We often think of domains in relation to company branding or names that would work well for a advertising or marketing campaigns. It makes sense as these types of names seem to be selling more than some exact match domains (EMD) and certainly more than long tail EMD’s.
When we analyze a name, we think to ourselves “would this name be something a company would name themselves” and it’s a valid question that usually makes the most sense.
With this idea of branding and company identity EMD/keyword domains have taken a backseat in many cases. This isn’t because domain investors want it to be that way or have orchestrated it, but because that’s what is selling and Domainers follow the money.
Sometimes we label keyword names as too generic, because a company wants a unique identity, a brand that stands out.
This all makes sense to me, but I have trouble discounting EMD’s or generic names as I think they have intrinsic value. But who cares if the name has some perceived intrinsic value if no one wants to buy it right?
Well the other day I was listening to the radio and I heard a local geo specific company advertising their electric water softening products. The company name and brand are already established as the owner’s surname and it’s been that way for years. When I heard the domain they’re using, I stopped and thought, “That’s a great domain for this company”.
The domain was HardWater.net, a very generic domain that is not their company identity, but one that works tremendously better for their business than their actual company domain. It’s easy to remember and it addresses the service they provide perfectly.
With this approach they provide dual paths to finding their content, by searching for the company name or typing in the generic category domain.
Who cares that it’s a net; their goal at this point isn’t world domination of hard water treatment, but rather to provide a memorable URL for their central PA service business. I think they’ve accomplished this better than most local service companies in business today.
I think this concept could be explained to any number of local businesses around the world to sell them better domains. Most of these companies are running on some crap name that no one will ever remember and that means nothing to the average person on the street.
It’s easy to find these companies. You know who your prospective domain buying clients are because they spend money on advertising everyday. It’s like these companies are paying money in the hopes that you’ll find them and direct them toward a better domain that people will actually find.
So while everyone is focusing on selling unique identities to startups and better one word domains to big companies, there’s a whole category of established businesses with established names that could use a better domain and you can sell it to them.
In completely unrelated commentary, our thoughts and prayers go out to our friends around the world affected by asshole terrorists, especially those suffering from recent events in the UK.
This inforgraphic is the latest advice that the is being distributed in an attempt to help citizens survive an attack.
Since we love and care about our readers here at DSAD I’ve added my thoughts about this info graphic. While this might work for some and in some situations, I think that it’s partially flawed advice.
If we’ve learned anything from recent attacks, it’s that the most beneficial outcomes derive from the Violence Of Action and not freezing running or submitting. A good example is Flight 93, they went out fighting and saved countless lives that would have been lost if the plane had been turned into a weapon.
Law Enforcement strategy has changed when responding to active shooter events. No longer does patrol secure the area and wait for tactical operators to arrive and neutralize the threat, but rather they employ the violence of action and run full speed toward the shooter and kill them, or the shooters turn the gun on themselves when confronted.
Check out this article from Military.com, tips from the SEAL survival guide. Here’s a excerpt
“Violence of action means the unrestricted use of speed, strength, surprise, and aggression to achieve total dominance against your enemy. I’m repeating this to drive home the concept that any fighting technique is useless unless you first totally commit to violence of action. Don’t be afraid to hit first, and when you do, hit hard. Remember, you are fighting because this is the best and only option. Pull the trigger — because you are in a battle for your life! Your instincts, assessment, and situational awareness have told you that you are in mortal danger. You don’t know the other person’s intentions fully, and you never can. What you can do is survive — it is your right to not be killed or harmed by another person. As with most things survival-related, fighting has its own set of priorities that need to be addressed at lightning speed.”
Stay safe out there.
- Main List NameJet Flippa/Sedo
- LLLL.com’s LLL, CCC, 5L Other LLLL’s
- Short Brandables Numbers One Worders Vape, Vegan, VR
- Snap Names/Dropcatch NamePros Godaddy Value BIN
Main List
The No Bid List
ArtistVine.com Maybe it’s fancy wine
BotPocket.com A robotic pocket that organizes and categorizes anything you throw in it
CareExam.com Makes me think of a free standing urgent care type facility. No appointment needed, cheaper and quicker than a visit to the Emergency Department
CashGrove.com Cash does indeed grows on trees in the cash grove
ClientStrong.com Good clients, or the company that treats their clients right and makes them strong. Something like that
CloakSite.com Hide your site from hackers
CrowdTechnology.com Develop tech with the help of the crowd
DrBronx.com A pair of NYC Dr names
FreshOmeter.com Test the level of freshness with the Freshometer
FullResult.com Not a portion, some of or half, Everything that happened
Geekible.com A computerish type tech name
GeekIp.com Start your own IP tracking site
HardUk.com I wrote that whole violence of action section just because I added this damn domain to the list.
HipNinja.com Looks really cool doing his Ninja moves
iFeelDizzy.com Not sure what you do with it, but it’s kinda fun
LiesYouTell.com Sounds like a book or a movie
LifeLag.com Motivational or midlife crisis help
LinkHighway.com The fast lane for getting quality links to your site
LogicAnalyst.com like it, breaks down problems and comes up with the most logical solutions
LogicTrek.com Then he walks somewhere
NearSpot.com Places of interest near you
NoRuns.com A cleaner or pain maybe that doesn’t run
OpinionDr.com Medical help to fix your wrong opinion
PlayMelody.com A musical name
PoetryClass.com Learn how to write romantic poems. It’s online so no one will know and judge you
Powerfied.com A powerful name
PrimacyMedia.com It has “media” in it anyway
ProDudes.com Professional Cowboys I think
QuickValidate.com Validate your identity, credentials or whatever you usually need to validate
RealtySwipe.com Find the best property and take it before someone else gets it
ScriptSwift.com Fast RX
SelfFolio.com All your own work in a portfolio
ShockAbs.com No need to workout. This electric stimulator will shock you to a 6 pack
SmartCaster.com intelligent broadcasts
SpecialShip.com Ship things that need extra care
SymptomDoctor.com A real online Dr to diagnose your symptoms and give you a prescription
TaxBlock.com Stop paying taxes with the tax block
VeryThick.com Sell thick steaks and pork chop
“This all makes sense to me, but I have trouble discounting EMD’s or generic names as I think they have intrinsic value.”
They will always have intrinsic value. Made up words or phrases like “hipninja”, on the other hand, are lottery tickets with no intrinsic value if there is no buyer. 90+% of the lists on dsad are of that brandable type. That is not a criticism but more an indication of the relative scarcity of EMDs imo.
Hey Tony, I think you’re right that really specific EMDs are scarce, domains that might be on par with single word domains. But they’re scarce to the degree that investors hold them and end users don’t buy them. I’m talking in general obviously. To your point of the percentage of brandables, I completely agree and didn’t take it as criticism at all, but it remains that those are the names that are being bought by end users. Not just crazy two work brandables but I’m also talking about non EMD keyword brands. Non EMD in my mind are keywords that have little to no natural search volume, but still identify the business.
For example let’s look at Tennis Racket(s), That I randomly picked and searched on my phone. The major brands in the google serp, other than the big stores are Tennis Express, Tennis warehouse, Holabird and babolat . These are all non EMD brands. You would think that one of these companies would want to use TennisRacket.com or TennisRackets.com even as redirects, but the first doesn’t resolve and the second goes to generic Godaddy parking. These are obviously THE category names if you’re selling rackets. Expand from there to longer tail Tennis names. Things with actual search volume, add the keywords Best, Buy, Cheap, Discount, Pro, affordable, Purchase, even add colors Blue, Red, Black, or things like Youth, Large, Small, Womens, all have intrinsic value because the match search, but not all will be bought and used by companies even as redirects. Then add another word for diminishing value. In any case, I think a lot of these names would have value to someone selling this product, but they’re either not interested or haven’t been informed of the value. This brings me back in a round about way to maybe seeing opportunity that they could bring to the right company.
I think the problem here for exact keywords is that SEO word on the street says that at the moment the domain name matters virtually nothing versus content.
If you have the site PurplePolkadotPenguin.com with a handful of well written tennis articles, it will far outrank “TennisRacket.com” even for actual Tennis Rackets as a search term.
If you have both domains with a handful of well written articles, then the tiebreaker will not be the domain .. but the actual quality of the articles.
Then add to that the fact PurplePolkadotPenguin would be a fraction the cost of TennisRackets, then the Penguin wins. That being said .. if you’re doing real world marketing .. then memorability is the most important factor .. hard to measure because it’s analogue real world stuff. But it’s that analogue value you need to portray to potential end users like HardWater.
The reality might not actually be that .. probably something in between .. only Google knows for sure. But while you can’t really give specific value to “memorability”, I do think it is a concept easily understood by the average business owner that already pays for advertising somewhere.
Very good points Ategy. I used the hardwater example because it works for me, I remember the commercial and the domain and I don’t even have an interest in the product. That’s not really a metric, but it’s good enough for me to see the value. Another similar example, again a radio ad for a company with a different name than their keyword type domain is BestHeatAC.com. Not even that great a name on the surface, but I remember it just from a few ads and I can’t even remember the company name. So if I needed heating or AC service in the Frederick Md area, the first thing id probably do is type in that domain.