Protecting Websites Against Domain Squatters
Type TJMaxx.com into your Internet browser’s address bar and you’ll find a sophisticated e-commerce site that can help you find the nearest branch of the Framingham-based discount retailer, share information on your favorite products with other users and sign up to get email alerts from the chain.
But if your finger slips and you type an extra “x” for TJMaxxx.com instead, you’ll be redirected to a far more amateurish looking site inviting you to participate in an “anonymous TJ Maxx survey,” with small print at the bottom acknowledging that “survey.prize-giveaways.com is not affiliated with TJ Maxx, Target or Apple.”
The imposter site is one example of domain squatting, or cybersquatting, the practice of registering a site address that would appear to be affiliated with someone else.
It comes in many forms, and it can be infuriating to the businesses that are targeted. But local IT professionals say trying to prevent or stop cybersquatters can be more trouble than it’s worth.
Strategic Acquisitions
Michael Kennedy, head of SEO for Littleton-based Boston Web Design, said he encourages clients to buy versions of their website’s address ending with .com, .net and .org.
That protects them from competitors that might use those addresses to siphon off customers.
Ideally, Kennedy said, businesses should use one site for their business and another for a blog about their company with links to the main site.
If they don’t want to bother keeping up a blog, he said, the next best option is to simply have the secondary addresses redirect visitors to the same site.
But Kennedy and others in the business said it’s not worthwhile to try to buy up every site that you can imagine someone taking advantage of.
Nathan Harris, president of New Perspective Web Solutions in Worcester, said he knows of some car dealers that have bought sites with names like CompanyXSucks.com to keep those potentially embarrassing domains away from competitors or critics.
But Harris said anyone who wants to set up a negative site will just add a dash or make some other minor change until they find an available address.
“Someone who’s motivated emotionally will find a way to make it happen,” he said.
And Matt Ward, president of inConcert Web Solutions in Gardner, said paying to register multiple sites, typically for $12 to $20 a piece for one year, can add up.
“It’s short-sighted,” Ward said. “It can cost you a lot of money.”
In some cases, cybersquatters buy a misspelled version of a competitor’s web address and redirect visitors to their own site, driving up their traffic, but Ward said that can easily backfire.
“The first thing I’m going to do when I get this site is hit the back button,” he said of one such site.
Domain squatters may buy addresses that represent common typing mistakes and rent them to third parties that fill them with advertisements.
In some cases, the tiny fraction of visitors that click on the ads can make a small profit for the site owner. Type Stapel.com instead of Staples.com or WagnerToyota.com instead of NormWagnerToyota.com and you find a page full of ads.
Flipping Sites
Along with making a little money from advertisements, squatters may also try to sell the web addresses to the companies whose brands they represent at an inflated price, something that was common years ago when corporations were first establishing presences on the Internet.
But Harris said anyone stockpiling web addresses in the hopes that desperate companies will buy them up is likely to be sorely disappointed. Later this year, the organization that oversees web addresses, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, will be vastly expanding the number of “top-level domains” like .com and .net, opening up all kinds of new options for anyone launching a new site.
“There’ll be so many more choices in the near future,” Harris said.
Meanwhile, Harris said, it’s sometimes possible to take legal action against domain squatters for trademark infringement, and it’s not a bad idea to talk with a lawyer. But often there’s little recourse available.
But Harris said the best response to cybersquatting is for a company to make sure its online image is good in general. If its real website is easy for search engines to find and the chatter about its brand on social media is mostly positive, that’s what really matters.
WBJ Web Partners
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