Defensive domains and politics: The good, bad, and really bad

Are you already sick of hearing about the upcoming U.S. presidential election? Us too. But if there’s anything we can’t resist, it’s great examples of domains in action—and this election has been a glowing example of why you should consider defensively registering domains and the consequences of not doing so.

We’ve already discussed the disaster that is jebbush.com (Hint: It redirects to Donald Trump’s website), but it seems that was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to domains being jokingly and sometimes maliciously redirected to unexpected places. Here’s a rundown of the good, the bad, and the really bad websites out there that are being used ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election

The good

BernySanders.com: The campaign behind Bernie Sanders took into account the possibility of visitors misspelling the candidate’s first name. They resolved this issue by registering the incorrect version and redirecting it to his main website BernieSanders.com.

DonaldTrump.com and Trump2016.com: The campaign behind Donald Trump defensively registered these two domains and redirected them to his main campaign site, DonaldJTrump.com. This created more avenues for visitors to get to his site and prevented others from snagging the domains for themselves.

The bad

HilaryClinton.net: This URL originally redirected to Carly Fiorina’s website, but is now redirecting to Donald Trump’s campaign site.

ElectBernie.com: This web address is home to a blog dedicated to informing readers about driving safety. (We’re confused by this one too.)

TedCruzforAmerica.com: This domain has been on quite the redirect adventure, pointing visitors to places like Healthcare.gov, the Human Rights Campaign website, a page titled “Immigrate to Canada,” and now to Occupy Democrats’ website.

The really bad

TedCruz.com: A one page website that reads, “Support President Obama. Immigration reform now!”

Loser.com: Currently redirects to Donald Trump’s Wikipedia page, but occasionally switches to Kanye West.

The takeaway

Is it possible to defensively register every single domain name that has your or your business’s name in it? Frankly, no. But it’s important to be aware of defensive domain registration so you can take measures to ensure that the people trying to navigate to your site will get there. There’s also the possibility that a domain similar to your own will fall into the hands of someone who will use it in ways that are not ideal.

Take the time to assess your or your business’s current needs and future plans to determine if you should defensively register domains.