Combosquatting

Strategic Implications

As more Internet users have turned towards Evolved Navigation practices and expect to find certain content on a given Web site, combosquatting has become a highly problematic issue. The prevalence of combosquatted names attests to the profitability and benefit afforded to cybersquatters through this practice, as it would not survive if it were not profitable. For certain types of content, users are bypassing search engines and instead guessing the most intuitive domain names to find what they are looking for. While users have evolved and are adopting these practices, many brand owners have not adjusted their registrations to ensure that they own the names their customers are commonly looking for. As a result, many brand owners suffer tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage monthly, in addition to tarnished goodwill that cannot be measured directly in terms of monetary value.

To counteract these damages, brand owners must use search engine terms, logical brand+keyword combinations, and site traffic figures to determine which domains are currently most critical to their online presence. Additionally, they should brainstorm predictive brand+keyword combinations that may grow in importance based on product and service line changes to ensure that they provide relevant information where their customers expect to find it. Brand owners can reach the largest base of users possible and promote the public’s best interests online by developing a strategic approach to combating combosquatting. Combosquatting can affect all brand owners, and as such all brand owners should be aware of this practice. We hope that this study has provided you with a greater understanding of the threat that combosquatting poses to your brands, the actions that you can take to mitigate that threat and the strategic options available to improve customer experiences and advance your commercial interests.

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