Register domains that protect your brand name
The Protect your name card shows web addresses with your exact brand name that nobody owns yet. Register a few of them, and nobody else can use those names for a copycat store. The card is on the Clones page, on every plan.
What Recon picks
Recon takes your exact store name and puts it on the endings online stores use most: .com, .shop, .store, .co, .online and .net. For a store at northfell.com, that means names like northfell.shop and northfell.store.
Recon leaves out:
- Your own domain, and any name someone else already registered. Registered names appear under Lookalike domains instead.
- Typo domains, such as northfel.com. Typos catch people who mistype your address. Clones of stores rarely use them, so owning them does little.
- Your name plus a word, such as northfell-sale.com. There are too many of these to own. Finding and reporting them works better.
The card shows three names first. To see the rest, click the Show more link below the list (it says how many, such as Show 1 more). A green Available badge means the last scan found that nobody owns the name.
When Recon has found clones of your store, the card names the endings they use. Registering your name on the other endings means nobody else can use them.
Register a name
- In Recon, open Clones.
- Find the Protect your name card.
- Next to a name with the Available badge, click Register.
Namecheap, a domain company, opens in a new tab with that name. You buy the domain there, in your own account, at Namecheap’s price. If you already have a domain provider you like, you can register the same name there instead.
Where Recon could not confirm whether a name is free, you see Check availability instead of Register. It opens the same Namecheap search.
Recon does not buy, hold or manage domains for you. The link is a plain search link, so Recon earns nothing from it.
Is it worth it?
Each domain costs a small yearly fee at the domain company. Owning the obvious ones takes them off the table for anyone who wants to copy your store.
It is insurance, not a wall. Someone can still copy your store on a name that is not yours, such as your name plus a word. That is why Recon keeps checking lookalike domains and watching for clones of your store.
After you register a name, connect it to your store in Shopify or let it redirect to your main domain. If one of your new names later shows up under Lookalike domains, click This is my domain so Recon stops mentioning it.
Related articles
- Lookalike domains: what Recon checks: the names Recon watches, and what each badge means.
- What is a clone of your Shopify store?: why copycat stores use names like yours.
- Recon FAQ: short answers to common questions.