

Get notified of any domain data changes.

In case, if the hacker keeps the domain name, they may change the registration data associated with the domain name, because this is the most accessible proof that victims may show. The hacker may change payment information and transfer the domain to a new registrar. Although the new registrar will have details about the new customer, they will not have any registration activity history.

All this makes the brand domain name recovery process trying and long.

The domain recovery procedure

You can submit a complaint about the illegal transfer of your brand domain names to another party, dispute between you and the registrar, or trademark infringement.

All this requires proper documentation that proves there was an association between you and the registrar, including your details, and the stolen domain name, prior to the incident.

What are the documents you need to submit to make your case?

The purpose of documents is to prove that you had a prior claim to the stolen domain name. The following documents will come in handy when you are registering a complaint.

• You have to submit the domain’s complete history that includes copies of registration records. It is to show that you or your business was the rightful owner of the stolen domain.
• Email receipts and billing records that show you have maintained account currency.
• You need to submit archives, web, or system logs that illustrate that the stolen domain name incorporates the content you have published.
• You need to submit a copy of the financial transactions associated with you and the domain name. You can provide bank statements or credit card transaction details, along with contact phone numbers, business addresses, and the merchant name. Here, the merchant name is the registrar, and the stolen domain name is the merchandise.
• Marketing materials, telephone directories that mention the stolen name.
• Any legal documents, such as a contract for the sale of a business containing a clause that states, “ In the condition of a sale of a business, the seller agrees to transfer the business domain name to the buyer.” Something like that.

Conclusion

Choosing the best domain name for your business and website is a daunting task. It takes a whole lot of research, some negotiations, and more to finalize the name.

Make sure you have your domain name under your control

In simple terms, finding a brand domain name is something that requires hours. So, when you find out that someone has cheated and hijacked your domain name, there is nothing worse that could happen to you. This is why you should always work on securing brand domain names the moment you have been granted their ownership.

With Brandnic, you can always expect to get the best. Our search list comprises of a gazillion best brand domain names to choose from. You will never be disappointed with Brandnic being your brand name provider.

Read Time: 12 minutes

Table of Contents

1. What the meaning of Domain Name?
2. Domain Names Registration and Pricing
3. Best Registrar For – “.Com” Domain Names
4. What is – “.Com”?
5. Does Domain Name Include “www”?
6. Understanding WHOIS: A Complete Guide
7. Top Brand Domain Names Generators Marketplace
8. Value of Short Names in Business
9. Why “.com” Domains are Better Than The Rest?
10. Conclusion – Brandnic, Your One-Stop Solution For Domain Names

In this digitally dominated space, it has become more than important to create an online identity. Whether personal or professional, you need to build an online identity to establish your online presence. When it comes to businesses, it becomes even more imperative to carve out an online identity to reach out to your target audience.

Today, a majority of customers are online, and they look for online sources before making their purchase decision and extending their brand loyalty.

A brand website comes in handy in order to create a unique and credible identity in the market.

Comprising of all the relevant information regarding your brand and creating an avenue for interaction between the brand and the customers, an effective website can make significant changes in your business. It’s not just the web development and design that gives a website the required exposure among the target audience, it is also the domain name that enhances your online presence and establishes a unique identity.

Let’s learn more about the multiple perks of the domain name and its prominence in the internet world.

What the meaning of Domain Name?

A domain name is basically your website name that makes it unique and distinctive among the visitors and search engines. In layman terms, domain name works as your online address through which all the internet users can access your website.

Domain names are used to locate and identify the computers as they use IP addresses, a series of numbers that are hard to memorize.

Domain names make it easier to identify all the entities on the internet without using IP addresses.

Explaining a domain name

It can be a combination of numbers and letters followed by different domain name extensions, such as .com, .net, and many more.

People often use a business name generator that is easy to get the perfect domain names for the respective website.

Generating a domain name is similar to investing in real estate on the internet. You can hold a piece of the pie that is exclusively yours. A domain name will hold an umbrella over the content you publish on your website.

Every business must invest in a domain name to give their business a professional outlook.

Apart from building credibility in the market and among the target audience, domain names are also an essential tool to protect copyrights and trademarks.

Domain Names Registration and Pricing

There is plenty of domain provider and domain name generator that have different price packages for their clients. The general basic price range of domain names falls between $10 – 15 per year. If you go for premium packages, you can also get elite and premium domain services from credible domain name providers in the market.

As mentioned earlier, domain names have to be unique, and “there can’t be two similar domain names”.

It is important to get your user name registered before it gets live on the internet. As domain name serves as a unique identity for the website, there cannot be two similar domain names.

No matter which type of domain you choose, the process is pretty similar and straightforward.

Take a look at the below steps to register your domain name hassle-free;

Domain names registration and pricing

• The first step: Towards registering your domain name is to think of the domain names that will best depict your business. You can even use a domain name suggestions generator to extract some ideal domain names for your brand.
• The second step: Once you have shortlisted a few names, it’s time to check its availability.
• The third step: You would need to make the payment for the domain name either through a credit card or a PayPal account. If you have a web host already, you can seek the primary and secondary servers from them. In case you don’t have a web host, you can place your domain name on a temporary server.

Best Registrar For – “.Com” Domain Names

Registration of the domain name is an important criterion to acquire your unique website address. In order to register your domain name, you would need to locate the best registrar in the marketplace. A domain name registrar is a company that handles and monitors the reservation of domain names on the internet. They also look after the assignment of IP addresses as well for the domain names.

Domain names are the alphanumeric aliases that help your visitors to access your website.

For instance, google.com is the domain name for Google, and its IP address is 192.178.1.1. What can you memorize more easily, a domain name or an IP address? Of course, a domain name, and that’s why domain names are the easier way to access the websites. You would need to find a domain name registrar who can help in reserving your domain name.

A reliable registrar should be accredited by the generic top-level domain (gTLD) or county code top-level domain (ccTLD).

Best registrar for “.com” domain names.

If you are looking for a credible registrar who can serve all your purposes of domain name registration, then Brandnic is the name you can trust. Helping you streamline the hassle of finding a unique, attractive, and credible business name, Brandnic, with its extensive catalog of domain names and effective registry services, will help you steer through the process without any trouble.

Brandnic has a great domain name generator that will help you find the available and possibly the best domain name for your business.

If you have got the creative business idea to incept in the industry, let Brandnic help you leverage your credibility with a unique domain name. Moreover, learn how to protect your business idea from being stolen.

What is – “.Com”?

As mentioned earlier, there are different domain name extensions that follow the alphanumeric domain names, and .com is one such TLD in the domain name system. “.com” was added in the domain name system back in 1985 and has been derived from the word commercial. All the commercial domains are registered in .com.

When it was introduced in 1985, .com was one of the original TLDs among the others like .edu, .gov, .mil, .org, net, and int.

Over the years, .com has emerged as the largest top-level domain.

The responsibility of managing the domain names is given to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. They further segregate the day-to-day responsibilities of domain registrars. Though “.com” was primarily focused on commercial websites, over the years with the wide perspective of .com, it has extended its horizons.

There are several non-commercial websites that are using .com names just to enjoy the benefits of perceived recognition of .com in the industry.

Understanding “.Com” domains.

When the .com domain was registered, it was administered by the US Department of Defense, which was later subcontracted to Network Solutions Inc.

In 1995, NSI started to charge an annual fee from the registrants, and the initial fee was $50/year.

With the advancement of technology and the rapid growth of the internet, .com became one of the popular and reliable top-level domains for websites. The time period from 1997 to 2001 was called the prime time for the evolution of .com, and the phase was popularly known as the dot-com bubble. From small businesses to MNCs were inclining towards .com for its top-level domain benefits.

There are multiple perks of acquiring a .com powered domain name.

One of the major advantages of selecting a .com domain is evidently its popularity and valuable extension in the market.

It is easily recognizable among the visitors, and it is great from the SEO perspective as well. All the big brands in the industry have been harnessing the wide exposure of the “.com” domain.

Does Domain Name Include “www”?

A domain name is a combination of alphabets and numbers followed by a domain extension. Often, people, have a common doubt that does a domain name include WWW. Well, the answer to such apprehensions is that your domain name does not contain WWW. World Wide Web is a web configuration that servers use (not all).

Even if your audience enters the domain name URL with or without WWW, they’d be able to access your website without any trouble.

It is essential to ensure that your website works both with and without the domain name.

Earlier, the use of WWW in the domain name was prevalent. It was used to distinguish a concerned website from its other domain elements. For instance, a website administer can set up mail for the email server and FTP. For the FTP server, the general public cannot access it.

With the use of WWW, all the general visitors were taken to the public page that they intend to visit.

www. in your domain name

In the early days of domain names, WWW was used to give them recognition among the general public. For example, during those days, you would not have seen jurassicpark.com written on the movie poster because it wouldn’t have been possible to recognize what it is implying to. But, adding www.jurassicpark.com would instantly make people aware that it is related to the internet. Hence, www was popular in those days.

Gradually, with the advent of technology and the popularity of the internet, the use of www in the domain names started decreasing.

Now, your visitors can directly enter the exact domain name with its respective extension to access your site. It is your responsibility to check your website configuration to make sure that it is accessible for both who enters and who doesn’t enter the domain name with www.

Understanding WHOIS: A Complete Guide

All the search engine results, especially the top searches, get linked to the webpage of registrars, and WHOIS is a response and query protocol used for querying database. It stores all the registered users or assignees on the internet, including domain name, IP address block, and autonomous system.

The WHOIS database stores and provide the database content in a readable format.

The WHOIS database is as old as the internet. The ARPANET used to create a channel for the transmission of information from the domain owner to the database. Later on, it was transferred to the Internet Engineering Task Force or IETF.

Understanding the WHOIS database.

Let’s learn more about this query database in 4 Steps.

1. Get Access To WHOIS

WHOIS services are offered by all the registrars. There are two common ways to access the distributed network of WHOIS, either with a free web page or with a free Port 43 service. While the free web page provides real-time access to all the data, Port 43 service allows you to get automated queries powered by machines.

2. Benefits of WHOIS

WHOIS serves many purposes. It can be used for any purpose that is legal in the cyber world. Apart from locating the domain name registrants, WHOIS data can assist network administrators in finding and fixing system issues and maintaining stability.

WHOIS is also used to find the source of a cyber attack, information of the domain owner, report, and connect with the website authorities.

WHOIS data can also be used to check the availability of domain names, detect fraud and spam, increase the accountability of the domain name registrants, identify trademark infringement, etc.

3. Ensure Accuracy of WHOIS

When you are relying on WHOIS data for any reason, it is important to ensure the accuracy of that data.

Domain name registrants have to make sure the WHOIS information is accurate throughout the registration process.

Before 2013, domain name registrars were not allowed to verify and validate the information of domain name registrants. With the inclusion of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement, domain name registrants have to carefully follow the instructions provided by the registrar in order to complete the registration process. WHOIS data help the registrars to get the full proof information regarding the domain names enabling them to conduct the registration properly.

4. How WHOIS Collects All The Information?

WHOIS is a database that gets all the information as and when the registrant registers a domain. It sends an automated email/reminder to the owner to manually update their information on WHOIS. It helps in maintaining the accuracy and flexibility of the domain until it expires.

In case, a registrant enters the wrong information, and doesn’t update the data in the WHOIS database, the respective domain name will be canceled or suspended subsequently.

Hence, it becomes important for registrants to enter the accurate details and make necessary changes when required.

Top Brand Domain Names Generators Marketplace

There’s no doubt in asserting that domain names are an essential component for developing a credible online identity. In order to carve out a distinctive identity, you need to find a unique brand name that perfectly aligns with your brand and enhances its prominence among the target audience.

Finding an effective domain name is an important decision a business needs to take.

A domain name helps your business in creating a strong relationship with the clients.

There are plenty of ways through which you frame the domain name.

A Domain name generator is one such effective and common practice.

By using a domain name generator tool, you can get domain name suggestions that will possibly go with your brand.

You can choose from the thousand available options and make a well-informed decision. A random domain name generator will take input from you about the brand and give the relevant ideas for your domain names. Generally, these generators are free and easy to use. You just need to fill in some details to get your results.

Top brand domain names generators – marketplaces.

It is important to find the best domain name generator in the market that is well known for its services. Brandnic also comprises a domain name suggestions generator that provides its clients with a wide range of domain name ideas that they can pick from. It is a well-known domain name registrar in the market that is focused on providing the best domain name solutions for the clients.

Value of Short Names in Business

Choosing the right domain name is the most crucial decision that you need to take in order to enhance your online presence in the market. Domain names are the doorway to your brand. Hence, it is important to make them as easy as possible to remember and access.

Acquiring a short and easy to remember domain name will increase the chances of your customers to remember your brand for long.

Choosing a long domain name with difficult alphanumeric combinations will make it harder for customers to connect with your business.

Short domain names rule of thumb for most entrepreneurs

Long domain names are hard to type, remember, and spell, whereas short domain names can instantly grab visitors’ attention and get register in their minds. One of the domain naming experts once said: “Humans have a short concentration span, and memorizing long domain names are quite difficult.”

A short domain will always convey authority and have a higher probability of acquiring brand loyalty.

Apart from being easy to remember, a short domain name will make your business look more professional and exclusive. When you use a short domain name, the chances of errors, and misspells are quite less, unlike in long domain names. Getting right to the point and hitting the right chords, a short domain name is always a beneficial move to make the most out of your domain name.

Why “.com” Domains are Better Than The Rest?

As mentioned earlier, the .com domain is the most effective and widely perceived domain that is used to enhance the online presence of your brand.

Take a look at the possible reasons why .COM domains are the best for brands.

A Majority Of Brand Prefer “.com’s”

Around 46% of websites across the world use .com as their ideal domain. Since the .com domain has been introduced to the world, it has become the go-to domain for a majority of global brands.

Builds Credibility For The Brands

Though the internet has welcomed and embraced many domain extensions, it is still .com that most of the people are able to recognize. When .com is followed by the domain name for a website, it instantly creates a sense of credibility towards the brand.

SEO Benefits Are Remarkable

There are instances where search engines like Google favor websites with .com domain extension and rank them higher in the universal results. Hence, acquiring a .com domain extension is always beneficial from an SEO perspective.

Free From Specific TLD Rules

It is quite evident that TLDs like gTLDs and ccTLDs comes with strings of rules regarding respective domain extensions. Choosing a .com domain extension will keep you away from such specific rules and guidelines of TLDs.

Better Establishment of Brand

Unlike any other domain extension, .com is easily recognizable. People generally think that all the domain name ends with “.com”

There are plenty of big names that have harnessed the perks of .com, including Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft Google, and the list goes on.

Conclusion – Brandnic, Your One-Stop Solution For Domain Names

A business idea comes to its worth when it gets the required recognition in the market and among the target audience. Every business is striving hard to sustain its presence in the global marketplace and strengthen its customer base.

Acquiring a credible domain name is a baby step towards success.

When you create your website, you would need to give it a unique name that can get instant recognition among your target audience.

Conclusion – Brandnic your one-stop solution for brand names!

A domain name works as an online address of the business that customers use to reach out to them. Whether it is acquiring a short domain name or favoring .com domain extension over anything else, it is essential to make sure that you get the appropriate solution for your brand name.

In order to find the ideal domain name for your business, you would need to locate the best domain name registrar in the market that can best suffice your needs.

Always make a better choice with Brandnic, a reliable premium domain name marketplace that will cater to all your domain name requirements.

You can select from a galore of domain names from our service. With the extensive catalog of domain names exclusively designed for you, finding domain names at Brandnic will hardly consume your time.

Join hands with Brandnic to get your unique domain name registered now.

Read Time: 12 minutes

Table of Contents

1. Choosing a Brand Name Isn’t Easy!
2. The Potential Complexities of Designing and “Choosing a Brand Name”
3. What Makes an “Amazing Brand Name”?
4. When Designing and Choosing a Brand Name, start to Think About Your Brand’s Visual Identity
5. Preserving Your Core Identify Within Your Brand Name
6. Knowing Your Audience
7. Time to Brainstorm!
8. Different Types of Brand Names
9. Checking If Your Brand or Company Name is “Available”
10. Testing Out Your Brand or Business Name
11. Summarising the Top Tips for Choosing an Amazing Brand Name
12. Conclusions

You might have had plans that you’ve been working on for a number of years through college. You might be looking at launching a new company as a side hustle with a view to eventually leaving your full-time job to make your living from it. You might be financially independent and not need to work, and have decided now is the time to do something you always wanted to do.

Whatever the circumstances, what doesn’t change is the building blocks of what makes a great business, and a great brand.

Think about trust and reputation on a personal level. These are things you can spend years earning and building, but you can lose in a couple of minutes, especially in today’s world where a careless social media post, or a video of you saying something you shouldn’t have, can spread like wildfire.

For a brand in the business world, it’s exactly the same.

The first building block of any new company and brand is the name. Depending on how successful your business becomes, your brand name could one day become synonymous with the product or service you provide.

How many people say “use a search engine”? How many say “Google it”?

Remember the brand concept.

Google is admittedly an extreme example, but you’re starting your business and building your brand with ambition, right? Why not aim for the top?

Once you’ve got a brand name, you can start to build things like your brand identity, brand values and decide what your business really stands for beyond the simple objective of selling or providing something to generate revenue and profit.

Let’s take a look at how you can ensure you choose an amazing brand name and start your new business on a positive pathway to success.

Choosing a Brand Name Isn’t Easy!

A brand or company name isn’t just a cool catchy name that you like the sound of.

This can be one element of it, sure, but there has to be something beyond this.

Can your brand name communicate something to your customers, either directly or subconsciously?

Can your brand name tell your story in one or two words?

Coming up with a business name as an individual process can be easy. However, in today’s world you’re probably also going to be thinking about how it will look online, both from a website and social media perspective, not to mention whether anyone else has already got a brand with the same name.

Communicating your brand name in the market.

On day one, the only person who knows your brand from head to toe is you. Let’s take a look at how you can get to where you want to be.

The Potential Complexities of Designing and “Choosing a Brand Name”

The reality of business is that many people will get started and not actually understand what they’re trying to achieve themselves. This is a certain path to things not going as you want them to.

Before you get started, take the time to know yourself, the business and the brand you want to build!

Understand your business for your brand name.

You have to make sure of how you can connect with customers. Can your brand name also highlight what makes you unique and help you to stand out in a crowded global marketplace?

What Makes an “Amazing Brand Name”?

According to Source,

“91% of consumers would rather buy from an authentic brand,” while, “48% of consumers say their first purchase or interaction is the best time to earn their loyalty.”

Designing and choosing an amazing brand name could be the crucial step that makes you feel authentic, and give you that opportunity to wow customers with a first purchase or interaction and earn priceless brand loyalty from day one.

While it’s easy to go on a site like Fiverr to ask someone to come up with a business name for you at a very low cost, you should question whether this is a worthwhile path to authenticity. If you browse the site names at Brandnic, we’ve provided a short backstory around how we’ve come up with the name, and we allow you to revise the logo however you wish. Not only does this allow you to fall in love with your brand name, but you can add your own twist via the logo design, too.

Naming your brand or business might be a journey in itself.

Remember, if your brand goes where you want it to, it will be something that has a significant impact on everything you do, become a household name, and one day become synonymous with incredible quality and service in your industry.

With your long-term vision in mind, it pays to be as involved in the naming process as possible. Yes, seek constructive criticism, feedback, and advice, but you have to drive this.

What should you take into account when picking and designing a brand name?

Qualities of brand names: distinctive, accessible, protectable and futureproof.

1. Your Brand Name Has to Mean Something

It has to make sense, be cohesive with the brand essence and image you want to build, and to have a powerful impact on your customers.

2. Your Brand Name Has to Be Distinctive

While you might be planning for your brand to compete in a small niche, in the wider global context you will be competing with millions of other companies for attention.

How can you make your brand name unique, distinctive, memorable, and meaningful?

3. Your Brand Name Has to Be Accessible

Is your brand name easy to comprehend, spell, say, and search for? A brand that’s easy to misspell or no-one knows how to pronounce could give you an avoidable obstacle to deal with.

If you settle on a longer name, think about how you can abbreviate it.

GSK is almost universally recognized as GlaxoSmithKline, for example.

4. Ideally, Your Brand Name Will Be Protectable

Look to choose a company name that you can trademark, read details on How to Trademark your Company?

Part of the brand naming process should also be checking that a suitable website domain name is available, that you can buy and lock down into your possession for as long as you need to.

Got a nice idea? worried sharing it with others?.. Learn how to protect your business idea!

5. Can You Make Your Brand Name “Futureproof”?

No-one knows what the future will hold. With that said, how is it even possible to futureproof a brand name?

The trick here is to try and avoid anything that may stop you from diversifying.

The essence of a brand name: attractive, easy to remember, clear and natural.

Had Bezos come up with a name for his brand that involved the word “Books”, for example, what impact might that have had in the future when the business diversified into selling other products?

When Designing and Choosing a Brand Name, start to Think About Your Brand’s Visual Identity

You don’t need to be designing a full set of brand guidelines at this stage, but you should be definitely thinking about what your brand and company name will look like on your website, on a business card, and even on the side of a van or an airplane!

By choosing one of our brand names and logos here at Brandnic, you’ll get ahead as you’ll already have some idea of your brand’s visual identity.

Choosing one of our ideas can also be ideal if you aren’t sure where to begin when it comes to a company name and brand identity.

Preserving Your Core Identify Within Your Brand Name

Who are you?

If someone asks you that question, what is the answer?

We’re not just talking about your name, your background, how old you are and where you’re from.

WHO are you?

Knowing your brand: mission, vision, and values.

What beliefs drive who you are, the way you act, and what your objectives are.

Now, answer these questions about your brand.

Giving this some thought will help you travel further down the path of creating a memorable brand name. At the same time, if you are unsure as to the answers to those questions, you might need to stop thinking of a brand name right now and simply think about why you’re bringing this new business into existence.

In establishing and preserving your core identity, you should be thinking about:

1. Your Brand’s Mission

What does your company do? What makes it unique?

2. Your Brand’s Vision

Why does your company exist? What is the bigger picture beyond your mission of what you’re trying to achieve for your customers?

3. Your Brand’s Values

What are the specific beliefs and behaviors that underpin your mission and values? How do you go about your business and delivering outstanding products or services to your customers? What makes your brand remarkable in this respect?

Being able to address each of these three areas will help you to understand your purpose and both help you to select an amazing name now as well as underpinning how you operate in the long-term.

Knowing Your Audience

Many brands make the mistake of launching and then thinking about their audience and how they can effectively target them.

If you want to be successful, and come up with an appealing brand name, it pays to know exactly who you’re trying to appeal to from day one. How can you be as specific as possible and tie this into your brand name design and choice?

If you can design a brand name and launch with strong branding to appeal to your main target demographic, you could enjoy strong growth from day one.

Knowing your brand audience: age, gender, location, income, and influences.

Take the below factors into consideration when determining who your ideal audience is.

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Education Level
• Income
• Goals & Motivations
• Existing Brand Affinities
• What Influences Them?

Once you’ve identified your ideal customer, or even come up with a handful of different customer profiles, you could even test these out via online research or do your own local research to see what resonates with people.

Time to Brainstorm!

Sometimes, you’re just going to need to sit down in a room, either by yourself or with others, lock the doors, and see what you can come up within a couple of hours.

If you’re totally stuck for ideas, a great thing to do is to apply the “so what?” principle.

Applying business principles and strategy.

You have a business. So what?

It provides this specific service. So what?

It does it better because of X, Y, and Z. So what?

You can do this yourself or get someone to “so what?” you. What you’re trying to tease out of this is why your business is unique and stands out.

You can also apply this principle to some of the steps earlier, but it’s a great one to help you unlock your thinking or if you feel like you’ve hit a wall creatively.

Different Types of Brand Names

There are several different types of brand names. None are particularly better than the others, all that matters is that yours feels authentic, both to you and to your customers. Let’s take a look at some of the different concepts of brand name types.

1. Founder Brand Names

Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Donna Karan, Vivienne Westwood – we could go through a whole range of brands that are named for their founders. The advantage of picking this category is that it is a pretty straightforward process. You just use your name and add what you do.

2. Fabricated Brand Names

It’s totally acceptable to make up a new word or a brand name. What can you creatively come up with?

Think about companies like Xerox, Kodak, Tivo, and Verizon. All four of these brands were just pulled out of someone’s creative thoughts, and today are all synonymous with the product or service they provide. Making up something out of the blue might be the best approach to take, as you stand a greater chance of a web domain being available and being able to copyright protect it down the line.

All you need to make sure you do is come up with a catchy, simple name if you go down this path. Remember the examples we gave just now!

3. Metaphors as Brand Names

Choosing a brand name that can be a metaphor can help give meaning and reflect specific imagery onto your brand. You could choose a place, a person, or an animal, for example.

Think about the example we gave right at the start of the article. Why did Bezos settle on Amazon again?

Metaphors and acronyms names.

4. Acronyms as Brand Names

An acronym will often become your brand name by default.

For example, most people will know HBO as HBO and not as “Home Box Office”.

Read our complete guide on how shorter domain names can be used for your business?

You can use an acronym as your brand name if you wish, but it’s best to ensure it’s catchy and the actual name makes sense when you have to answer what the letters in the acronym stand for. These can be highly strategic brand names but might cause you issues when trying to grow, as in the short term at least you’ll always find yourself explaining what our acronym means.

Checking If Your Brand or Company Name is “Available”

This can be the toughest part of the whole process if you go it alone. You come up with a great business name, have a stunning brand concept in mind, then discover there’s already a company, website, or trademarked product or service with the same name.

It’s important to search for a trademark name online

Depending on your location, there will be a wealth of tools available to check company names and trademarks, and whether these are local or global trademarks. If you’re unsure, then look to speak with an attorney for guidance.

Check the Trademark within the jurisdiction of your business.

It is also worth checking that your name doesn’t say something negative or suggestive when translated into other languages if you plan on going global with your brand. For example, the popular Brazilian beer Brahma is called “Brahva” in some Central American countries, as “brahma” can mean “horny” in this region!

Testing Out Your Brand or Business Name

If your brand name is good and available, it’s time to take it out and test it with the public before you go all out and launch it.

There are a number of ways you can do this.

You can keep it as simple as asking people whether they like the name, and what they think of when they hear the name. Alternatively, you could create a mock website, packaging, or other assets and ask people what they think.

Communicate your brand name message in the right way.

You could even set up a live landing page and run some Facebook advertising to see how people react to the name and your branding. Add a survey to the landing page, A/B test different designs and names, and do anything else that will help you get a clear idea of whether people like your brand.

Summarising the Top Tips for Choosing an Amazing Brand Name

1. Know What You’re Trying to Achieve

What is the business you are naming? What does it want to achieve?

Remember, think about WHO you are.

Clarify what you’re trying to achieve, and this whole process will become much easier. It might take you longer to get to the final idea, but you can cross unsuitable ideas and names out of your thought process far quicker.

2. Know Your Target Audience

A business that doesn’t take the time to understand its target audience isn’t really a business at all and will be lucky if it enjoys even moderate success.

3. Know What You Want Your Brand Name and Message to Communicate

We’ve only looked at the brand name as a specific matter in this article, but you also need to be thinking about your wider brand message.

What is your brand name and message going to communicate? You should be focused on communicating an image of excellence, trustworthiness, and authenticity.

If your brand name does nothing else but conveys these three attributes, you’ll already be a long way towards success.

Conclusions

Choosing a name for your brand is like choosing a name for your child. It isn’t something that you can take lightly, and it’s something that they will carry around for years. Your brand name will hopefully become much more than an identifier of who you are. It will come to represent your brand, become synonymous with what you do, and be shared positively across the world.

While you might have a wealth of business ideas ready to unleash on the world, it’s definitely worth taking the time to fully invest in creating a powerful name that is going to stand the test of time.

Perhaps most importantly, you should recognize that this is just the first step in the longer-term process of building your brand. The name is simply the first, but crucial, foundation from which you will look to build in the coming years.

Remember that if you need assistance in choosing a brand or company name, Brandnic can help you.

Choosing the right name.

We offer a wealth of naming options for your business, ensure that you have a domain to go with the name, and can help you to get started with your wider brand and visual identity too while allowing you to take ownership and add authenticity via your own ideas through a revised logo design.