To paraphrase The Bard, “What’s in a name?” When it comes to acquiring domain names for political campaigns, it can mean a lot. Choosing the wrong name or failing to get the right name can cause problems for many candidates.
Political cybersquatting is pretty common, with speculators hoping to cash in buying domain names. Sometimes this can even trickle down to the local level, where someone buys the domain name of a potential political candidate. They hope to sell it back to the campaign for a profit.
Some political domain-related fiascoes include:
- Rand Paul paid over $100,000 for his domain name RandPaul.com just before he launched his bid for the presidency.
- Ted Cruz used tedcruz.org as his official presidential campaign website. Unfortunately, he did not own tedcruz.com. Those who bought that domain put up a very different message.
- When Carly Fiorina announced her presidential candidacy, it turns out that her campaign failed to buy CarlyFiorina.org. Now it’s owned by someone else and filled it with 30,000 sad faces to represent the people Fiorina laid off when she was CEO at Hewlett-Packard.
Unless your own campaign is high-profile or particularly contentious, it doesn’t make sense to register every available domain extension and variant. But if you can afford it and you think it may prevent a real problem, then go for it.
However, registering 3,643 website domains is probably overkill.
Whatever you do, don’t wait until the last minute to figure out your online strategy. Even if you wait to launch a website, it’s a good idea register your campaign domain name ahead of time.
A few years back, we saw a case where the signs and print items had been printed listing the domain name of a website that did not exist. A lot of money had been spent. Fortunately, the name was available and we were able to secure it without a problem. These days, there’s a good chance that you’ll need to rely on your second or third choice backup name.
Tips for choosing the best campaign website name:
- The .com extension is your best bet. If you can get your ‘firstnamelastname.com‘ domain, you’ve won the domain lottery!
- Avoid a year or position in the domain name if you plan to keep the domain throughout your political career.
- If you want the .org of a name, make sure you can also get the .com version.
- Check that a .org version of your website does not exist yet. If it does, it may show up in future searches for your .com site.
- Registering .org of a domain name is usually not necessary unless it is a high-profile race.
- If you have a commonly-mistyped name, it’s a good idea to purchase a variant domain – both for users and to keep a potential cyber-squatter from cashing on typos.
- If you have a nickname or an opposing candidate has a nickname they use about you, consider purchasing that as well. Do this more as a defensive measure.
- It never hurts to get domain name variants. You can always redirect additional names to your main website.
If you manage to get a good domain name that can be reused for future campaigns, consider keeping it registered. If you let the name lapse, someone else can pick it up and use it for an altogether different purpose.
If your domain has a been around for a few years and has a large number of backlinks, consider pointing the website name to another site you control. Otherwise, there’s a good chance your high-authority domain will end up being used for another site and flipped for a profit.
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Related: 5 Things To Know About Your Campaign’s Domain Name
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