The Keyword Domain Trap – Avoid Generic Domain Names, Pick Something Unique and Brandable

• Home
• Why Blog About Domain Names?
• Contact
• My Rules

RSS  → Subscribe

The Keyword Domain Trap – Avoid Generic Domain Names, Pick Something Unique and Brandable

January 22nd, 2010 → 9:58 am @ The Naming Dude

41

Is Men.com a good domain name? How about Furniture.com? Or what about Cars.com? The market place seems to think these are valuable. Men.com sold for 1.3 million. But is it? Are any of these really brands? Has anyone ever said to you “Dude you gotta check out www.furniture.com, it rocks!” or “I just love Men.com…what a great place to go for like, uh, men and stuff!”
How in the world would you market these names and how would you distinguish yourself from the thousands of variants, copycats and hucksters that will inevitably pop up. You can’t trademark a generic word, so forget about taking your competitors to court. You could spend millions advertising the domain only to have people walk away wondering if they were supposed to check out Man.com or Men.com. These generic literal names also carry another layer of baggage and that is in their meaning, or lack of meaning. Is Men.com about the concept of men like in gender studies. Is it about men from a biological point of view? Is it for women looking to find men? Is it for gay men or straight men? Fashion? Sports? Who knows, the name tells us nothing.

Multi-Word Generic Domains Are Often Worse.

Are you looking for health insurance? Do you know the difference between Ehealthinsurance.com, Healthinsurance.org, Healthinsurance.com, Healthinsurancefinders.com, Healthinsuranceinfo.net, Usinsuranceonline.com, Healthinsurancesort.com, Healthinsurance.net, Healthinsurancebrokeronline.com,  Reliablehealthinsurance.net, Findhealthinsurancequotes.net, Healthinsuranceall.com, Newhealthinsurance.com, Healthinsurance.info, 1sthealthinsurancequotes.com, and Healthinsurancebible.com? Do you care? Probably not. And you’re definitely not interested in spending the next fours hours trying to find out. However you do know that Blue Cross and Blue Shield sell insurance. Sounds like a safer bet.
Ah-ha, you say, Google has the same problem. There’s Googlewatch.org , Googlefight.com, and Googlesux.com just to name a few. Well, it may look like the same problem but it’s not. Google variants are different. Google is a unique and proper name. It stands for something and there is only one Google. They basically own the public mind space for the word “search” just as surely Kleenex own “tissues” and Xerox owns “copies”. So much so that all three of these companies names have also become a common shorthand for anything in their category. So for Google, any derivative reference used by competitors, critics and jokesters just reinforces the Google brand. Even a shirt that says “Google Sucks Ass’ enhances the Google brand.
This is not the same for Furniture.com. Variants of the word furniture just dilute the Furniture.com brand, not enhance it. That’s because furniture is a generic word. It doesn’t reference anything but the literal meaning of the word. And a boring word at that. Say it ten times and you’ll probably start to doze off.
No matter how many times someone uses the word furniture it will do nothing to enhance Furniture.com. It is not a brand and never will be. In fact, if someone were to ask you where they should look online to buy furniture, I bet you’d say something  like Ikea, Amazon, Ebay or even Craisglist. But not Furniture.com.

The Proof is in The Branding

Here’s a list of the highest priced domains of all time ( list provided by Fka200.com). How many of these own their category or are even a market leader? Almost none. When’s the last time someone sent you a link to one of these sites telling you gotta check it out? You probably can’t remember. Read each name and tell me the first thing that pops in your head. Except for AsSeenOnTV.com, HolidayInn.com, and iPhone.com which were already established brands, I bet the domain in question isn’t even in the top ten URLs you think of.

Insure.com – Sold for $16,000,000 (16 million dollars) in October 2009 to QuinStreet

Sex.com – Sold for: $14 million on January 19th, 2006

Fund.com – $9,999,950 – Sold in 2008

Porn.com – Sold for $9,000,000 sometime in 2007

Business.com – Sold for $7,500,000 in 1999 (This was pretty much a “business” sale with a developed name)

Diamonds.com – Sold for $7,500,000

Beer.com – Sold for $7,000,000

Casino.com – $5,500,000 – Sold to a private company in 2003

Toys.com $5.1M sold to Toys R Us

AsSeenOnTV.com – Sold for $5,100,000 in January of 2000

Korea.com – $5,000,000 – Sold in January of 2000

SEO.com – $5,000,000 – Sold in 2007

FreePorn.com – $4,000,000 – Sold in February 2008

YP.com – $3,850,000 – Sold to YellowPages.com

Shop.com – Sold for $3,500,000 in 2001

WorldWideWeb.com – $3,500,000 in 1996

AltaVista.com – $3,250,000

Software.com – $3,200,000

Candy.com – $3,000,000 Sold in March 2009 by Rich Schwartz. Deal was $3M + % sales.

CreditCheck.com – $3,000,000 -Sold in June 2007

Loans.com – $3,000,000

eShow.com – $3,000,000

Vodka.com – $3,000,000 Sold December 2006

HolidayInn.com – $3,000,000 Sold in 1995

Wine.com – Sold for $2,900,000 in September of 1999

Wines.com – $2,900,000

CreditCards.com – Sold for $2,750,000 in July 2004

Pizza.com – $2,605,000 April 3, 2008

Tom.com – $2,500,000

Dotnology.com – $2.5 million (2000)

Autos.com – $2,200,000

Computer.com – $2,200,000

Coupons.com – $2,200,000

England.com – $2,000,000

Celebrities.com – $2.0 million (1999)

Telephone.com – $2,000,000

Express.com – $2,000,000

Savings.com – $1,900,000

Mortgage.com – $1,800,000

Seniors.com – $1.8 million (2007)

DataRecovery.com – $1,659,000  Sold in 2008

Branson.com – $1,600,000

SolarEnergy.com – $1,600,000

Cameras.com – $1,500,000

TandBerg.com – $1,500,000

MarketingToday.com – $1,500,000

Deposit.com – $1,500,000

Russia.com – $1,500,000 November 26, 2009

Fly.com – $1,500,000 – RESOLD FOR $1,800,000 (January 2009)

VIP.com – Sold for $1,400,000 in September of 2005

Ad.com – Sold for $1,400,000 April 29, 2009 in TRAFFIC auction

Men.com – $1,320,000

Vista.com – $1,250,000

Ticket.com – Sold for $1,525,000 on Afternic

Feedback.com – $1,230,000

Phone.com – $1,200,000

Find.com – $1,200,000

Scores.com – $1.2 million (2007)

Kredit.de – $1,169,175

Call.com – $1,100,000 – Sold on August 31, 2009

Bingo.com – $1,100,000

Mercury.com – $1,100,000

Cruises.co.uk – $1,099,798 Sold in 2008

Chinese.com – $1,090,504 – Sold July 2007

WallStreet.com – $1,030,000

Rock.com – $1.03 million

Invest.com – $1,015,000  Sold in 2008

WebCam.com – $1,020,000 Sold April 2009 in Rick Latona auction

Vibrators.com – $1,000,000 Sold in 2008

Britain.com – $1,000,000

Fish.com – $1,000,000

Topix.com – $1,000,000

Sky.com – $1,000,000

If.com – $1,000,000

iPhone.com – $1.0 million (2007)

CyberWorks.com – $1.0 million

WhiteHouseCrisis.com – $1.0 million

eFlowers.com – $1.0 million

Beauty.cc – $1.0 million

Most of  these names are so dull, so forgettable, so uninspired, that it’s hard to believe they fetch the money they do. Sure, some were high traffic profitable sites when they sold, but many of these were simply parked domains with nothing but a coming soon page.

Another Perspective on Domain Names

Now let’s do another exercise. Here’s a list of categories and you pick the domain that best matches your perceptions as the proper place to go to.
Buy Books
A. www.buybooksontheweb.com
B. www.cheapbooks.com
C. www.amazon.com

Online Classifieds

A. www.onlineclassifieds.com
B. www.bestwayclassifieds.com
C. www.craigslist.com

Office Supplies

A. www.cheapofficesupplies.com
B. www.discountedofficesupply.com
C. www.staples.com

So was my test fair? Not really. I was obviously highly selective in the categories I used and the samples I picked. I did this to make a dramatic point about generic domains. Even if there were no Amazon, Borders or Powells on the web, do you think there’s any chance that www.buybooksontheweb.com could ever be a category leader? Of course not. Their completely literal, generic, keyword-rich domain name doomed them to an also ran from the get go. They could never be the leading online book seller under any circumstances. Not with a name like that.
Now how about the market leaders, are their names really so brilliant. Not necessarily brilliant, but most definitely better. Staples is a double meaning (staples as in a stapler and staples as in a basic supply). Craigslist is a proper name and highly relevant to its origins (it really was Craig’s List). Amazon was the riskiest name as it was already loaded with meaning. But it was also an exotic abstraction. The Amazon is big and holds the widest variety of plants and animals on the planet. To Americans, who don’t live near it and will probably never visit it in person, it’s mystical place far, far, away.
Could they have succeeded if they picked “Grand Canyon” or “Lake Tahoe” instead? Probably not. Those are very literal and require too great of a cognitive leap to map the idea “Grand Canyon” or “Lake Tahoe” to the biggest selection of  books in the world. Amazon was a risky choice but exponentially better and far more brandable than say Buybooksontheweb.com.

The 4 Exceptions to The “No Generic Keyword” Domain Name Rule

Making a Unique Name by Combining Two Generics

This first exception must be done with intelligence and an ear for the poetic. It’s highly effective and some of the best named and well branded web companies have used this naming device. And that is to combine two generic words in a way that is startling, evocative and original. Photobucket.com is a good example. By themselves the word photo and the word bucket are about as dull and generic as can be. Ah, but put them together and we not only have an original name now, but one that creates a deeper meaning. It immediately engages the mind as you envision first a literal bucket filled with photos and secondly the abstraction of a bucket of photos. On a symbolic level Photobucket is an easy way to gather all your photos. YouTube is a classic example. By themselves the words you and tube are nearly meaningless. Put them together and it not only has a great rhyming quality but it creates an instantly understandable, relatable word pairing loaded with meaning. It’s you (as in the everyday person, joe average) on the tube (television). Television that is about you. Brilliant. Other  good examples are LinkedIn, StubHub, FeedBurner and FaceBook. All pairings of generic words that take on a new meaning when combined.

Your Real Business Name is Already Generic So You’re Stuck With It

The second exception is that your brand name really is a generic. If your business really is called AAA Electrical then by all means, grab that domain if you can. Always get your business name when possible even if your business name is painfully generic. It would have been better if you never called yourself AAA Electrical in the first place, but the damage is done so you might as well go with it.

You’re a First Mover or Occupy an Obscure Niche Market

The third exception is being a first mover. If you invented something that didn’t exist before, something that people would probably like but don’t know it’s available, a generic may be a good strategy. A new client of mine invented or at least perfected the gopher basket. When people go to a garden shop they ask for gopher baskets. They don’t know who the market leader is and they don’t care. They just don’t want gophers killing their plants. His company name is actually Diggers and his unique design is called Root Guard. He’s an  industry leader and I bought and used his product years before meeting him. However his website is GopherBasket.com. It works because it’s a niche market, you may only purchase these once in a lifetime, and his brand name will probably never own the public mind space for that term. It’s just too oddball of a product. However, doing this with orange juice would be a mistake. People buy orange juice weekly. We’re surrounded by it. It’s almost a staple, everyone has an opinion about it, and it’s a highly contested field. So if your company is Minute Maid (a good name with a clever pun) then you should own and market MinuteMaid.com, not OrangeJuice.com which is completely useless and unbrandable but available for only $65,000.

You Don’t Have or Even Want a Brand Because You’re Just Trying Sell Commodities in a Saturated Market

The fourth exception is for the serial entrepreneur. Some people just don’t care. They just want to sell stuff and make money. Anything really. It doesn’t matter. If it doesn’t work out, they’ll just close shop and sell something else. If this is you then by all means go get a really long keyword rich domain. It will give you a little boost in the search engines and anyone who links to your URL is also simultaneously using your keywords in the anchor text. But if you have any aspirations to being a market leader, then skip the generic keyword domain.
File Under: Picking a Good Domain Name – Avoiding Generic Keyword Domain Names – Domain Naming Tips – Why Keyword Rich Domain Names Should be Avoided – Keyword Domain Names Suck


Visit http://www.BackorderZone.com to Backorder your Domain names today!