optimizesearchengineresults.com

Optimize Search Engine Results | How to Optimize Search Engine Results | Optimize Search Engine Results

Outside of the online universe, a generic name can never achieve brand name status. These names have limited possibilities as trade marks, supposing you even can get them registered (which we might be able to do, if it’s paired with a logo). Instant communication of what a business offers in terms of products and services is a major reason why generic names are frequently chosen.

Is it the same way online? Would the following be good brands: Books.com, Books4Less.com, Business.com Pets.com, and PersonalInjuryLawyer.com?

Before we respond to this question, we want to be clear about what we mean when we use the term ‘generic’ as it pertains to branding and trade marking. A generic name describes the product or service that the business provides. Whether a name is considered to be generic or not is relative. Wines.com and Mortgage.com are two examples of generic domain names that are reported to have been resold for a great deal of money. Name such as these are generic brand names for a company that sells wine and a company that provides mortgages, respectively. To provide an inane example, if a wine merchant utilized the brand name Mortgage.com, or the mortgage provider utilized the name Wines.com, those names would be distinctive instead of descriptive for trademark purposes, even though as a brand name it still would be less preferable than a proper name - a related issue which is not going to be covered in this article.

Therefore, as long as a name does not “consist exclusively of signs or indications which may serve to designate the kind, value, quantity or purpose of goods or services”, it is possible to trademark it. Utilizing a name that is distinctive, unique and non-descriptive lets your name stand out and possibly become a memorable brand name that can be trademarked.

When it comes to trademark terms, the best names are those that are made up and hint at the product or services that are being offered, but do not describe them. If a company can come up with a unique name — something along the lines of Pepsi, Toyota, Honda, Burger King, etc. — the name will be perfect for building a brand identity around it.

Why shouldn’t you use a descriptive name?

The problem with selecting descriptive names is that the business is setting itself up to be confused with the competition. Descriptive words are words that competitors may have good reason to utilize to describe or advertise their services and products. For instance, it is imperative that wine merchant be able to utilize the term ‘wine merchant’ because otherwise he would not be able to pursue that business activity. If the initial person to coin the phrase ‘wine merchant’ could stop everybody else from using the expression, it could give that initial person a total monopoly and it might stop all of the competition out there. That is definitely not the purpose of trademarks.

Therefore, since you cannot prevent competitors from utilizing the same descriptive words in their names, selecting a descriptive brand name inevitably means that you will lose some potential customers because they may end up finding your competitor rather than you. So utilizing a descriptive name is not a good way to capture goodwill or brand value. Looking at the big picture, you will be much better off with a unique brand name than with a descriptive one. Once you have name recognition, trademark law will stop competitors from using a name that is similar to yours and cashing in on your success. This is the purpose of trademarks — to make it less likely that consumers will confuse your business with others.

Names and Brands

On the Internet, the trend seems to be choosing generic brand names, so how to you think this translates there? When setting up an online start up, is it wise to choose a generic name? No, it isn’t.

The things that make a brand name good are the same whether it’s on the Internet or not. Even though many people think it is wise to choose generic names — perhaps because they confuse the benefits conferred by search engines of having such a brand name — generic names are actually a poor choice for online and offline brands alike. They will help you short term by offering a description of the business. For instance, people would know something right away about what you are doing if you call your brand Books4Less.com. They may not realize right away that your prices will be low, on the other hand, if your store is named ‘Amazon’. But, as soon as Amazon has proven itself to you, that simple one word name will be far more memorable to you than a vague name like Books4Less.

Why do so many businesses on the Internet choose poor names then? Maybe due to the fact that when the Internet was new and there weren’t many sites established yet, a regular commonplace name was a bonus. You would enter “toys.com” if looking for a site where you could purchase toys. It was similar to an old grocery store. You looked for what you wanted by name. So, the easiest way to let customers know the purpose of a site was to give it a descriptive, common title. The advantages of a descriptive name, though, were no longer valid after the number of sites continued to grow.

Nevertheless, web newcomers continue to follow the same formulas that have always been there. They make an incorrect assumption that they should opt for a descriptive name, so they do so thinking that it is the right thing to do. A common name isn’t necessarily the best for your site, even though there are many sites who opt for common names. This means that the pressure to conform is felt by most Internet sellers.

Guidelines for Selecting Online Brand Names

So when you are attempting to come up with online trading names, try to do what other successful Internet businesses have done and pick a name like Amazon, Yahoo, Dell, Bebo, Facebook and Ebay. These are the businesses that have survived, succeeded and are household names, while the many businesses with generic names fizzled into oblivion even though they had lots of money backing them up. The only thing left of them are valuable domain names that may have had several owners by this time. Their main value is for search purposes. An example would be how books.com redirects to the Barnes & Noble website, bringing extra web traffic.

Something else to keep in mind when selecting names is that on the Internet, there aren’t any storefront signs or geographic regions to draw in nearby traffic. Someone passing by an actual store might notice a book store for reasons other than what it is called, even if it is called ‘Books.’ For instance, the store might be noticed because of a creative window display, or because of where it is located, or maybe just due to the fact that it is there now, when something else used to be there. Your brand name is the only way people are able to locate you on the Internet. So you definitely do not want to lost in a throng of similar sounding names.

Stephen Grisham, Sr. is a Staff Writer for InfoServe Media, a small business web designer company that provides custom web design. Visit today, or call 1 (800) 838-2203 for a free quote.