Companies often use unique domain names when advertising special events, promotions and for many more reasons… but don’t just kill the domain name when you think you are done with it!

Domain names can live on long after you think you are done with them. Traffic!

• Print doesn’t just go away
• Links on the internet don’t just go away
• Video’s on YouTube don’t just go away

Would you lock your business door and keep out 5 people a day? 50? 250?

Killing a domain name can do just that! You are not allowing people to "come in" if you simply make your domain name not resolve when you think you are done with it!

Example

Progressive® insurance ran a promotion called "Help Flo" and used the domain name HelpFlo.com which I wrote about 1 year ago. My article was very positive on the methods Progressive used and I thought they did everything "right". Well, that didn’t last!

Progressive killed the domain, because the promotion was done. If you were to visit HelpFlo.com now, the domain name simply doesn’t resolve. It’s a dead page! Nothing!

The problem?

Google displays over 53,700 links to HelpFlo.com! That means that websites like DotWeekly, links to the domain from the story I wrote. If somebody reads my article for whatever reason and decides to click the link I provided, Progressive shut the door on them. Those are ALL chances for Progressive to get people in the door, but by having the "old domain" not resolve is a waste! It’s a bad business decision!

Heck, there is even a link directly on Progressive.com to HelpFlo.com!

Solution

The easiest thing to do with a domain name that you think you are "done with" is to redirect it to a similar page on your main website. In this case for Progressive, simply redirect the domain name to another "Flo" page! By redirect, I am talking about a domain name 301 redirect. It’s free to do and smart.

301 redirects are used to permanently move a site to a new location. Search engines do not apply penalties to 301 redirects the way they apply them to many other types of redirects. After doing the redirect, any traffic to the old domain name will be redirected to the location you did the redirect. It only makes sense to do it!

I think 2-3 years after you have done the 301 redirect, you could kill off the domain name (let it expire, sell it, etc.) but that is only if the domain isn’t getting any traffic! HelpFlo.com is getting several Hundred unique visitors a month currently and in no way should have been killed off.

Unless you are in the business of preventing customers in the door, I’d suggest not killing off your domain names when "you think" you are done with them. They may still have life in them, so why kill them when it only cost about $12 a year (domain renewal) to keep them alive and redirects are free.

I find it amusing that companies will hire another company to help them to be "accurately represented online", yet they don’t hire somebody like me to help them domain wise! Instead of having a company contact me to "change a link", do a redirect with the domain you killed off to the new link.

I have been covering domain names used in Super Bowl commercials since 2009 and I did so again this year. I like doing these types of articles, because it’s history and nice to be able to look back.

Here are past articles if you wish to look back: 2009 Super Bowl Commercials Domain Wise | 2010 Super Bowl Commercials Domain Wise | Missed 2011 due to having a newborn

One very clear change with the Super Bowl commercials this year, was the use of Hashtags. The Twitter.com invention of #WordsHere

This has been a pretty clear trend lately, so it didn’t surprise me to see so many used in the 2012 Super Bowl commercials. I’m not a fan of hashtags, because they are used on Twitter and only Twitter. Search is basically out the window and so is direct navigation. Not everybody even knows what a hashtag is and not everybody even uses Twitter. Maybe I’m just missing something with the explosion of using hashtags in ads, but I’m not a fan of them.

The Ads

~ Bud Light started off the use of #hashtags when they ran with #MakeItPlatinum in the beer commercial . BL ran with the hashtag a second time as well. After the first two ads, Bud Light changed things up a little bit and displayed their Facebook URL for the remaining two ads they did, with Facebook.com/budlight . I liked the dog one the best where he fetched beers.

~ Audi continued with the hashtag use and used #SoLongVampires

~ Best Buy jumped in next and did something that at least made sense to me! They used a domain name AND hashtag in their ad. BestBuy.com was displayed and the hashtag of #BetterWay

~ GE was next up in the hashtag department and used the hashtag #WhatWorks in its ad.

~ H&M followed suit with Best Buy and used both a domain name and hashtag in its ad. They displayed the domain HM.com and used the hashtag #BechhamForHM

At this point in the ads, things got back to pretty much normal and mainly domain names were displayed in ads.

~ Chevy Sonic ad used the domain name LetsDoThis.com! I love the use of this domain. GM used MarkMonitor’s DnStination Inc. to purchase the domain name on or about September 8, 2011.

~ Century 21, the real estate company used the lone 3 character domain name used in the game. They used the domain name C21.com to send visitors to their website. C21.com isn’t actually a website, so Century 21 used one of the powers of domain names and used it as a redirect/forward to their main website Century21.com . C21.com is much easier to remember, some people have a hard time spelling "century", plus it’s easy to track how effective c21.com was, because it was only used in the Super Bowl ad! Very smart….

~ Hulu jumped into the game and used the domain name HuluPlus.com . This domain was also used as a redirect/forward to a specific page on Hulu.com

~ The Dictator movie used the domain name RepublicOfWadiya.com… which is basically all in a foreign language (at least to me). Pretty funny, and I’m sure the movie will be funny as well.

~ Honda continues with its bad habits and used a sub-domain in its ad. Not only a sub-domain, but one with a hyphen in it! They used the sub-domain CR-V.Honda.com in its Ferris Bueller ad. I explain more, using one of Honda other sub-domains as to why its confusing and should be used.

~ The movie Act Of Valor, actually used and  Exact Match domain name… which really impressed me, for a movie domain! ActOfValor.com was displayed.

~ MetLife ran the "Character" ad and didn’t display any domain, hashtag etc… but did include a small F (Facebook) icon, with "Meet The Cast" by the icon. No address was given.

~ Samsung used a Facebook URL, but it was so long… I didn’t have time to write it down and nor do I remember what it was now.

~ NBC promoted a new show called "Awake" and used the unique domain name IsHeAwake.com . That domain name was used as a forward/redirect to the shows Facebook page. Samsung should take notice!

There were plenty of other domain names used in ads, but nothing "new" really. GoDaddy used QR Codes and clearly GoDaddy.com and GoDaddy.co. Telefloral.com was displayed in their ad, CareerBuilder.com was used also, OldNavy.com, Hyundai.com and NFL.com. I’m sure I likely missed a couple ads, because it takes time to fetch as beer! My dogs just look at me funny when I try to get them to fetch me one.

Overall, it was kind of what I expected. I thought there would be more Facebook.com/BlahBlah but I’m glad there wasn’t! I actually thought less domains would be used but I was pretty happy with the amount that was used. It tells me that domains continue to be very important to these companies and the Hashtag | Facebook URL | Whatever else besides a domain…. isn’t very smart!

There are so many options with domain names, they can be very easy to remember and provide options!

The 2012 Super Bowl ads themselves… they were only so/so for me. Nothing that really made me laugh or made me feel like… I need that product or I need to use that company!

GoDaddy.com is prepping for the big game today and has already changed its home page hours before the Super Bowl® is ready to air. The main focus on the home page is for the two Super Bowl commercials they are running with a large video box and they also added GoDaddy Girl® Jillian Michaels alongside Danica Patrick who normal is the sole GoDaddy Girl on the home page of GoDaddy.com! The GoDaddy.co home page is the exact same as the .com! Not even a GoDaddy.co Logo!

A couple other clues are revealed with the Super Bowl Home Page for GoDaddy:

The "Body Paint" .co ad will likely run very early in the game, as you can view the "internet only version" at kickoff on GoDaddy.com

"The Cloud" spot must be running close to half time, as that is when the internet only version will be available at GoDaddy.com

Using direct navigation to GoDaddy.com redirects you to http://event.godaddy.com/com/default.htm and using direct navigation to GoDaddy.co redirects to http://event.godaddy.co/co/default.htm . If you click anything when using .co, the GoDaddy domain name changes to .com!

GoDaddy is doing a very poor job with its Meta Description and Page Title in Google for GoDaddy.co searchers! I mean, really bad!

They don’t even have a page title or meta description. The domain is basically a "forward" to the .com but there are ways to add a page title and meta description to a forward! The good thing for GoDaddy, their com domain name ranks #2 for the search, so I would expect that one to get the majority of traffic, but it doesn’t mention ".co" at all.

GoDaddy is also running new Google Ads that are offering .co and .com domain names for $7.99 that feature Jillian and Danica.

GoDaddy registered the domain name GoDaddyBodyPaint.com (and all other major TLD’s) on December 2, 2011

GoDaddy registered the domain name GoDaddyTheCloud.com (and all other major TLD’s) on December 2, 2011

GoDaddy often registers domain names with its "brand name" + the name of the commercial. The Dec date also give a clue as to when they decided on the commercials that would air for the Super Bowl.

Those are just a couple things that I noticed and wanted to share. Best of luck to all advertisers during the 2012 Super Bowl and the commercials that will air.