Contrary to expectations, tempo.de does not provide information about tissues and schuhbeck.com does not provide recipes from the well-known Bavarian cook. This makes it all the more important that a domain portfolio is structured and securely registered in accordance with the corporate strategy and its target group. The development of a domain portfolio grows with time and possibly different employees or departments have been entrusted with this responsibility. Regular portfolio reviews are therefore strongly recommended.

The background to the registration of a domain can be different: Company or product names are actively registered in order to provide information for customers, employees or other interest groups via the corresponding websites. The associated e-mail addresses are used for direct communication and round off the external appearance. Other domains are registered for search engine optimization or marketing campaigns.

Domain names are often passively registered in order to protect company, product or brand names from third-party registration or to secure a corresponding portfolio from others. Domain dealers, on the other hand, register interesting domain names in order to sell them to a potential buyer in the best possible way. Some traders respect the legal limits and do not register any brand names, while others with a company or domicile on the "other side of the world" often do not shy away from possible legal consequences.

In addition to the consideration of which domain names belong to the own portfolio, there is also the challenge of under which domain extensions (TLDs) it should be registered. Besides .com, .de and .eu there is at least one TLD per country and this already high number of domain extensions is currently supplemented by the new TLDs such as .web, .app, .shop and over a thousand others.

To exclude all risks related to the domain portfolio, a recommendation may be that companies should register all important domain names under all domain extensions. From a business point of view, however, it is at least recommended to register, consolidate and centralise the high-profile domains and to focus on other relevant domains.

The following questions can help you to get an overview of your own domain portfolio:

• Is your company name registered under .com, .de and.eu?
• Is the common abbreviation of the company name registered under .com, .de and.eu?
• Which products and which brand names are registered or should complement the portfolio?
• Which free, generally valid terms are in the portfolio or should supplement it?
• In which countries are the target groups and which countries are concrete markets of the future?
• Which of the new domain extensions are or can become relevant?

The domain portfolio is constantly changing, as is a company's employee pool. However, the focus should always be on knowing the most important domains in your own portfolio.

Please check your portfolio and let us know if we can support you. As experts in the domain sector, we would be pleased to carry out a portfolio analysis for you: You get a well-founded overview of domains that are free, registered for you and otherwise. Based on this, we will list the appropriate measures to consolidate your domain portfolio, especially for domains registered by third parties. You can reach the 123domain.eu team directly at +49 231 58698-123 or by e-mail at info@123domain.eu.