Fred's Blog

When you try to come up with a brand name you can choose from three types:

1. Descriptive name
2. Search engine name
3. Nonsense name

Descriptive Name

This type of brand name describes what you do, it helps people understand what they can do on your site.

Examples: Ask.com, Wikipedia.com, DoneDeal.ie, BuyAndSell.ie, YourLocal.ie

The good: A descriptive name is very helpful for new users, who have not heard about your site before. It helps them quickly understand what your site does.

The bad: It is very difficult to protect a descriptive name. Your competitors can easily set up pages and CPC campaigns to target your name.

Search Engine Name

This is where you first research what your potential customers type into Google. Once you find the strongest keywords you use those to create the domain name and brand.

Examples: IrishDogs.ie, BuyAndSell.ie

The good: The domain name is one of the strongest parts of the URL to quickly get ranked in Google. You will soon be number 1 if your domain name matches the keywords your users search for.

The bad: Again, it is very difficult to protect this type of name. Your competitors can quickly set up pages and CPC campaigns to target your keywords. Also, most .com domains are already taken for this type (it is easier in the .ie domain).

Nonsense Name

This is where you make up the name from scratch.

Examples: Google, Weedle.com, Lenovo.

The good: You can protect this name as a trademark. Also, you are more likely to find a free .com domain.

The bad: The name does not help users understand what your site is about, you have to get that information across in a different way.