The debate continues and both sides have good points.
For as long as I’ve been in the domain investor community there’s been a debate about what the best type of domain name is for a new company.
Is it a category-defining domain name such as RunningShoes.com? Or is a unique domain that can be branded, such as Amazon.com, better?
Some people say brandable domains are always better. I think depends.
One of my most enlightening interviews this year was with Seth Newman, CEO of BIGNAME Commerce. His company owns Envelopes.com, Folders.com and Bags.com.
Clearly, he’s a believer in category-killer domains. But there’s a catch. He thinks these names make sense only for product categories that people don’t shop for by brand.
People generally don’t think about brands when they search for envelopes. Jeans are another matter; you probably have a favorite brand you usually purchase and that’s how you begin your search. So Envelopes.com is a great name for an envelopes company. Jeans.com is a good name for a jeans seller but it doesn’t have the same benefit.
There are also problems with having the top level domain be part of your brand, and if you are a company like Envelopes.com, then .com is a big part of your brand. The problem is that third-party seller sites like Amazon won’t let your brand have a domain in it. So you have to come up with a new brand on these sites because you don’t want to call yourself just “Envelopes”.
Another problem with category-defining names like these is that your category might change. If Amazon.com started as Books.com, it probably would have had to change its name. (Books.com is owned by Barns & Noble.)
My favorite domains for brands are ones that conjure up an image and are memorable. BlueApron.com is a good example. Apron=cooking.
It’s worth noting, however, that BlueApron has spent a rediculous amount of money on branding and advertising. Not everyone can. Still, even for a small company, something like BlueApron.com may be better than FoodKits.com.
And note that these brandable descriptions are made up of real words, not ones that are made up and difficult to spell.
DomainsTools was created because it was generic. But with no space in the middle it is a TM with enough use.
DomainsTools ? I would normally say no it is not but noted the TM on ECM2 and gave up hope : (
I would go with a Brand-able Domain for a Startup, like “BuyPlus.com” for an Online Retailer/Wholesaler or “SellPlus.com” for an Online Auction/Peer to Peer Sales Site.
In addition, I would also secure the Descriptive Domains for the actual products/services being offered for sale, to forward to the specific product/service pages of said sites like “PeasantTops.com” and “BootieShoes.com”.
I think both have a place, obviously. But for investment purposes, as well as for instant universal appeal, generics provide the absolute clarity that fanciful terms do not. I believe both have a place. The issue with non-generics is that they are more like abundant commodities with limitless variations available.
There is a certain authority and instant credibility that is associated with owning a top level generic. That will always have special appeal and a heightened value.
A generic, if they can afford it, is actually better for a smaller company. They lead to higher CTR, lower (comparatively) cpc and better memorability with new users. Larger companies on the other hand can get away with brandables because their marketing spends are huge.
Descriptive keyword domains in .com and DNSSEC .co are dominating in voice rank, digital advert scores, voice search and thumb ready ads on mobile devices no bigger than an index card.
Most domain brokers don’t know this because they are not selling vetted/finished end-user web services. End-user services is a huge opportunity for domain brokers.
Domain brokers… If you’re not familiar with Google Adwords, find a top-ten digital ad agency that has two to three years of a/b campaigns (brand vs keyword). Ask them within an a/b campaign to click on the tab “search terms”. What you will discover is brand no longer matters. In-the-moment voice-search mobile consumers have made keywords king by as much as 10,000 to 1.
The proof is in the billions that Alphabet, Inc. makes in keyword not brand CPC.
Domain brokers with .com and .co keyword domains should have analytics that show lots of traffic from companies in China and India.
This argument is not realistic at all.
First there are not enough generic domains to go around to even have the option of considering using one or not. 99.9999999999999% of the startups or established business are going to be stuck with a brandable.
Second the majority of investors don’t have any where near the amount of capital required to acquire a high profile generic domain.
Third the companies that do have the money to acquire a generic are already established and have heavily invested in their own brand, making them reluctant to start all over again.
If you sell shoes (meaning various brands) shoes.com is what you want.
If you are a company wanting to sell your own product line (i.e. Nike) then you are going to want your own brandable domain (Nike.com).
Sometimes you already have your own branding, but you want to further boost it by purchasing something like like coffee.com (Peet’s) or toys.com (ToysRus).
Some generic sites that were running on their own or became big enough to be bought out by a larger industry player:
shoes.com
water.com
diapers.com
cars.com
sex.com
insurance.com
taxes.com
creditcards.com
hotels.com
etc.
The most important parts of having a generic are the mindshare associated with it along with the credibility it gives. Shoes.com gives you instant credibility versus Shoeshack.com (non-developed brandable). Every time shoes in mentioned in the real world, your position as the authority on shoes is being re-enforced. You will never ever see a mention of Shoeshack.com in print, web, or on TV without Shoeshack.com paying out advertising dollars to get the exposure. However people talk about shoes, write about shoes, read about shoes etc. all day long and it costs you nothing once they know shoes.com exists. That is called mindshare and you really can’t put a price on it.
When I hand register a domain name. The one question I ask myself is…Would I start a new business and website using this domain name? If the answer is yes..Then I would register this domain name.
In addition, If I can have a long tail domain name that is descriptive, then basically I have monopoly on that niche business.
Some good examples are at Atomic247Domains.com
If it has enough $$ behind it, including TV advertising, the brandable becomes a household word, such as Trivago.com. I thought, it will never catch up to Hotels.com, but it may.
“ If it has enough $$ Behind it’
That is the point Louise. If you have a generic you don’t have to have as much $$ behind it to acquire and retain users. Trivago can spend a boatload but ever time I think of booking a hotel, hotels.com comes into my mind then the second thought is use another service like booking.com because hotel.com’s interface sucks. It is because over the course of a year I am exposed to the word hotel naturally many many times and trivago only when they pay to advertise.
If you watch a lot TV like me, you see Trivago advertises throughout the day. I guess that is how Godaddy got its start to lead the Registrar pack: its Superbowl ad!
shoes.com
water.com
diapers.com
cars.com
sex.com
insurance.com
taxes.com
creditcards.com
hotels.com
etcThis list you posted, those generics are of the quality they can be a brand, too. Would you supply some 2-3 word domains on which you would start a business?
It depends on what timeframe they think. Short term descriptive works best. Long term brandables will make the difference.