But if the domain has not yet been registered, an error message rather than a Web site will be displayed in the browser. The user is forced to check and correct the entry. To avoid defection losses from possible spelling mistakes, domains with precisely such false entries should be registered and redirected to the home page. 

For marketing reasons, generic names with industry-specific references should be registered as additional domains so that losses from missing key words are avoided. Instead of going to a manufacturer’s Web site, for example, the potential customer of an automobile model decides to enter www.touareg.de directly in the hopes of obtaining the desired information in this way. The customer is now redirected to the site of the manufacturer of the model, and the Internet address entered in the browser is modified. The identical procedure is recommended for other product-related names or colloquial synonyms such as gti.de or 3er.de.

Size of the portfolio versus costs  

The successful expansion or administration of an existing portfolio requires consideration of domain registrations and the related costs for domains. Registries¹ offer a technical interface such as e-mail or the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EEP) for ordering a domain; the specifications for data and format differ according to the registry. Before a domain can be registered, the technical interface in the form of an implementation in a software program must be available so that the communication with the registry can take place. This implementation is time-consuming and expensive, but it enables the direct registration of domains with the registry at the lowest price. Companies with a small number of domains will avoid the high costs for the implementation of the registry interface and contact a registrar² who already supports these interfaces and handles orders of domains on behalf of the enterprise. The end customer places an order solely with the registrar who orders the domains from the responsible registry and manages them. The registrar often provides his own management software or interface for software implementations for this purpose. However, the costs for ordering a domain are higher in comparison with the registry.

The following overview shows the price difference for the order of a “.de” domain between a registry and a number of selected registrars: