Sonia Hickey, Marketing & management writer
The strength of your online presence is critical in today’s business environment.
If you need evidence of that fact, then remember this – 76% of consumers check out your online profile before they even consider buying from you. They’re looking to see that you have good reviews, a decent social presence, and a website that reflects the level of professional service they expect from your company.
Why?
Trust.
The legitimacy of your online presence creates trust with your audience – domestically and internationally – that makes them feel more confident when buying from you. And that’s where international domain registration comes in:
It’s key to protecting your online brand so you keep those conversion-creating trust signals high.
Brand Protection Issues That Having International Domains Prevents
The obvious question you’ll ask after the above statement is why?
Why is having international domains for your website – even for territories in which you’re not currently operating – so important?
The answer: It offers protection against the following issues.
Issue 1 – Cybersquatting
Let’s say you’ve built a super successful business in the United States. The business is so strong that it’s caught the attention of international audiences – even though you’re not selling overseas yet – which gives you a massive opportunity for expansion.
To start that expansion, you need international domains.
So, you start your search, only to find that somebody else owns the domain you want. You check it out online and there’s nothing on the website barring some jumbled information that isn’t relevant to anything. Feeling confident, you contact the site’s owner to ask how much they want for it.
They give you an answer you didn’t want to hear – thousands upon thousands of dollars.
You’ve just become the victim of cybersquatting, which is when people buy domain names related to popular brands in the hope that the brand will eventually want to buy the domain from them. When that happens, they jack up the price – asking for thousands of dollars more than they paid – to transfer ownership.
With international domain registration done early enough, you prevent this issue. When you finally achieve the reputation that makes it possible to expand overseas, you’ll already own the domains you need.
Issue 2 – Trademark Issues
Sometimes, an international registrant takes a domain you might want to use without any ill intent.
For instance, you might register a domain – and a related trademark – for use in the United States. Later, you decide to expand into Mexico, meaning you need a .mx that uses your existing branding. That’s when you discover that there’s already a company in Mexico that uses your name, perfectly legally, because your trademark only extends to the United States.
The solution to this challenge is twofold.
When you come up with your company’s name, think about the territories into which you’re likely to expand and purchase the international domains that are available. You establish ownership, which at least means that somebody who later decides to use the same name can’t buy the domain from under you.
Once you have those domains, start registering trademarks in those countries. You may never use them, but at least you’ll own them – like the domain – which protects your usage of your brand if you ever do go overseas.
Issue 3 – Reputational Damage
Returning to the malicious side of things, cybersquatters can do more than hold a domain name to ransom.
They can use it to actively harm your brand’s reputation.
For instance, they might create a fake version of your website that they use to scam legitimate customers out of their details – and even their money – under your name. They may even use the domain to disparage your business, making it even harder to break into an international territory.
Either can cause massive reputational damage in a heartbeat.
And neither can happen when you own the domains the cybersquatters might use.
Protect Yourself With International Domains
Ultimately, it’s important to think bigger when buying international domains.
It’s not always about buying only when you’re ready to expand into a new country. With these domains under your control, you can save a ton of money you’d otherwise have to spend to fulfill a cybersquatter’s demands while ensuring you enter a territory with a clean reputation. And even if you’re not ready to grow yet, there’s a clear benefit to buying brand-related international domains – you protect your trademarks in regions where you’re not yet operating.
Source: Nominus Domain Services, Nominus.com
