Despite all the protection in the world, Spam still appears in our email inboxes every day of the year.

It’s annoying, intrusive, and pointless. I cannot remember a single instance where I have seen an item of Spam and said “Wow! I really must buy something from this business.” In my mind, any business that resorts to “advertising” via Spam deserves no customers at all.

All lot of spam can be traced directly from your website to your email because these two items are often interlinked for obvious reasons. The Catch-22 is – we need our websites AND we need people to be able to contact us via our website. Luckily, with a few simple precautions, your website can be made (almost) spam-free.

Here is five tips that work for us at Tropical Coast Web Design:

1.       Keep all your frameworks and plug-ins “up to date”

If your website runs on the WordPress framework or something similar, there are regular updates that you must be installing. These updates fix known issues in the system and often address any identified security problems.

To install these updates, simply find the UPDATES button on the main Dashboard (in WordPress, at the very top of the screen – other systems have something similar) and update any components that are listed on the page. Note:  It is always wise to back up your site before applying any updates to your system.

2.       Disguise your email if you must display it on a page.

Spambots, the automated “robots” used by spammers to trawl the internet, have been designed to seek out email addresses from business websites to add to their databases. To avoid your email address being used, you can disguise your email address inside the code of the website (you may need your designer to do this).

Simply substitute the @ symbol for its code equivalent (@) in your code. Your email address will look the same on the site however the Spambots will see something totally different and ignore it completely!

3.       Use a high-quality Spam filter in your CMS

Most savvy computer users have a spam filter attached to their email program to snag any of the nasties trying to slip by. These filters can also be installed on your Content Management System to prevent Spam comments and emails being sent to/from your site.

Two of the best I have found for WordPress are Spam-Free WordPress and the generically installed Askimet. Be warned that Askimet is only free to personal bloggers – for a business site, you will need to subscribe with a monthly payment. Spam-Free WordPress is completely free and currently the install of my choice – it does an excellent job.

4.       Include a “honeypot” on your contact form

A honeypot is an invisible field inside your contact forms. Cleverly written, Spambots are designed to fill any fields that you have on your forms and submit them. With a honeypot, the Spambot will complete an invisible field by default (a human can’t see it on screen and therefore can’t fill it out) and your CMS will recognise this as an act of Spam. Bang! Stopped at the first gate! Simple but effective.

5.       Alter your .htaccess file to block continued spammers

This is a system file that is loaded from your server when anyone visits your site and controls some of the site configuration. Certain codes can be included in the .htaccess file to help prevent spam and malicious attacks but as it is a V.I.P. file, you would best leave the coding of it to your web developer.

In the worst-case scenario, rather than just receiving Spam, it can be coming OUT of your website, addressed to others from you! In this situation, people around the world will receive spam emails FROM your email address – not a good image for any business.

This nasty attack is called “Spamvertising” and is caused by an actual security breach (hack) into your web server.

The number one way to prevent this sort of hack is to keep whatever framework your site is built on up to date with the latest updates and patches. The programmers who create these frameworks are generally at the top of their game and will be acutely aware of anything (or anyone) attacking their systems.

Do you have a spam problem? A client approached me recently with a significant spam problem – over fifty emails a day from their website’s contact forms. Using the five simple tips above, I have reduced their spam back to a much more manageable level (less than one or two a day), for which they are very thankful.

Of course, no system will be foolproof but with a few simple precautions, a major Spam problem can be reduced to no problem at all.

Let’s face the facts, everyone knows a good-looking website will grab your attention straight away.

If it is striking to look at with engaging colours and flair, then we most likely will drop in for a closer inspection. But if that site (and its associated business) has no apparent brand character and it does not try to engage with us, that visit to the site may be quite short. We quickly remember that we are visiting for a particular reason and any site that fails to recognise this, going for appearances alone, will lose out on many potential customers.

There are a number of items that need to be taken into consideration whilst building and maintaining a successful business website. Read on and determine whether your site has character and purpose or just shallow “good looks” …

Do not overwhelm your visitors with information

Some websites are far too wordy for their own good. “Short and sweet” should be the general rule of thumb with text content, and sometimes imagery, on a site. Your site visitors are not there to read the entirety of “War and Peace” about your business. Just give them the information that they need in short concise paragraphs, being sure not to leave out any vital details in the process.
Try to use a language that is engaging (not robotic). As I write this marketing blog post, I am speaking it as I type, trying to keep a professional tone balanced with a friendly style (I like to think of myself as a friendly kind of person). Try to be helpful in the information that you share so that potential customers, even if they do not buy, come away with positive vibes about your business. You never know who they might send your way.

The Hook and Call to Action

We have all seen the cheap and nasty commercials on TV – SALE, SALE, SALE, BUY, BUY, BUY – like those for Super Amart or cheesy rug warehouses. Please do not try and replicate this on your site! The main difference between the two mediums is we do not choose what advertisements appear while we watch “My Kitchen Rules” (or whatever your TV poison might be). We do choose what websites we visit.

Try to avoid the hard sell, instead, lead your potential customers towards a sale through the form of some type of engaging story (quality TV ads use this methodology too). An online pool sales website might tell the story of a young family looking for an escape from the summer heat. A business in computer sales to young people may discuss the latest games and the hardware needed to play them. My new portfolio (coming soon…) will display my latest sites and the motivation behind their construction.

Once you have told the story and (hopefully) hooked the customer on what you have to offer, make sure it is blatantly easy to purchase from you. This will involve a distinct “Call to Action” somewhere on the page. They are vital to making the transition from potential customer into actual customer.

Use a consistent brand message

Make sure the tone of your site fits in with the image that you are trying to project to your prospects. Some web designers love to show off their skills, producing out-of-this-world proposals that might not exactly fit the desired brand message. For example, a website for a business that sells baby furniture would not suit a “grunge” style design, even though it might look fantastic.

Along these lines, be sure that whatever website design you create ties in with the current branding you have used in the past. I am a firm believer that a site should work with the layout designs of your business cards, stationery, emails, signage, etc. When building a new site, you may opt to completely re-do all the above but ensure that that the message and style from each is consistent with the business’ brand.

While you are creating or adjusting your site, always keep in the front of your mind why people are seeking out and coming to your business. A potential customer is there to find out what you are all about, what you can offer them and how they can get it from you. They are most definitely not there to say “Wow, pretty website!” so make your site worthy of their visit.

The reason WordPress is so perfect for a wide range of web development purposes is the vast range of add-ons (known as plug-ins) that are readily available for it.

Mostly these plug-ins are free for commercial use (the occasional pro-version purchase is required) and they can be installed in no time – almost instantly enhancing the capabilities of a website.

Here is some of the plug-ins that Tropical Coast Web Design has integrated into customer sites – along with the addresses of those sites so you can check them out for yourself.

WooCommerce

If you have been looking into building an online store using your WordPress framework, there is an extremely high chance that you have come across WooCommerce.

Currently the most popular e-commerce plug-in in the world, WooCommerce is open-source (this means the code is available for free) and runs online shops for all types of business – from the exceedingly small right through to the large corporate-sized stores. It has numerous add-ons that further enhance the shopping experience (shipping, shopping cart, etc) and has PayPal integration built-in saving the store owner the worry of collecting credit card information.

Setup time: Lengthy (depending on size of store)

Our Work: Hinchinbrook Honey, Jane Bari Design, Heat n Eat and Engine Guard are just a few sites in which we have used the WooCommerce plugin to create successful, automated online stores.

Booking Calendar

The Booking Calendar plug-in enables online booking services for accommodation sites such as Bed and Breakfasts, Motels, and Hotels. Website visitors can check the availability of various accommodation types using an intuitive calendar style interface. Bookings are then registered through the site’s dashboard with the website administrator for approval. Once the approval is given, emails are automatically sent back to the customer confirming the booking.

Setup time: Two hours (approx.)

Our Work: See the Booking Calendar in action on the site for Vista Hinchininbrook, integrated with AirBnB and Bookings.com

Appointment Booking Calendar

This plug-in is fantastic for accepting online bookings from available times shown through an on-screen calendar. Once a time has been set, the customer can then pay in advance through built-in PayPal integration, once again meaning no credit card information has to be stored on site.

You can use it to accept bookings for consultations, interviews, transportation, and a multitude of other activities. The plug-in also allows the site administrator the ability to define the number of bookings that can be accepted.

Setup time: Two hours (approx.)

Our Work: We have integrated this plug-in on the site for Co-Habitat (Townsville)

Calculated Fields Form

The Calculated Fields Form allows the website administrator the ability to create forms that will dynamically calculate various fields of information and then display the calculated values. The setup includes a form builder with pre-set calculations, or you can create your own from scratch.

The plug-in can be used for creating calculations for a variety of purposes including general calculators, weight monitoring and quotes for rentals of all types.

Setup time: Two hours (approx.)

Our Work: Tropical Coast Web Design uses the Calculated Fields Form plug-in on the website for The Lock-up, Bowen. Site visitors can choose a self-storage size and select the period required. The plug-in then calculates the overall cost for the storage period.

If you feel that any of these plug-ins would add to the experience of visiting your website (or maybe some different ones), please contact Tropical Coast Web Design. We will look at what we can do for you and provide a free detailed quote on the installation and setup of the plug-in for your particular website.

A small amount of research into promoting your site with the search engines will always uncover the same simple fact: fresh content on a website = more chance of success with those search engines. Even with Google frequent updates of their search algorithm (the “secret sauce” they use to rank web pages), site content has always a vital factor in determining the way that a site appears in search rankings.

But in addition to this search ranking, the actual content of a website determines its success in the long run for a number of factors. Without the content being of some value to those visiting the site, a web page will quickly lose potential customers and fade into obscurity.

Fresh site content encourages your visitors to return

If the first impressions of your website are positive and the visitor immediately feels that there is benefit in doing so, they may “bookmark” your site for future reference. But what happens when they return in a couple of months and find that the content of the site has not changed and has not been updated? There goes that bookmark!

Adding a Blog to your site allows you to sit down (once a week or once a month) and add fresh information for your site visitors. Adding a social media (or two) such as Facebook or Twitter can also be of benefit as whenever you post a status update or a tweet, these will be “beamed” straight to your website. Viola – instant content!

But you cannot just post any old information, and this leads us to the next point…

Fresh content provides value to your Site Visitors (for free!)

Your fresh content could be in the form of a Blog (originally known as web-log). In a blog, businesses could easily discuss industry relevant news such as the latest technologies being implemented. Alternatively, the Blog could the form of problem-solving advice and tips (just like this one!). Or it could simply outline the movers and shakers in the company that month. Whatever the Blog’s theme, the most important factor is to provide the site visitor with information that they will value and return for more in the future.

Browsing through business websites, it is clear that many have chosen this option however it is also apparent that most blogs are drastically out of date.

Valued Content = More Site Visitors = More Chance of Conversion

Fresh Content helps builds your personal brand as a KPI in your industry

Although the acronym KPI stands for “Key Performance Indicator,” it has also evolved to represent “Key Person of Influence” in business circles, both here and abroad. To become a “real” KPI, a businessperson must position their personal brand as a leader in their industry, a person for others to look to when they need advice or services.

To do this, a KPI must project their knowledge on the masses. What better place to do that than on your own website? With an adequate Social Media plan, any aspiring KPI’s could Blog, tweet, and Facebook their way into the minds of their peers and prospective customers. Once again, the content of the site must be relevant, professional and project authority in the information that it presents.

This is a long-term strategy, not something that can be done overnight. But the entire process, whether KPI or not, will lead to higher quality content on the website and this can only be good for the online marketing of your business.

Conclusion

When a business fails to keep their website content current, they are diminishing the entire point of having a site in the first place. It is paramount that content be kept fresh and relevant to those potential clients of a business who seek their services or products. Not only does fresh content make a business easier to find in the search engines but it increases the chances of a sales conversion.

It has long been recognised that certain colours can invoke certain emotions in people.

Some colours automatically convey an instant importance such as the colour red which grabs attention or can warn you to stop performing a particular action (traffic signs, no smoking, and danger). Other colours can be associated with an emotion: orange conveys a feeling of warmth whilst blue can exude a feeling of tranquillity. These feelings and emotions have been ingrained into human psyche and we can feel them without even acknowledging that we do.

What most people may not be aware of is that colour can be and is used in brand marketing and design to incite the same type of reactions. Can you imagine an all-action brand like Red Bull using any other colours than red and yellow? Would you feel the same emotion if they used a combination of blue and grey? Not a chance.

The possibilities of how colour psychology can be used in everyday marketing are endless. A couple of suggestions could be:

• Paint your office
• Using images in your materials that include plenty of the colour you are trying to convey.
• Vary your text to include colours.
• Weave your colour throughout all your branding materials.

What about in your website design and content layout?

Colour can be used to significant effect to drive customers into making decisions whilst visiting and interacting with your site. Your Call to Action must be in colours that incite some form of reaction from the site visitor. Your branding needs to be created to invoke the same feelings as done so successfully by the brands in the infographic above. Your content presentation needs the same level of attention too – too often a site is “let down” by poorly implemented content layout.

To avoid mismatching of colours and the wrong colours being used, make sure your designers have been fully and clearly briefed on:

• your business’ mission statement.
• why you do what do.
• what your business wants to be known for.
• who is your target audience.

While you are in discussions with your designer, ensure that they are acutely aware of the appropriate colour choices for your brand and business.

Anybody active on social media will have seen the advertisements for the free online website builders such as Wix, Webs and Weebly.

Their offerings actually seem quite reasonable. Most offer plenty of space for a business site along with easy to use interfaces at no cost at all to the user. Surely, it’s a terrific way to get online quickly.

If we take a closer examination of these sites, their setup reveals a different story.

“Hold on, hold on…” you must be saying, “Aren’t you a web designer?”

Yes, but if you read on, I have some very valid points that may keep you away from using these sites as an option for your business.

“There is no such thing as a free lunch!”

That is definitely the case here. All the free options from these online website builders require that your site gets “branded” somewhere with their logo, not just your own. Some sites are slightly less conspicuous than others but nevertheless, it does look a little un-professional to have someone else’s logo adorning your business site. To remove the logo in most cases, you must join a paid version of the site.

The Optional Extras all add up

Items that are not included in the free setup will also add to the cost of the website for the business owner (specific features, plug-ins, extra space, extra bandwidth, etc). Even the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) of your site will need to be paid for and without this crucial factor taking care of; no-one might find your business online in the first place.
The original free option suddenly does seem so free after all.

Ownership of the Site

You must also be aware that the site is retained on their servers, not yours – so regardless of how much sweat, tears, and effort you put into the site, they retain control. If you decide to move away from the service provider, you most probably will not be able to take your site with you and that means you will have to start from nothing. In addition, if you have registered your domain name with them and it isn’t a .com.au – you will have an absolute nightmare trying to regain control of that domain.

Stand out from the crowd

All the bells and whistles in the world (if you pay for them) still don’t make up for the fact that, whatever you produce will not be unique just to your business. Online website builders rely heavily on the use of design templates. So even if they offer one hundred assorted designs, chances are that the most attractive and useful to you will also be extremely popular with other users.

Your business is unique, regardless of what field you are operating in. Therefore, your site needs to be unique and personally tailored to your business. It needs to cater for every aspect of your online presence. You “might” be able to customize these online templates to suit – but then another question arises – do you, as the business owner, have the time to devote learning the ropes and creating the site that your business needs?

Save the headache – use a real Website Designer

And this is the #1 reason businesses are still choosing to use a professional website designer to create their online presence. It is our job to make you look good on the internet, cater for all aspects of your business online and provide a professional service that ensures that the journey online is as stress-free as possible.

Depending on your requirements, a free website may just be what you need however if you need flexibility, originality, a site that caters specifically for your website and you don’t have the time to worry about your online presence, let us take care of it for you. That’s what we do!

Additional Note: It has been reported recently that the use of online website builders for some businesses has resulted in the spamming of their clients! This could be a PR disaster in the making – the client could receive the spam from you and then you may cop the wrap for it! Beware!

Your website is built and ready for the influx of customers you are expecting.

You’ve done your research into a successful website and you’ve put in the hard yards and used a reputable designer to get it all done.

Your “Call to Action” couldn’t be clearer if it jumped out and bit your site visitors on the nose. The content of the site is fresh and full of juicy but useful information. Products in your e-commerce store scream out for someone to buy them – they are just that good.

Everything is perfect but no-one is coming.

What’s gone wrong? When everything else is in place – how do you get traffic through the front door of your website?

Tip #1: Identify your ideal customer and then hook them

Sit down with your business partners or employees and grab a pen and paper. You need to do some brainstorming and map out who is most likely to purchase your products or services. You need to examine aspects such as age, gender, social status and location amongst many others that may “pop up” in your discussion. This process is vitally important as it clearly identifies who you should be targeting and can often determine how to grab their attention.

For example, If you are in retail selling women’s clothing of a certain kind, your ideal target audience may be women over the age of 40, on an average wage, who are looking for clothing that is affordable and makes them look younger/slimmer.

Once you have identified your ideal customer, brainstorm again to find ways to connect with them. What does your ideal customer read, watch, listen to or even do?

Some possible courses of action include using Facebook advertising that allows your business to target directly to the market you want with specifics such as gender, age and general interests. You could also look at traditional marketing through magazines, radio or newspapers. What other interests does your ideal customer have that you can hook into? Write them down and test them out.

Tip #2: Identify your current customers and leverage that relationship for your website

While the last tip identified your “ideal” customer, you can’t ignore the others than may fall outside that “ideal” bracket. If you have been in business for a while, you will have customers who have bought from you in the past and continue to do so. You can use this relationship to build traffic for your website.

• Set up a referral program with a coupon giving discounts to referring customers.
• Give out your web address with each physical purchase or even on your invoices in the form of a simple, plain business card (your logo on one side, web address on the other).
• Run competitions through your social media contacts that can expand to an outside audience and draw them to your site.

Tip #3: Use your industry links

Look at the contacts you have already have through your industry and look for like-minded businesses that you can link through. You may even pursue the idea of package deals: for example, a wedding MC may team up with a venue, local band, florists and a photographer to promote a full package deal. Set yourself as the prime organiser of the package and get customers flowing your site for the full details.

Tip #4: Sponsor your local community

Sponsor an event in your local community and be sure to brand it with your website details. You might sponsor the local rugby league competition, a charity event or even part of a large festival in your community. Purchase some large banners (the rollout ones are perfect) and get them into the public eye. Place business cards, brochures even sample bags where they are highly visible during the event and make sure that you are hand to answer any questions and prompt people towards your site.

There is a multitude of methods and tricks that you can implement to get your site pumping with visitors. Literally thousands of articles have been written about just using Social Media to drive site traffic in favour of your business. You only need to try something and see what works for your particular industry.

While you are doing this, keep a close eye on your site statistics and engage with your new customers to see where they are coming from. This will give you the data to determine what is working and what is not.

No-one, but the very naïve, will pretend that running a successful website isn’t hard work. But all the heartache, effort and time spent will be quickly rewarded when you start to see new customers coming through your site’s front doors and more importantly, buying from you.

When designing the home page of any new website, it’s key to remember that potential customers (prospects) will be coming to the home page in search of a few key items.

If those items are not readily available (i.e. hidden or obscure), the bounce rate of people leaving the site will be fairly high.

To prevent this, those key items need to be integrated into the planning of the new design right from the very beginning. I always sit down with a pencil and paper, (I know – how old fashioned of me!) and sketch out those features which must be included for a successful home page.

Distinct Branding and Contact Information

This one is a no-brainer. Make sure that as soon as anyone hits your site, they can see immediately who you are and how they can contact you. Get your logo in the all familiar position at the top left of your page (that’s where you look for it, isn’t it?) and have a phone or clickable email up there too – possibly in the top right corner. Easy to see and act on.

Call to Action

In website marketing, a Call to Action (CTA) is a predominant item somewhere on a page that provokes the site visitor to gain an immediate response. Usually the CTA utilises action verbs such as “Call Us Now”, “Click here to find out more” or “visit our online-store”.

The CTA must be easily visible so that it attracts attention and get a response. On the new site for Tropical Coast Web Design, the CTA is in the main header for each page:

• Get a CMS Website.
• Build an online Store.
• Boost your site traffic.

These are the three keys services that I offer and I want prospective customers to find which service they require immediately.

Essential Information

Grab that pencil and paper again and think about the information your clients need to know about you straight away?

• Do you have a strict geographic area that you work within?
• What are the services that you provide?
• If you provide professional services, prospective clients may need some information on your experience and background.

Stick to the K.I.S.S. principle – keep it short and simple. If your site visitors wish to expand on the basic information that you have provided on the front page, include links to the pages with the expanded details.

Clear Navigation

Don’t overload your site visitors with a gazillion options in regards to navigation around your site. Keep any menus in their familiar positions (i.e. in the header or left side bar). When site designers get a little too inventive with the placement of components, confusion can often set in with site users.

Keep your menu options to a basic level – maybe utilising dropdown menus if you want to allow quick movement to content elsewhere on the site.

Conclusion

Take a look at your site’s front page and ask yourself the following questions:

• Is there enough information? Or is there too much?
• Does it encourage further exploration into the site?
• Can a prospect interact directly with me form this page or will they have to dig deeper to do so?

If you need any help with the above, get in touch with Tropical Coast Web Design. We can discuss those very questions and create a front page that will get you attention!

It was once optional for a small business to have a website. Nowadays, having an 24/7 online presence is mandatory to remain competitive in a global marketplace.

But keeping a website current and up-to-date is often hard for a small business. Your employees often have little “spare” time for tasks such as site updates and, as a result, websites can easily be forgotten – left on the “do it tomorrow” pile. Without this required attention, a stagnant site will soon start to repel potential business customers, rather than attract.

Luckily, with a little planning during the development stage (and a regular dedication of time), these problems can be easily avoided and your website can become a strong marketing hub for your small business that doesn’t drain your resources.

Integrate a Content Management System (CMS) from Day One

A user-friendly Content Management System allows site owners and managers the ability to update and create new content directly on their websites. By integrating a CMS as the framework for a new website, you are instantly putting yourself into the driver’s seat to control what goes on your site and how “fresh” it stays.

Learning a CMS is not hard either. The basics of WordPress CMS can be learnt in a matter of minutes, as the editing functions are styled like that of a Word Processor. As I often say to new clients – “If you can create a document in Word, then you can update your own website!”

Use a Content Calendar (and stick to it)

A content calendar (also known as an editorial calendar) helps to plan out new content for your website or social media feed and details when it will be created. This weekly, monthly or yearly calendar should be an integral part of your business’ overall marketing strategy.

By planning content in advance, you (or whoever manages your website) can commit to producing site-worthy information that is suitable for your target audience. By putting a due date on it and ensuring that date is adhered to, working on your site becomes part of your everyday business schedule.

Automate Site Updates and Customer Interaction

If it is possible to time aside for working on your site’s content, take advantage of tools such as the content scheduling that is built into WordPress. Create five blog posts or page updates at one time then use the schedule to program the dates that you want the content to be released onto your website.

Allow an Employee to take ownership of website management

Although small businesses don’t have employees to “spare”, it would be ideal to assign the maintenance and upkeep of the website to one person – a web-savvy employ who could take care of both website and social media posts.

Giving ownership of the site to an employee (with guidance of course) ensures that the site will be monitored and “fed” new content to keep your online customers, and Google, happy.

Get your Web Developer to care of updates for you

If all else fails and managing your website is just not possible in-house, look to a professional. Many web development companies offer a monthly plan which includes website content updates. Caution though, if you are taking this option, compare the plan price against the everyday (hourly) rate of the company to ensure that you are getting a decent offer.

You will still to need to provide content via email but a professional will get it online, make it look pretty and ensure that it gets the right sort of attention.

An out-of-date website that is uncared for will cost you business. Prospects visiting the site will get a poor first impression and Google won’t care for your site either. With the tips above, your site remains “fresh” and acting as a positive reflection of the small business that it portrays.

A few years back, a client of Tropical Coast Web Design went through the unfortunate experience of having their .com.au domain name “stolen” from underneath their feet.

Whilst the domain “hijacking” was done through legitimate means, the registrant who acquired it had no right to the name itself and it caused disruption as my client’s customers could not access their website for many weeks.

Domain Hijacking sounds like a criminal activity but the actual definition can go both ways.

Wikipedia describes Domain Hijacking as “the act of changing the registration of a domain name without the permission of its original registrant, or by abuse of privileges on domain hosting and registrar software systems, a cybercrime.”

In the case of our client, their domain name had simply lapsed in payment. In Australia, lack of payment doesn’t mean that the name is immediately available for anyone to buy. Even after the due payment for renewal has passed, the business still has 14 days to “pay up” and reacquire their .com.au domain name.

During this 14-day period though, the domain name will appear on the Australian Domain Authority’s (AudA) website as pending expiry and this is where those dubious businesses can swoop it and attempt a hijack. They can set up a domain backorder account through legit means such as GoDaddy and CrazyDomains.  If the payment isn’t forthcoming from the original registrant, the backorder will immediately purchase the domain as soon as it becomes available.

What can you do?

Fortunately, in Australia, our .com.au domains are protected to a certain degree. To register a particular domain, it must have a clear or exact link to the business who is registering it. For example, Tropical Coast Web Design, who specialise in website design, cannot register a domain name for deckfurniture.com.au – it has nothing to do with our business and, if picked up by the AuDA, we would receive a rap over the knuckles and lose the name with no refund.

It’s important to note that this does not apply to regular .com domain names – that is why it is so important to register the Australian .com.au domains.

In the case of my client, the domain name was taken and used by a business not related to anything in the domain name itself. At my suggestion, my client quickly contacted the AuDA about the hijacking issue, a brief investigation was undertaken and the domain was released for re-purchase. Tropical Coast Web Design purchased the domain back on behalf of our client and we were back in business.

The downside was that their business website was out of action for over a month – a long time, especially if you are an online retailer.

To prevent your domain name being taken, be sure that you have automatic payment renewal set up through your domain register and credit card details are current and not likely to expire soon. Your domain register will email you in advance when renewal is upcoming so also check that your registered email address is correct.

Tropical Coast Web Design can register domain names on behalf of clients and take care of any automated payments ensuring that domains remain in the hands of their rightful owners.

Domain Hijacking is not the end of the world. If you do have a legitimate claim to the domain name – get in touch with the AuDa and they will investigate the issue on your behalf.

But as always, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.