# BRD-132 — The website domain must relate recognisably to the brand name

> The registered website's domain must bear a recognisable relationship to the legal name or the DBA.

- **Rule ID:** BRD-132
- **Layer:** Brand (`BRAND`)
- **Checks:** `brand.website vs brand.company_name / brand.dba`
- **Severity:** HIGH — Rejected by at least one carrier or provider, and a common cause of failure at the rest.
- **When it bites:** Gates approval — get this wrong and registration is refused
- **How it is detected:** AI judgement over the submitted form; AI judgement over the crawled website or policy page
- **Fix type:** Fix the field — a better value in the form clears it
- **Required by:** Twilio, Bandwidth
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-132/

## Why this rule exists

A reviewer confirms a brand exists by opening its website, and a domain with no visible connection to the name gives them nothing to confirm — they cannot tell a rebrand from a borrowed site. Honest causes are everywhere: a company that acquired a better domain, a practice trading under a founder's name on a descriptive URL, a store on a platform subdomain.

## How to fix it

Register the domain the business actually trades under, and make sure that domain's home page names the business in its title or header. Where the domain genuinely differs from the name, add the trading name to the DBA field so the two can be connected. Done when a reviewer landing on the site can see the registered name on it.

## Example of a compliant value

```text
company_name: Acme Coffee Co, LLC · website: https://acmecoffee.com
```

## Common mistakes

- A platform subdomain such as a myshopify.com store is the common version of this, and it fails for a second reason as well — it is not the brand's own domain.