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What To Do If The Domain You Want Is Taken

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Should You Go With A Domain Extension Other Than Com

How do you buy a domain name already taken.

As you create a brandable domain name, youll probably notice that you have more choices if you go with an extension other than .com. There are dozens of other extensions or top-level domains as theyre also called, like .net, .org, .biz, and .xyz.

Your new domain can have a different extension, but its not advised. Most people, especially those in the U.S. are used to a .com domain. If you use another one, you could lose potential website traffic or hinder your SEO.

If you have time to educate customers and spend a little more on marketing, using a different extension might be an option for you. There are even specialty extensions available if youre interested. However, if you decide to go outside of the .com world, the next two popular extensions are .net and .org. Consider trying those.

What To Do If Your Domain Name Is Taken

There are more than 125 million registered domains on the internet from all around the world, So its possible that somebody has already registered the domain that you were looking to register. The WestHost website allows you to check the availability of your desired domain and others similar to the one you are looking for in the event that your domain is unavailable.

How Is It Decided Who Has The Best Claim To A Disputed Domain Name

Domain name administrators and registrars operate on a first-come first-served basis.

Over time, using a domain name will in itself establish some rights to that domain name, particularly if you also publicise that domain name .

However, the fact that someone has registered a domain name does not automatically mean that they have the best right to it. If the domain name incorporates a registered trademark, the owner of that trademark may well have stronger rights to the name.

In many cases, several businesses could have rights to a domain name, particularly when a domain name describes a product rather than using a company name or trademark.

Two other important factors come into play in many domain name disputes.

  • You are more likely to win a dispute if you can show that the other party registered it in bad faith. Bad faith might include registering a domain name using your trademark in order to sell it to you , or to pass their website off as being related to your business.
  • Large companies, with deep pockets, may be prepared to run up large legal bills pursuing a domain name. If faced with such an opponent, it may be in your interest to negotiate a settlement.

As disputes can be complex, you should take legal advice on your particular circumstances.

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Wait For The Domain To Be Transferred To You

Since youre purchasing a domain name through a platform that handles the auction, theyll usually take care of the transfer as well. This means its up to the seller or the platform to initiate the domain transfer to you.

The process can be a bit more involved if you and the seller use different domain registrars. In this case, you might need to ask your registrars support to initiate the domain transfer on your behalf.

Once the transfer is over, youll be able to update your new domains settings through your registrars control panel. Now, youre ready to link the domain to your website as usual!

How To Deal If Your Dream Domain Is Taken

What do you want?

At first, helping my friend come up with name ideas for her graphic design business was fun. She’d shoot me a few ideas, I’d give her feedback, she’d tweak her ideas accordinglyrinse and repeat.

But after a few months, we were both ready for her to pick a name and stick with it. The only problem? For every single name she fell in love with the URL had already been claimed.

Luckily, an unavailable domain name isn’t an automatic non-starter. Here are a few options we explored while trying to snag her dream domain nameand methods you can use to get yours .

Also Check: How To Restore Domain Controller

Domain Name Taken Try These 7 Clever Solutions Instead

Its been a long time coming, but youre finally ready to launch the business youve been dreaming about for years! Your plans are set, you chose the perfect company name, and youre itching to start promoting your brand.

But, wait. You use a domain name search tool only to find yourcompanyname.com is not available. How could your domain name be taken?

It happens. Short .com domain names can be hard to come by these days. The number of domain registrations worldwide has surpassed 329.3 million. While you might think your name is superbly original, many of the good names are already taken.

It could be that someone is already using it for a website, or they just liked the name and wanted to claim it. Maybe they have a future business idea that they havent yet pursued. There are several reasons why your company name may not be available as a .com domain. Dont panic you have options!

Sure, you can try to purchase your domain from the current owner if theyre willing, but youll be limited by how much youre able to pay. Sometimes that just isnt a practical option.

Note: Before you buy an alternative domain, make sure someone else isnt using your business name.

If your dream business name is already trademarked, you dont want to step into legal issues or cause customer confusion. This may be a sign you need to start fresh with a new name.

How To Buy A Domain Name That Is Already Taken

Posted on December 14, 2020 by Will Morris in Business |

Choosing the perfect domain name is always a challenge. However, there are more hurdles to overcome if the one you want is not available. If youre unfortunate enough, youll land on the perfect name, only to find out that its already taken.

If you want to buy a domain thats already taken, youll need to do some extra legwork. In this article, well walk you through all the ways that you can buy a domain that already has an owner.

Lets get to it!

Recommended Reading: How To Copyright A Domain Name

How To Recognize Existing Fallback Hierarchies

To some extent, common sense and time spent browsing the interwebs will suffice to show fallback hierarchies in action.

It doesnt take a genius to recognize that domains like these were not their owners first choices:

Study-InEurope.org BootlegTunzWorld.org Morrison-Consulting.netAmericasBestGourmetCoffeeAndHotChocolate.club Human-I-T.org

Likewise, it doesnt take a genius to infer which domains those registrants would have preferred. Redirects also provide an important clue. Wikipedia, which forwards its .COM to .ORG, is a prominent example.

We can assume AmericanExpress.com outranks American-Express.com because the hyphen-free version is chosen for display.

Purchase The Domain From The Current Registrant

What To Do If Your Domain Name Is Already Taken

Note: In very special circumstances, companies that have registered trademarks who believe they have the right to use a certain domain name can follow CIRAs Dispute Resolution Process .

While buying a shiny new domain name registration happens almost instantaneously, the time it takes to contact the registrant of an already-registered domain, have them respond, negotiate a fair price, and make the technical transfer can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.

“The vast majority of people who are looking for help buying a domain are shocked at how much the cost is going to be. I do a lot of bubble bursting,” said Bill Sweetman, president, Name Ninja, a Canadian firm dedicated to helping companies secure their domain of choice in the aftermarket. If youre lucky, you might be able to obtain your domain in the secondary market for under $5,000.

At the other extreme, jobs.ca was resold in the secondary market for $600,000 USD, the most expensive publicly-reported aftermarket .CA domain sold to date according to namebio.com.

Another factor in your ability to obtain a domain name in the secondary market is how it is currently being used. If the domain name has no content, no active website or is parked, chances are higher that the owner will be willing to sell, says Bill. That said, a parked domain means theres a good chance you are dealing with a domain investor who manages large portfolios of domains with the intent to flip them for a higher price.

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Should Domain Names And Social Media Usernames Be The Same

Domain names and usernames dont have to match, but many people make them similar. Its easier to remember for both the website owner, employees, and customers if both are similar.

However, having a matching domain and usernames isnt always possible. Availability will dictate whats possible. The best chance to make a domain name and usernames match is to set them all up at once and conduct a domain name search and a username search at the same time.

What Do We Need To Do To Maintain Our Domain Name

As part of the registration process, you provide administrative details such as a contact name and address, and technical information such as the web hosting service to which you want to point your domain name,

Make sure you keep this information up to date. You will also need to renew your registration periodically. A .uk domain name registration is valid for up to ten years, and the current holder is always given the first option to renew.

Most domain name companies will send renewal notices by email. Many allow you to set up an auto-renewal system, so the domain gets renewed automatically. It’s a good idea to use this facility, as even big brands like Microsoft occasionally forget to renew their domains.

Once a domain name expires, you have a grace period period during which you can renew. Once that has passed, the domain will be released onto the open market.

If you receive a renewal notice, check it carefully. Some unscrupulous businesses send letters prompting you to authorise renewal . This allows them to take control of your domain name until you pay them a substantial fee.

Read Also: What To Do After You Purchase A Domain Name

Pay For And Transfer Ownership Of The Domain

Next, youll need to pay for the domain and transfer its ownership. I cannot stress enough the importance of using a third party to facilitate this process. You want to feel protected when you are paying for the domain and actually walk away with the domain you worked so hard to obtain. The seller wants to know they can trust your payment.

GoDaddy offers a trusted aftermarket platform for transacting domain name sales. You can also use alternative services such as Escrow.com, which hold the money until the name is accepted and confirmed to be in the buyers account, and clear the funds for the seller prior to authorizing the movement of the domain to the buyer.

Same Name Different Extension

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How important is the extension part of your web address?

Unless you choose something spammy like .buzz or. top, no one will be put off if your domain doesnt end in one of the common extensions.

So, if yourdomain.com isnt available, you can simply go for yourdomain.net, for example.

There are that have been around for a while, like .biz and .info, plus newer extensions like .club and .shop. You can view changing the extension as a good thing, selecting one thats memorable and describes what your business does.

Read Also: How To Make A Domain

Option #: Tweak Your Idea

If you’re willing to be flexible, you can register a nearly identical version of your dream” domain. This is often the easiest approach.

First, consider adding a relevant word or adjective to your URL. To give you an idea, when Mike Burnstein founded his running apparel company Janji, he discovered janji.com” was already takenso he registered runjanji.com” instead. It’s still on brand, and allows him to keep his company name in tact.

Caviar, a food delivery service, can be found at trycaviar.com” for similar reasons. Because maven.com” currently belongs to a car sharing app, Maven registered mavenclinic.com.”

However, if your dream name is already a few words and you don’t want to make it longeror you’ve simply got your heart set on that exact oneyou have another option for tweaking the domain: using a different TLD.

A TLD refers to the part of the URL after the website name. Most people are familiar with gTLDs like .COM and .ORG, but there are now more than 1,000. You can register your website under .INFO, .PRO, .GREEN, and more. There are also ccTLDs like .us or .eu that you could use to indicate that you serve a specific market.

Run a few searches to see if your business’s name is still available with any of these unique TLDs. Not only will you be able to snag your ideal name, but a less popular TLD can make your URL far more memorable and give your visitors some context around your brand or product.

What If I Still Want The Domain

As you might have guessed from the process outlined above, there are a few options for reclaiming an expired domain name.

At that point, you can either renew the domain name , redeem the domain name , take your chances with the auction house, or purchase a backorder. Without a doubt, the safest route is to either renew your domain name immediately or pay to have it redeemed.

Also Check: How To Connect A Domain To Shopify

Start Building Your Website

Now its time to create a website. In todays digital world, you dont need a web designer. Instead, you can use one of the dozens of DIY website builders out there like Wix, WordPress, or Shopify, if youre building an online store. You can set up email forwarding as well and launch new email addresses.

What To Do If Your Dream Domain Name Is Already Taken

How to Choose a GoDaddy Domain Name and What to Do if Itâs Already Taken

Why is it so hard to find a domain name thats not already taken?

Part of the answer is that years ago business owners, hobbyists, and investors snapped up the obvious ones such as food .com or pets .com.

Another issue is that there are more than 1.9 billion websites now, which means getting your first-choice domain name is not guaranteed.

If your top choice domain name is taken, you can still end up with a great domain name. Here are three solutions to consider based on your goals, your budget, and your willingness to be creative.

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