For years, there has been an increasing number of
TLDs and domain registrations.
This is not only a sign of the Internet becoming a ripe branch of the
economy, it also reflects the significance of the Internet for existing
and new brands and trademarks. In practice, selection and registration of
domains is often still done spontaneously, not in a planned and structured
manner. For example, domains are registered with different registrars, for
different registrants and with various administrators. The uncontrolled
growth continues because relevant domains are not registered, while other
important domains have already been registered by a (rightless) third
party. It also happens that domains are still in the portfolio that are
not needed (any more). Furthermore, domain data are often inconsistent or
not up-to-date, or the domains do not work properly from a technical
point of view.
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Knipp's way: holistic domain management.
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Knipp can handle the whole domain management for your company. But what
exactly is encompassed by the term »domain management«? It is often
associated with »domain administration«, but this is actually only one
part. We view domain management in an integrated way and therefore include
the following tasks.
Stocktaking and documentation
In the first step, we take stock of your domain portfolio(s). The foremost
goal hereby is to collect and document your currently registered domains
with their vital data (registrars, registrants, administrators, expiration
dates, DNS details and so
on). In the course of this, we also check whether the
DNS entries, like
MX records, are set up correctly.
The stocktaking also considers those domains whose registration you are
planning and those that are already registered by a third party, but that
you would otherwise register.
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The first step is usually a current state analysis.
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The analysis of the current state also includes a compilation of all your
brands and trademarks as well as of the countries and regions in which
your company is present. Naturally, plans about forthcoming market entries
and new products or brands are to be included in this stage of stocktaking
already. Knipp follows a proactive and conservative registration routine.
The cost of acquiring a domain that has already been registered by a third
party is normally disproportionately higher than that for registering a
few domains »too many«. This is all the more true if an action has to be
brought before the
WIPO
or a different arbitration board in the framework of the
UDRP or
a different domain name dispute resolution. One should also keep in mind
that a successful outcome of the action is not certain from the outset.
Development of the domain strategy
Based on your communication guidelines and in close coordination with you,
we develop a comprehensive strategy for the selection of domains in order
to make registration and administration always follow the same scheme.
A domain strategy especially catering for globally operating companies
from Germany could look as follows:
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The domain name of the company and the names of relevant subsidiaries
are chosen. In the case of foreign branches, the respective country is
added with a hyphen. The legal form of the company is not mentioned.
These specifications result in domain names of the following form:
company, company-abc, company-mexico, company-denmark, company-panama or
company-japan. To distinguish and mark the company headquarters, the
country the company is based in is not mentioned. So a domain like
»company-germany« will not be used for a German company based in Germany.
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Registration of the names and name combinations identified under point
one for the following TLDs:
- Country-code domains
(ccTLDs) for
the company headquarters: .de and .eu;
- generic TLDs
(gTLDs):
.com, .biz, .net, .info and .org;
- sponsored TLDs
(sTLDs):
.mobi, .tel and .jobs;
- as far as contained in the domain name:
IDNs
for .de and .eu.
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For foreign branches, only the respective country-code domain is
registered, for example company-denmark.dk, company-mexico.mx,
company-panama.com.pa and company-japan.jp. If the company has a branch in
Asia, as in this case, the domain company-japan.asia is registered as
well. The TLD .asia is a
sponsored TLD.
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In general, only one domain name is communicated to all external
stakeholders, in particular to customers, suppliers and the general
public. This is the domain with the still economically most important
TLD .com, which is reserved
exclusively for the main web presence of the company. In the example this
would be company.com. Except for the two
TLDs .mobi and .tel, the
remaining domains with the
TLDs .de, .eu and so forth are
linked to the IP address of
the main web presence. As an exception, the communication limited to a
particular country may use the respective country-code domain (for example
company-mexico.mx).
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It is an established marketing tool to also register so-called »typo
domain names«, because some users enter a (supposed) domain name directly
into the browser's location bar instead of using a search engine. If the
spelling is phonetically similar but wrong, the user will still end up on
the intended website if a redirection is in place. Knipp helps you in
identifying relevant typo domain names and registers them for you.
Realising the domain strategy
In the course of realising the domain strategy, the identified new domains
are registered, the term of registration of existing domains is extended
and domains that are no longer needed are deleted or not extended. To
reduce the administrative work, a central domain portfolio is created for
you within Knipp's domain registration system and all domains are
transferred to Knipp. Furthermore, we check whether it is possible to
acquire domains that you would like to have but are owned by a third party
or that were not extended by mistake. This includes searching so-called
whois data, online domain marketplaces and freely available domains.
If you wish, Knipp will also buy the domains for you without revealing
your company's name.
Domain administration
Knipp offers the Domain
Registration System as a centralised solution for the
administration of your domain portfolio and the
DNS hosting of your domains.
We ensure, of course, that the registration term of your domains is
extended in due time and that domains that are no longer needed are marked
for deletion - without you needing to take action.
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With our DRS and Knipp as a partner, professional
domain management becomes a child's play.
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Due to our numerous
memberships, we are
always informed about current developments in the domain business and keep
you up-to-date, for example about the introduction of new
TLDs and the possibilities of
preferential registration during the so-called sunrise period.
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