amazon.com registers multiple domains defensively

More and more businesses are registering web addresses defensively.

DomainNameWire.com reports that online retailer Amazon.com has registered several domains related to holiday shopping. See DomainNameWire for the list.

Looking at Who.Is we found that Amazon’s legal department registered the domains for one year. This gives us reason to ponder something about their future. But first, why should your company register domains defensively?

1. Defensively registering domains can add to your search engine optimization. If you link your peripheral web addresses (domains) back to your main site, you rank higher with the likes of Google, Bing and Yahoo!.

2. It essentially builds a virtual fence of similar URLs around your brand. It keeps competition away from your trademark, while letting in customers from multiple locations.

3. Protects your brand from your detractors. Just ask United Airlines about Untied.com. A simple mistype and your potential business is reading horror stories about your service.

So about Amazon and their newly registered domains: The ones we saw were only registered for one year. If you’re going for SEO on your defensive domains, then register them for longer blocks of time. You’ll get more respect from the Googles of the world. In Amazon’s case, we think they may be waiting it out until they can own Amazon.Amazon, Kindle.Amazon and all the other second-level domains they can attach to their new dotAMAZON. Those pricey new dotBRANDS look to be available in January of next year.

For the rest of us, a good bet for protecting trademarks and brands will be buying the right (and competitively priced) domains.