Lock Up Your Website Domain Name Before Someone Else Does

In today’s digital age you must easily communicate with everyone and they with you by making it easy for voters to find you via your official Website. Make your domain name logical and easy to remember since visitors looking for your Website will most often enter your name or your campaign’s domain name into their search engine or into Web browser.

Keep your domain name professional and make it tie to you and your campaign name or tagline. Though humor can be a terrific tonic, avoid cute or humorous choices. Because .com is the most common domain-name extension, most people will just key in your name, the office for which you are running, and .com instead of .net or another suffix. Of course, search engines will direct visitors to your Website regardless of which suffix you use.

You can secure a domain name yourself by registering through godaddy.com, dotster.com, or, joker.com, for example. If you hire a Website designer, he or she can secure your campaign domain name for you. It is worth noting that it is important to register your preferred name on your first search.

Why? Unscrupulous people known as domain harvesters use software that monitors domain-name searches and locks up names considered but not registered. Once the name is locked up, the harvester registers it and then offers to sell it, at an inflated price, to the person who considered it in the first place. Also referred to as domain squatting, such practices are not illegal, but they are unethical.

While it is unlikely to occur at the local level, be aware that dirty dealings could occur in your race as political incivility infects politics brought on by the anonymity of digital world we live in. For instance the Jeb Bush campaign did not lock in all iterations of Jeb Bush so if a visitor were to enter JebBush.com they would be directed to a website for opposing presidential candidate Donald Trump. Other Bush domain names which sound legitimate but are not: JebBushforPresident.com and JebBushforPresident.net both of which direct the visitor to sites containing nothing positive about Mr. Bush.

To avoid this pitfall, before you go a domain registrar, decide on your preferred campaign domain name and secondary ones and lock them up on your first visit. Outsmart domain harvesters by planning ahead. Lock up whatever domain name you like before a domain harvester finds out. Even when you secure your preferred domain names early, you are not obligated to run for office. If you decide not to run, you are out only an annual rental fee of about $12. Multi-year rentals come at slightly lower per-year rates.

So regardless of whether you run, lock up your preferred domain name as early as possible. Otherwise indecision can cost you by forcing you to choose a less desirable one. Call it domain insurance. Or have someone else buy that domain name and use it against you.

If you find that a another candidate running for a different office locally or in another state has claimed your preferred domain to use or to keep you from using it, you can tweak the name by adding or deleting your last name, the office you seek, or the community you wish to represent. But always start key words with capital letters because they are easier to read. Stay flexible. Here are original and tweaked examples:

Preferred Domain Names Alternative Domain Names

JoeSmithforCityCouncil.com JoeSmithforOurCityCouncil.net

JoeSmithforCityCouncil.com JoeforCityCouncil.com or .net

JoeSmithforCityCouncil.com JoeSmithforAcmeCityCouncil.com

JoeSmithfor(city name).com JoeSmithForABetter (city name).com

or.net

Finally, you might want to choose a generic domain name that permits you to change content to reflect a future race for a different office. Generic domain name versions like ElectJoeSmith.com tie you to no specific office now or later. For instance:

Preferred Domain Names Alternative Domain Names

ElectJoeSmith.com ElectJoe.com

The Take Away

It pays to apply the Scout’s Motto “Be Prepared” in everything you do for your campaign. Be prepared includes locking up your preferred domain name as well as others that could be used against you. While this admonition seems theoretical long before your formal campaign starts, think how you would be during the heat of battle without a strong domain name. With a good domain name chosen before your campaign you will be that much ahead of the competition.