Saturday’s guest post about keyword alternative domain names seems to have hit a nerve. I wanted to follow up and give my view on the topic.
The best way to express how I feel is by sharing my previous successes. I owned two real estate companies, one used a keyword domain name and the other did not. I sold both of these companies in the early part of 2008.
PropertyMitigation.com – Keyword rich domain name that says exactly what it is, a short sale company. Ranks #1 in Google for the term “property mitigation”. I spent nothing in advertising this company. All business was based off of referrals from my primary company Mr. 3 Days.
Mr3Days.com – No keywords. Without knowing the slogan “We Buy Houses, Cash In 3 Days”, it wouldn’t make sense. I owned the toll free number, domain names and corporation. I spent thousands in advertising every month.
Both domain names were picked before any of my knowledge of the domain industry. I had no idea what a keyword domain was and why it mattered. I’m assuming the rest of the world is the same. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss. There was no pressure to picking the perfect domain name based on what the domain industry says is good or bad. Honestly, if it was not for the domain industry I would not care what a keyword domain name is.
Here is my logic without considering our industry, and I will say this is an odd concept, to some at least. I look for the best possible domain name based on people. That’s right, I pick a name based on what my customer could relate to and/or understand. More often than not it brings me to keyword domain names. If the keyword domain name is not available I do get creative. Mr3Days.com was not the first choice for my real estate company, that would have been RealEstate.com, WeBuyHouses.com or SellMyHouse.com. These names were taken and not for sale, so I kicked in with some creative thinking, created my slogan, cartoon character and then the name came to me. Very similar to my current branding, Chef Patrick. I started with DNKitchen.com, realized all kitchens have a head chef, created the character and re-branded as ChefPatrick.com.
Which do I believe was more successful of the two, Mr3Days.com (made up) or PropertyMitigation.com (keyword)? Mr3Days.com hands down!
Closing thoughts:
- Keyword domain names are most important to online only businesses.
- Keyword domain names are important if radio advertising is in your marketing plan.
- Keyword domain names are not the end all for SEO. ChefPatrick.com ranks very well for “Domain News and “Domaining”, most days on the first page of Google.
- Being creative with a domain name is OK!
- Some of the most successful companies have “made up” names. Examples – Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook, Starbucks, Publix, YouTube, MySpace, eBay and so many more.
- Visit Alexa.com and view the top 100 sites. The majority of them have no keywords related to the site itself.
This is why I love reading your blog. At times, getting that generic keyword and ‘getting it’ just isn’t possible. If you can’t get it, don’t kill your idea–just be a bit more creative. Of course, we’d ALL love to own RealEstate.com, but we CAN’T. Some people starting a business out of their basement can’t afford the zillion dollar fees on these domains, so going with something else, regardless of what it is (as long as you really do relate it to what you are doing in some way) WORKS.
I just see a lot of discouragement regarding these “brandables”. Everyone wants everyone else to buy these super generics and make offers and invest your life damned savings into the PERFECT domain… and if you don’t, you fail! WRONG!
Great post. Hopefully it inspires someone to keep on chugging along with their idea.
Thanks for your comment Sammy. Unfortunately I doubt this blog post will do much good. The domain community is brainwashed into believing keyword domain names are the only way to go. With reason though, it means their domain names are worth more.
I’d like to first point out that facebook and myspace are not madeup names. Facebook, specificly, is pretty generic. I also don’t think the domain community is brainwashed into believing keyword domains are the only way to go just the best way to go for the majority of online businesses. If it weren’t true people wouldn’t pay the prices they do no matter what anybody said. If you are going with a brandable you better have an outstanding product or service or you are going to fail. For every Amazon.com there a hundreds of thousands of startups with brandable names that are failing everyday. Having a generic name doesn’t mean you will succeed either but it gives you an above-average fighting chance in a crowded market.
I disagree, Facebook and MySpace are two words put together to sound like something cool. It may pass for generic, but definitely not a keyword name which is what we are discussing.
Keyword domains, I agree that the majority of online business should use them if available. I mentioned there importance to online only businesses in my post.
A domain name is a great start to any business. Without commenting on keyword or made up, the most important things to any business are the product or service and the people in charge. A bad businessman can ruin a perfectly good keyword rich or made up domain name the same.
Again, my stance is, if the keyword domain name is available and/or cost effective for the business person, then start there. If not, it’s ok to be creative, Alexa proves this.
Facebook and MySpace are not two words put together to sound cool. My space is an actual phrase as in “I need my space.” And a facebook has been around long before you were born. Facebook definition is a publication for an organization, such as a school or business, which helps members identify each other; a school yearbook, informal.
I’m sure we can debate this for weeks. Your points are noted, I disagree
And all the Alexa 100 proves is that if you are a social networking site, a social bookmarking site, a search engine, an information portal, a gaming site, a porn site, or a file storage site it’s perfectly ok to use a made up name.
And what we are really doing is splitting hairs at this point and comparing apples to oranges. A generic is best for content specific online e-commerce. If you are selling snowboards online you better believe owning snowboards.com is going to make life a lot easier for you. Can you outrank snowboards.com if you you own tribalsnowboards.com? You most certainly can but it won’t be by much and you’ll have to do twice as much work and spend twice as much money. Now if you specialised in snowboards and your name was squidoo.com. Forget about it. It’s an uphill battle all the way.
Excellent post Patrick, I tend to look for balance and hopefully you can get both. But being creative pays off. Secondly if two people are at TRAFFIC and they just listened to 3 “THEY DON’T GET IT SEMINARS” and both wake up and say “I GET IT” They are both in the Candy business and Candy.com is auctioned, only one can win. Should the other guy forget about the idea and go home ? No you can always be creative and come up with something in my opinion.
Look at domains, there is a domainnews, domaining, domainnamewire, domainingnews, domain this and that. So many most don’t stand out, but people remember you. That’s the point.
Thanks for your input Ray, appreciate it on this and the last article.
A generic is best for content specific online e-commerce. If you are selling snowboards online you better believe owning snowboards.com is going to make life a lot easier for you.
REALLY BETTER TELL THAT TO AMAZON, THEY NEED TO START SELLING THE AMAZON RIVER.
Life Is Good.com better drop that name and buy Tshirts.com
You are taking my words out of context. First, I never said you couldn’t be successful with a non-generic name. That’s absurd. As for Amazon, they are not content-specific. As in one main product. They don’t just sell snowboards (to use my example). They are an online superstore and were one of the firsts to offer that level of customer service to cutomers online which is what propelled them to the top and for many, many years they were operating at a loss. As for Life Is Good, that is a brand, and more importantly, a brand OF shirt. If they were selling any and all t-shirts then Tshirts.com would be the best choice.
Fair enough I already started commenting and did not see the product specific line.
I think the more important part is where does number 2 go. When Candy.com is sold then I think the candy company that missed out can be creative. And if they have better product and more creative they can win. Again IMO
Not sure I agree on Life Is Good, Chris they are selling tshirts that others use the same source for the their tshirts. They want to push their brand, they could have also used the traffic from Tshirts.com, which IMO is the best of both worlds when you can get your brand and the category.
Keyword domains: What does it really mean? The point here is how people are going t search for goods or services they require? How would you start your search for, let’s say, Dog food.
I bet most of us will Google for “Dog food” NOT any brand name.
Now who will rank better for that keyword? DogFood.com or Mario.com?
Patrick agreed in his post above that he did not spend much on advertisement for PropertyMitigation.com. Why? Because it is a keyword domain and ranked #1 in Google. that’s where the catch is. Now think of a small start up company, they don’t have the cash flow to support the vast amount spend on advertising. But what they can do is to buy a Domain name for one time payment and enjoy the traffic.
Keyword Domains comes with traffic, Brand able domains need cash to brand. Idiots names need Swiss bank to brand!
Generic keyword domain names are not to be ignored!
When financing is low I am a big fan of catchy.