What is Descriptive Domain Name?

[NamingJournal.com]

Lately, descriptive domain names seem to be gaining ground. I define descriptive domain as domain names that give detail description of what the company does in two, three or four words. Usually, the shorter a descriptive domain name, the better.

Here are some examples of descriptive domain names:
Bill Me Later
Smart Car Guide
Auto Finder
Food Recipe Magazine, etc

However, descriptive domain names do have some setback. They are usually hard to find on the internet (i.e. smaller website with limited Advertising budget). Nevertheless, descriptive domain name do very well in that it promotes itself.

What are your thoughts?

 

[RajanUrs]

I keep seeing the ad for PowerYourTrade.com on CNBC India stock trading channel. I think its a nice way to promote a product or an event. Especially for large portals this kind of domains can lead a customer directly to a specific section. And yes it has to be very suitable and easy to remember by its users.

 

[holeinone]

Are you talkin about cnn-ibn

 

[NamingJournal.com]

Thanks for your comment. No, I am talking about online company whose name/web address describes what the company does.

 

[Midano]

My personal opinion.

Descriptive domains are rather boring.
They lack personality.
They're too generic.
They limit branding possibilities.
They leave no room for expansion.

For example, Amazon started out as an online book store. If they went with OnlineBookStore.com, they would have faced a huge dilemma expanding to other niches - electronics, shoes, DVDs... Change the name? Add OnlineElectronicsStore.com, OnlineClosingStore.com, etc? Look awkward selling condoms and lipsticks under OnlineBookStore.com?

 

[cache]

I think all names with any meaning are descriptive. Just some are explicit and some are implicit. Only the large company can afford to register a implicit TM and promote a non-descriptive brand.

 

[smub]

My personal opinion.

Descriptive domains are rather boring.
They lack personality.
They're too generic.
They limit branding possibilities.
They leave no room for expansion.

agreed midano i dont like descriptie domains as well .. boring and too long to type

 

[Carlton]

They're boring? Profitable is more important ...

Cars.com
Hotels.com
Homes.com
CreditCards.com
Realtor.com
Apartments.com
Detroit.com
News.com
CarsDirect.com
FreeCreditReport.com

... etc

 

[Midano]

They're boring? Profitable is more important ...

Cars.com
Hotels.com
Homes.com
CreditCards.com
Realtor.com
Apartments.com
Detroit.com
News.com
CarsDirect.com
FreeCreditReport.com

... etc

One-worders from your sample are a category of their own.
You can't compare those to:

Here are some examples of descriptive domain names:
Bill Me Later
Smart Car Guide
Auto Finder
Food Recipe Magazine, etc

 

[gazzip]

My personal opinion.

Descriptive domains are rather boring.
They lack personality.
They're too generic.
They limit branding possibilities.
They leave no room for expansion.

For example, Amazon started out as an online book store. If they went with OnlineBookStore.com, they would have faced a huge dilemma expanding to other niches - electronics, shoes, DVDs... Change the name? Add OnlineElectronicsStore.com, OnlineClosingStore.com, etc? Look awkward selling condoms and lipsticks under OnlineBookStore.com?

A very good point - Midano is also a very nice sounding brand name

 

[VURG]

Some businesses do well because they are small and specialised. Expansion is not everyones goal in business. Branding costs a lot of money. If I had a small marketing budget, I think I would do a lot better selling books online with a domain like onlinebookstore.com than some highly brandable term that has nothing to do with books.

Generally, I try to keep away from multiple word domains but I think they have their place. I also think that commonly used terms that are useful for attracting people to your business. (Somebody searching "big green widgets" is often more likely to click on biggreenwidgets.com than widgets.com)

 

[Midano]

(Somebody searching "big green widgets" is often more likely to click on biggreenwidgets.com than widgets.com)

Good point, but you deliberately trap yourself out of Big Yellow Widget market, Small Green Widget market. Even farther from Small Yellow Widget market. Not to mention Tiny Pink Gadgets.

Example: Build-a-Bear (www.buildabear.com). That name was perfect when they first started. They were pitching stuffed Bears. Now they have Cows, Dogs, Bunnies... This defeats the purpose of the name.

 

[NamingJournal.com]

The number of fortune 500 companies buying descriptive domain names is on the rise. I think this trend is because their corporate websites are either loosing momentum or this is for advertising purposes.

 

[Dave_Z]

Getting a 2-3 descriptive worded domain is useful if you're targetting a specific
market.

 

[mis_chiff]

globalnamesearch.com -- long but pretty descriptive
for ancestery searches, or missing people network ... IMHO

 

[Zilla]

My personal opinion.

Descriptive domains are rather boring.
They lack personality.
They're too generic.
They limit branding possibilities.
They leave no room for expansion.

agree, from a domain fans view or website fans view....I like those brandable domain more, like digizilla.com. veevoo.com, google.com, more innovative while onlinebookstore is trully boring...

but if I am a domainer only care the income traffic while I park domain in sedo, then, may be desciptive domain is better....

 

[Dr.Lee]

floridaMortgagePortal.com, EuroMortgageBrokers.com, I think these names are self descriptive and specific to certain market.
Not every startup company can afford a generic one word name, like mortgage, who can buy mortgage.com? Maybe needs 30-50 million. So I agree with the above posts about the descriptive names to self promote online business and decrease the barrier to enter the market.
Another example is Villas, it is true that many people wants to buy villas.com, but this name has very high value, so the other business men if they want to start a luxury travel site, they maybe buy some more specific names.
But I do like some short and easy to remember names even if they are not a word. From long term point of view, the newcreated non-word pronouciable names has the most potential for giant business like yahoo, google, lenova,
The final value of the names will depend on the buyer, depend on the purpose of the buyer for their own online business. If they plan to provide professional service in one niche market, they needn't buy a brandable name,if they want to infinitely expand their business, they have to find the name that is full of fresh idea and with no any contradiction or any relationship with currently available terms.

 

[Shorty]

From a business point of view, the whole concept of promotion and advertising is to convince customers their products are not homogeneous or perfect substitutes for another good. That is, they are different, and have something unique to offer to the customer.

We should look at domain names in the same way - as a medium of promotion. If we use a generic term, we're projecting the idea that our website is also generic.

Descriptive domains also have the disadvantage of being harder to remember. Due to the flexibility of the english language, there are plenty of words that we can easily substitute into sentences to mean the same thing. So if you own "GreatDeals.Com", you might easily lose traffic to "GoodDeals.Com", "BestDeals.Com", etc.

Just because large marketing departments in big corporations are the ones that establish a brand name doesn't mean the little guys can't do it too. It starts with a unique, creative and memorable name.

 

[NamingJournal.com]

floridaMortgagePortal.com, EuroMortgageBroker.com, I think these names are self descriptive and specific to certain market.
Not every startup company can afford a generic one word name, like mortgage, who can buy mortgage.com? Maybe needs 30-50 million. So I agree with the above posts about the descriptive names to self promote online business and decrease the barrier to enter the market.
Another example is Villas, it is true that many people wants to buy villas.com, but this name has very high value, so the other business man if they want to start a luxury travel site, they maybe buy some more specific names.
But I do like some short and easy to remember names even if they are not a word. From long term point of view, the newcreated non-word pronouciable names has the most potential for giant business like yahoo, google, lenova,
The final value of the names will depend on the buyer, depend on the purpose of the buyer for their own online business. If they plan to provide professional service in one niche market, they needn't buy a brandable name,if they want to infinitely expand their business, they have to find the name that is full of fresh idea and with no any condiction or any relationship with currently available terms.

It is okay if I quote you in my next article on Descriptive Domain Name

From a business point of view, the whole concept of promotion and advertising is to convince customers their products are not homogeneous or perfect substitutes for another good. That is, they are different, and have something unique to offer to the customer.

We should look at domain names in the same way - as a medium of promotion. If we use a generic term, we're projecting the idea that our website is also generic.

Descriptive domains also have the disadvantage of being harder to remember. Due to the flexibility of the english language, there are plenty of words that we can easily substitute into sentences to mean the same thing. So if you own "GreatDeals.Com", you might easily lose traffic to "GoodDeals.Com", "BestDeals.Com", etc.

Just because large marketing departments in big corporations are the ones that establish a brand name doesn't mean the little guys can't do it too. It starts with a unique, creative and memorable name.

It is okay if I quote you in my next article on Descriptive Domain Name

 

[Dr.Lee]

Yes, You are free to quote all my words.
Thank you for your attention to my words. I edited some typos
man->men
condiction->contradiction
Best regards,
Lipeng