Actinic tips to protect online brands

Actinic has prepared a set of tips to help online retailers protect their brand online.

Chris Barling, chief executive officer at Actinic, said that online brands can be threatened by people who want to use retailers' hard-earned brand equity for their own profit, or just to cause trouble.

He added that with simple precautions, 95 per cent of the risk can be eliminated.

1 Trademark your brand Trademarking your brand protects your legal ownership.

The biggest name on the internet, Google, cannot use its 'Gmail' brand in the UK because someone else already owns it.

2 Your brand - your domain Your web address should ideally be the same as your brand name.

If that domain is taken, choose another that contains your brand name.

Purchase relevant 'top level' domains, such as .com, .co.uk, .eu, .info and .biz, to prevent 'cybersquatting' - their use or abuse by someone else.

3 Lock your domain 'Locking' your domain with your domain registrar prevents unauthorised transfer requests.

Otherwise, someone else may gain temporary control of your domain by persuading your registrar that you have left the company and they have taken over.

4 Block the hackers Being hacked can harm your business and damage your reputation.

If hackers gain access they may deface or replace your home page, or delete files on your site - which could include your latest batch of orders.

Use secure passwords that are not in any dictionary.

Make them hard to guess, and don't write them down.

If anyone who knows them leaves, change them.

Use a secure ecommerce package for ordering, so that credit card details are encrypted.

Then if your site is hacked, your customers will still be secure.

5 Brand your intellectual property Claim your brand, and demonstrate your intention to protect it.

Include your brand name and logo on every web page and in every downloadable document.

6 Aim to be first in searches for your brand Optimise your home page for your brand name.

Use it at least three or four times in the text of the page.

Include it in the page title, meta description and meta keyword tags, and in text links pointing from other pages to the home page.

7 Protect your copyright Put a copyright notice on every site page, and every downloadable document.

Search Google for unique phrases used on your site, to see if anyone has copied them.

Unless they are partners or resellers, contact them with instructions to remove the content.

If they refuse, get a solicitor to write a legal 'cease and desist' instruction.

8 Search advertising Your competitors may pay search engines to display their own advertisement to everyone who searches for you.

This can be confusing for customers.

You can no longer prevent competitors from advertising against your brand name, but you can fight back by recruiting a network of affiliates who can also advertise, and drive your competitors down the rankings.

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