Domain name strategy consulting

Solidnames offers a complete range of domain name strategy consulting services. Solidnames has specific consulting programs such asdomain name portfolio optimization, domain nametechnical auditing or naming charter drafting. Solidnames also organizes private consultations for specific issues, such as the creation of a new .TRADEMARK Internet extension.

Rationalization and enhancement of a domain name portfolio

 

Solidnames audits the domain name portfolio and analyzes its risks. Solidnames advocates alignment between trademark and domain name policy. Solidnames consultants will use their tools to compare trademark registrations and domain names to identify discrepancies and correct them.

Identifying disparities will lead to :

  • strategic complementary deposits
  • recovery of sensitive names held by third parties
  • abandoning obsolete domain names

Harmonization between domain name and trademark strategies will take place at territorial level (country-code extensions) and at activity level (generic extensions).
Registering domain names in country-code Top-Level-Domains (“ccTLDs”) is essential in popular country-code Top-Level-Domains with low purchase prices (e.g. .DE, .NL, .CO.UK…) and in “ccTLDS” where the brand is established or well known.
Country extensions enable us to anticipate future marketing needs and demonstrate the brand’s understanding of national culture and pride.

The new extensions are based on the principle of trademark specialization. It’s vital for companies to secure their domain names in their lines of business. If companies fail to protect their trademarks in the “NewgTLDs” of their business sector, they expose themselves to almost guaranteed cybersquatting, as demonstrated by case law with airfrance.flights, deloitte.consulting, dominos.pizza, greubel-forsey.watch, hugoboss.clothing, redbull.vodka, segafredo.coffee, sega.games, or swarovski.jewelry.

Solidnames’ consulting services also include the evaluation of NFT domain names such as .ETH or .CRYPTO.

The operational intelligence of Solidnames consultants will be used to reduce or contain domain name management costs. Optimization of the domain name portfolio involves abandoning obsolete addresses.
The streamlined portfolio will be qualified between strategic, premium and basic names.
A whois check will be carried out to ensure legal conformity of the information on the holder notified in the registry directories. Updated whois do not show individuals who have left the company, old postal addresses, etc.

 

Audit of technical use of domain names

Efficient use of domain names enables us to capture traffic lost on registrar waiting pages, pages that are poorly configured or even inaccessible. Solidnames performs a technical audit of your portfolio, producing a screenshot for each domain name. This system enables us to identify unresolved domain names, while ensuring that active addresses display appropriate content.

Optimized and measured redirection policy

Resolving domain names generally offers a better user experience. More traffic means more revenue. Solidnames will maximize the value of your domain name portfolio by implementing an optimized technical configuration.

Domain names will be redirected to the appropriate content via web or DNS redirects:

  • domain names with spelling mistakes (“typosquatting”) will point to the correctly spelled main site
  • product names to sub-domains or directories featuring them
  • domain names recovered following legal action to a page explaining the company’s actions to defend its brand
  • critical domain names (e.g. .SUCKS) or blocking domain names (e.g. .XXX) to a specific holding page

Capturing and measuring traffic provides important information such as the origin of users and the type of traffic generated. The volume and type of traffic are key indicators to understand in order to make the right domain name renewal decisions.

SSL certificate for secure HTTPS browsing

Since 2014, the Google search engine has included as a referencing relevance criterion the fact that a website is encrypted and secure, i.e. that it has an https address. An SSL certificate is required to have an https website.
In 2017, Google will mark in its Chrome internet browser that sites simply in https are not secure. Solidnames’ IT Consulting team can help you ensure that your websites are all in HTTPS and not penalized by browsers and search engines.

Naming Charter

The entire domain name strategy, its guidelines and procedures deserve a reference document.

Solidnames consultants will draw up and implement a domain name management guide.

This naming convention lists :

  • domain name spelling (e.g. hyphenated, unhyphenated, inverted, plural, international, etc.)
  • relevant extensions to hold (e.g. .COM, geographical extensions, sector extensions, high-risk TLDs, etc.)
  • associated technical configuration (e.g. active site, redirection, waiting page, etc.)
  • whois information (e.g. registrant, contact emails, registration duration, etc.)
  • organization of action requests (e.g. deposits, abandonments, technical modifications)

Once the naming policy is in place, Solidnames carries out an audit to identify cases of non-compliance, such as domain names registered outside the centralized process by employees, communications agencies or subsidiaries.