Who are you and why should I buy from you? A customer doesn’t say this aloud but it’s the question they’re asking the first time they enter your store or visit your website. I was having a conversation with a friend the other day and he was commenting on how easy it is for me to sell. He laughed and watched as I answered questions and sold several trees. Obviously my knowledge of the product helped but to me there is something that adds to my sales ability as much as my experience. Trust and familiarity.
When you own a category killer domain, a person that enters that site is making an assumption that the owner must be one of the leaders in that category. They haven’t a clue that many of the owners are clueless about their products or the industry in general. In my opinion, new customers won’t feel as comfortable going to Jones’ Mattress Factory as they would Mattress.com. Jones’ may have been around for 80 years and Mattress.com only 3 years (made up numbers) but Mattress.com gets a big head start. This doesn’t mean that Jones can’t become the largest seller on the net, but the road will be longer and actually could be more expensive than the mattress.com road with the advertising budget needed. The Internet is still young but major keyword domains feel older, more experienced. People feel like they’ve been to the site even though it was most likely some other generic type site. That familiarity helps them sell.
Yelp, Google, and all the reviews on various sites are trying to build that trust. Trust that can be achieved through built relationships or recommendations from others. A solid, well known seems familiar to Internet users and that familiarity gives you a boost that takes years to build. A keyword domain is a cover for your book because people still, as they say “judge books by their cover”.
This article is right on. I would go one step farther in saying that if you saved some upfront money and instead bought Mattress.NET…it will end up costing you more money in the long run.
Why? Leakage, boys and girls. Alternative domains such as .net, .org, .xxx, .co and .us all have them and leak profusely towards the .com twin.
There is no understating the ‘attention grabbing’ value of a category defining .com domain name.
If you are in the Lamp business and call up a lamp manufacturer saying you’re from Lamps.com, you’ll get put through.
If you’re calling from AmazingLampLand.com, you’re lucky if they’ll take a message.
That’s the real power of a category killer. It’s not search engines. It’s the doors it opens in the real world.
I don’t totally disagree with anything said here, but it also helps to be the first and best marketed. For example, Books.com forwards to Barnes & Noble’s website, but Amazon, whose name has nothing to do with books, outsells them by a huge margin. The same goes for CD.com and CDS.com. Both generics, but totally meaningless in the big scheme of things. (In fact, they’re so “well known,” I had to look them up to see what they sell.)
And as far as the Lamps.com comparison, I bet Amazon would have an even easier time getting through. 😉 (Lamps.com does indeed sell lamps, but I didn’t know that until just a few minutes ago.)