Typosquatting: which variants of your domain name should you register yourself?

With typosquatting, someone registers a domain name containing a typo of your name to catch visitors who make a mistake. It's a form of cybersquatting: registering a name that resembles someone else's brand or name in order to sell it, obstruct the other party or ride on their reputation. In this article, you'll read which variants to register yourself and what to do with them.

What variants are there?

The variants are predictable. For examplebakery.nl, these include:

• a missing letter: exampebakery.nl;
• a doubled letter: exxamplebakery.nl;
• two swapped letters: exmaplebakery.nl;
• an added or removed hyphen: example-bakery.nl;
• the same name with a different extension, such as examplebakery.com or examplebakery.eu.

Whoever holds such a name can put ads on it, show a competitor or send fake emails that at first glance appear to come from you. And email that customers send to you with a typo ends up with the holder of that variant: quotes, invoices or passwords.

Which variants should you register yourself?

You can't register every variant. Every name has to be renewed, maintained and secured. Defensive registration means registering a name to prevent someone else from getting it, not to use it. Choose selectively, in this order:

1. Your main name on the extensions that make sense for your customers, for example your country extension, .com and .eu.
2. The variant with and without a hyphen, if your name consists of two words.
3. The one or two typos that genuinely occur often. Pay particular attention to words that people spell differently.
4. An old name you no longer use, but that still receives links and email.

You can see which variants are still available when you search at www.weboke.nl/en/domeinregistratie: below your name you'll find Other extensions for the same name. To register multiple names at once, see Registering or transferring many domains at once.

Forward defensive names to your main name

Have a defensive name forward to your main name with a permanent redirect (301). That way, a visitor who makes a mistake still ends up in the right place. In My WebOké, you do this in the Redirects tab, with Permanent 301. If the name is in a hosting package, you set up the redirect there. See:

• Creating a domain forward/redirect (domain registration)
• Creating a redirect to another domain (hosting package)

If you don't use a defensive name for email, lock it down for email so nobody can use it to spoof mail. How that works with three DNS records is explained in Protecting your domain name: expiry, transfer code, transfer lock and forgotten DNS records.

Someone else has a variant of your name

Not every similar name involves bad intent. A bakery in Newcastle may have the same name as a bakery in Bristol. First check what the WHOIS says about the name, whether the name is in use and for what, and whether you hold a trademark yourself. Registering a domain does not in itself give you trademark rights. Record what you see, with screenshots and dates. To find out which procedures are available if you want to claim the name, read Domain name dispute: which procedure applies per extension?.

Want to learn more? Take the free course Choosing and managing a domain name, lesson 7.2 Typosquatting and disputes.