Registering a Great Domain Name for Your Business Brand Isn’t All Plain Sailing
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Mon, Aug 29, 2011
Did you know that over 400,000 domain names are registered every day? That explains why most of the good ones are taken when we go to register them. Trying to register a domain name for your business brand can be a daunting task with so much competition in the market. A great domain name is a vital part of the branding process and so many of us struggle to find a domain name that will fit our business’ image and that will be catchy, easy for our customers and clients to remember.
Rather than trying to come up with something unique in the congested marketplace of domains, why not take a look at domains that have been “dropped”? When an owner fails to renew a domain before it’s expiration date, the domain will go through a number of processes before it gets released to ICANN, and is available to be registered by other users. A dropped domain is a great way to get a more reasonable domain name, and the domain may already have built up some credibility with search engines like Google and Bing through SEO, age, backlinks etc.
So how does the domain name expiration process work? There are a number of steps it has to go through before somebody else can register it.
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Domain gets labeled with the “expired” status. Once the domain is in this status, the owner has another 40 days to renew it so nobody else is allowed to register it at this point.
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If 40 days have passed, the domain then enters the “redemption period”. During this period, a fee is charged to renew the domain. But it’s not usually $10, more like $100 or so, depending on the domain name registrar. All of the previous registration information for the domain will be deleted.
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If the registered owner still hasn’t registered the domain again, it will be locked for a period of 5 days. When the 5 days are up, the domain name will be released for general registration.
It’s not entirely smooth sailing when trying to pick up a dropped domain name. You have to be on the ball and there may be only a window of a few minutes to secure the registration for yourself. However, if you can get a good domain name that suits your brand that already has a good reputation with the search engines, it can be worthwhile.
This also serves as a lesson to business owners to keep on top of their domain name registrations. Losing a domain name would be catastrophic for a brand.
Confused about the domain name selection and registration process? Contact SiliconCloud today for professional advice.
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