Domain Name and Brand Protection

Domain names are virtual addresses for businesses on the Internet.

Your domain name is an integral part of establishing your business online. It's an effective tool for marketing your brand and services, and helps people find you quickly and easily on the web. When choosing your domain name you need to consider how it aligns with your offline brand and ensure that it's easy for customers to remember.

If you're not yet ready to design and build a website or develop an e-commerce strategy, registering your domain name is still an extremely us
eful step. Your registered domain name lets you send branded emails, e.g. bob@yourbusiness.com.au and is a crucial step in protecting your online brand. And when you are ready to build your website you have retained the option to use this domain name (conditions permitting).

Choosing the right domain name is essential to your online branding and marketing. Having a domain name that is easy to remember and represents your brand is imperative to ensure people find you on the web. Your domain name is one way for people to identify you and differentiate you from your competitors.

People find websites many different ways but most often they will:

a) Have seen your URL advertised somewhere
b) Searched on a search engine and seen your site listed
c) Guessed your URL based on your company name

You will have noticed that there are a variety of domain names available. .com, .net, .org, .biz and .info are example of top-level domain names. There are also country level domain names like .com.au.

There are different regulations attached to different levels of domain names.

A top-level domain name is increasingly hard to secure so you may have difficulty registering your business name with .com as the domain. In Australia, regulation has ensured that your domain name must be derived from your business name, making it easier for you to register a name that accurately represents your business.

You can find out if your chosen domain name is still available here. You can also apply for your domain name online.