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.


