Businesses, bloggers, influencers, and just about anyone can purchase a domain name and carve out their little piece of digital real estate. For the former {and increasingly more}, just any domain name may not do. Businesses’ success is rooted in assets, assuming they exceed their liabilities. One way to ensure your domain name doesn’t fall in the wrong category is to ensure it meets the criteria for a premium name or investable grade domain name. You know you have an asset when it meets the following five requirements:
- Easily liquefiable
- Semantically matches
- Organic traffic magnet
- Marketability (radio test)
- It’s a fit that cupid himself can’t outdo
”Your potential business names might be clever, intellectual, or hip, but if they're difficult to spell or remember, then that's a red flag.
Andrew DepietroSeek Business Captial
Easily Liquefiable
This is relatively hard to gauge since domain names aren’t the most liquefiable assets. However, some are more liquid than others. At the top of that list are .com names, .org names. some country code {.io, .tv, .co} names, and some new generation names {online.casino, casino.online, my.life}. The best way of assessing this is by checking sold records maintained by namebio.com and sold.domains. If your name is similar to those that have previously sold for top dollar, you should feel good about your name.
Semantically matches
Creativity is integral in business and equally important for naming. Your domain name should make sense, in some aspect. Country code names have been repurposed, such as .co and .tv. It’s more common to see .tv paired with a word that matches the entertainment industry {or some channel on YouTube}. Similarly, .ai is used with words that semantically match in artificial intelligence, which .ai has been reappropriated to. You want your name to match if you’re using country codes or new generation names. A good way of assessing this is by using Google Trends to see if the words are commonly searched together. For example, online.casino makes semantic sense, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, while bitcoin.basketball does not.
Organic Traffic Magnet
Some say that generic names that fit multiple industries make it too hard to stand out. Others say the more generic the name, the better. I say the truth lies somewhere in the middle. It’s completely possible to have a generic name that can also be brandable. Generic names are likely to consist of what a user will search for on Google when trying to located businesses. That’s great, but there may be other businesses optimizing their site to rank for those keywords. The solution, find the perfect grey area to maximize organic search traffic and lower your marketing budget.
Marketable
On the other side of the coin mentioned above is marketability. This can be hard to achieve with a generic name, but not impossible. For example, cyber.casino is both generic and brandable. However, it’s not as generic as casino.com or online.casino. The former will be incorporated into the search for the latter and cyber.casino. It will come down to finding a balance. Secondly, it will be critical to ensure you are well-positioned for the future, which is increasingly reliant on artificial intelligence, such as Siri and Alexa. If you can’t say your name out loud and have Siri recognize it, you may be in trouble. Don’t invest in names that require explanation {ex: Nodee, with two e’s}. Instead, stand out and pass the “radio-test” with an alternative name. “Your potential business names might be clever, intellectual, or hip, but if they’re difficult to spell or remember, then that’s a red flag.”
It’s a match made in heaven
This is perhaps the most important item on the checklist. After all, you can meet all the other 4 criteria and still not have a name that’s reflective of your business or industry. If this happens, you’re likely a domain investor and not an entrepreneur. Your name shouldn’t leave visitors wondering what you’re about. On the contrary, it should let prospective customers know exactly what you do within your industry. Aim to get a name as close as possible to accomplish this. It will cut down on marketing costs and reduce that dreaded bounce rate all while contributing to your growing asset.
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