Your Domain Name is Your Business

Do you own your domain name?

Some time back my cousin called me to work on an SEO project for his site. Apparently he had found out that his competitor was making sales through his website while he wasn’t. Great…another challenge.

As part of the SEO process the first thing we investigate is the Domain name. Your domain name can make or break an internet marketing campaign so be careful.

Two minutes after starting the domain research we found out that he did not own the domain. His host provider owned the domain. It may seem strange to you but an SEO should never begin work on a site who’s ownership is in doubt. After all, who would pay you?

If that sounds like you, then you are not alone. In Kenya the practise is, you go to a web designer, pay him the money and he buys the domain for you. You leave with a receipt very happy that you own yourdomain.co.ke.

Who Really Owns Your Domain Name?

Unfortunately for you and many Kenyan businesses, you do not legally own your domain.

The first port of call for any SEO expert worth his salt is WHOIS. There you will find the name of the entity that legally owns the domain. The Registrant portion of the report is the entity the ICANN recognises as the legal owner of the domain name.

I cannot say enough that the person who has their name in the Registrant section owns the domain. You can follow precedent on who owns a domain name here.

What does this mean to your business

If you fall out with your web designer (pretty common in Kenya) or the fellow dies and his wife takes over his estate, you may have no legal recourse other than a receipt to show that you own the domain. It may work in a Kenyan police station but good luck at ICANN.

There are some cases where this can be addressed though. For example ICANN allows for dispute resolutions in certain cases. Most of these are in trademark infringement or what I like to call cybersquatters. Cybersquatters just buy domains to come and do nothing with them hoping to one day own something like Obama.com….

The problem of course is that if you had no idea that you were not the recognised owner of your domain, how will you ever know how to deal with ICANN laws?

Few such as Chris Bosh have succeeded but I find it hard to believe that you will.

Solution:

Make sure you are registered as the Registrant of your domain name. TODAY! Please before you become like my cousin who lost a domain to an unscrupulous web designer in Nakuru.

Why is Your Domain Name Important?

I find it very interesting when I see people walking around with ksh.3500 .co.ke domain names. The only thing is that they forget to buy their own domains. So you fogot to buy your own name? Trust me, if I think you have a future after I meet you, I have probably bought your domain name.

There is an industry on the net of people who buy domains to resell to some fool at exorbitant prices. That is the reason Jolie and Pitt bought their baby’s domain name before she was born.

Let us take an example of a company in Kenya currently suffering because of a cybersquatter. Daly and figgis is one of the biggest law firms in Kenya. With all the lawyers in their firm, they cannot deal with one angry client.

A search of Daly and Figis produces a result as number 4 that is not Daly and Figgis.

Yes, according to the No.4 listing on Google, Daly & Figgis is corrupt. If you think this is an isolated case, then you are very new to the internet.

I am sure that the firm has tried to sue the annoyed client to no avail. After all it seems the client had bought the domain and all he’s doing is expressing his opinion about a certain company. Good luck trying to ban the fellow online. Actually it won’t happen. ICANN clearly spells it out as

Content on a Website
If your complaint is about the content of a website

If you have concerns about the content of a website, you should address your complaint to the site’s author, or the applicable Internet Service Provider depending on the circumstances. If you believe that the content is of an illegal nature, you should contact an appropriate law enforcement agency (which will vary depending on jurisdiction) or consult an attorney for legal advice.

Now that is an example of a Kenyan company that is learning the hard way that the internet can destroy their business.

What can  a SEO  Learn About Your Company from the Domain Name

Believe me when I tell you, if you aren’t careful with your domain name registration, you are in for a rough time on the internet. I will give you an example using Kenya commercial bank.

From the information above I know that:

A) One F Makokha is the one in charge of the KCB website. I don’t want to know what you are imagining you can do to F Makokha if you are a hacker….Please KCB, use things such as admin@kcb, info.., domain.., support.. to protect yourself as well as your staff members.

B) KCB is hosted in a reseller hosted account. What kind of bank in the world hosts it’s website in a shared hosting account? I just can’t believe it. Did someone say that Kenya is the “sillicon valley” of Africa? Think again.

This means that for one to hack KCB all they have to do is gain access to any of the other 163 websites and walla, I own KCB.  By the way, your Joomla has not been updated for too long and your administration area is open for any hacker in the world. Now you can be sure that I will never open an internet account with KCB until they correct such silly issues.

All that from just a domain name?

Yes and more.

I also know that someone in marketing forgot to buy the other domain names relevant to KCB bank.

Now the SEO part starts in earnest. KCB domain name will expire next year on November 11th. So I set an alert on my domain buyer software to grab it incase Makokha has been fired and the new guy has no clue of what is happening.

The last section is the sad section in deed. For a company that boasts billions in profits, they surely can afford to buy the other TLD’s available to them. That is because if an blackhat SEO is hired by a competing firm, the first thing they would do is buy kcbgroup.net and .org. They would then do them what Daly and Figgis was done. The problem is that most of the traffic would never find its way to KCB group main website.

Ideas for the Kenyan who Says they can’t Make Money Online

Buy KCB TLD’s and create a single page landing page. Rank the site higher than KCB. Lastly Sell the names to Equity.

Conclusion

1. Find out if you OWN your domain name. If you are not the REGISTRANT, you don’t own it.

2. Buy your domain name TODAY. It is better to go home to your wife home today instead of going to the kalocal to spend the 1k.

3. SEO begins with the domain name…Many a company has been destroyed because they chose the wrong domain name.

4. Hide your domain name details if you don’t want us spying on you.

5. Again…BUY your own name TODAY… Please don’t blame me if I buy your domain name.

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