How to Create a Website Name – Brandable or EMD
When you begin your journey of starting your own website business, one of the things you will have to decide is the name. Knowing how to create a website name is not really hard and in this post I will be explaining how to choose either a brandable or EMD name.
What does Brandable and EMD mean?
A brandable name is sort of self-explanatory, and I will get into more detail in just a bit, but first let me explain what an EMD name is. Exact Match Domain, EMD, is a website name that matches a popular search query, like CheapLasVegasHotels followed by a .com.
Many times when people are starting up their own internet business, they tend to think of a website name that matches a popular search keyword for their particular niche market. This may seem like a wise decision, however Google does not rank a website based on their name.
Here is a website name that is a perfect example of a keyword EMD, Exact Match Domain.
If you should decide to name your website based on the EMD principal you want to make sure that you are offering quality informational content. Do not provide content that is both spammy, loaded with links selling things, and written laden with keywords to get rankings.
Your content should always provide added value to your website readers and not the search engines. The same holds true for the website domain name that you choose. Always think about your target audience and how you can help them find what they are looking for.
This is what a Brandable name is about
When coming up with a name for your website you may want to think of something that will stand out among the other names on the internet. It could be something witty, catchy, or even in-your-face memorable, though I would not recommend something crude or rude.
When coming up with a brandable name you want to strive for two aspects that the name should target. It should be engaging and different. Make sure to put some thought into this because even a name you may think is brandable, could actually not be memorable or unique enough.
Put some thought into your website name. Should it be an EMD or Brandable?
A name that can become your brand should engage your website visitors by tapping into their emotions. This can be done in various ways and how you go about doing it is totally up to you. Basically you want to get people’s attention and make a mental connection with them.
Consider the example I gave above, CheapLasVegasHotels. This name will grab the attention of people looking to visit Las Vegas. It works on the emotion of people who want to save money and gives you that connection with them. This can work for both brandable and EMD names.
Things to consider when choosing a name
Before I continue I just would like to point out that a website name and the domain name should be the same. If your website is about aftermarket accessories for vehicles and your website name is AccessoRide, it is best that your domain name be accessoride followed by a .com.
Even though it could be different, you do not want to confuse your website visitors by giving them another name for them to remember. Also when choosing a domain make sure you can get a .com instead of a .net or any other TLD, Top Level Domain.
Dot coms are the types of domains that most people are familiar with and tend to be considered more authoritative online. Now it may come about that you will have to settle for another type of TLD because the .com name you want is already taken. If so, .net is the next best option.
Click image above to get help from Novanym in selecting a brand name for your website.
When deciding on a name keep it simple. The shorter the name the better but try to avoid 3-letter names. Do not use hyphens in your domain because people may forget to use them. Numbers are also not recommended. People may forget if the number is 6 or six. The less confusion the better.
Which type of name should you choose?
There really is not a right or wrong one to choose. If you want to use a keyword search term EMD as your website name, then that is your choice. Just remember that keyword names will not help you to rank in the search engines.
Even though an EMD will help your website visitors to know what you are offering, one thing to also consider is that these types of domain names are popular and yours could get lost among the others in your respective niche. If you are looking to create a brand, this is not the way to go.
But if you are looking to create a name that you can turn into a brand at some point down the road, a simple to remember, engaging and uniquely different name is what you should choose. If the name makes you smile, excites you or just feels right, then go for it.
A name that will be your brand someday, can be totally opposite of what your business is about. If there is a story behind the name, tell it to your website visitors in your About page. A story is a great way to connect with your reader. Steve Jobs came up with the name Apple after coming back from an apple farm.
Examples of popular company brand names many of us have heard of.
How did they come up with that name?
Have you ever asked yourself, how did that website come up with its name? Here are some interesting facts about popular website brand names on the internet. I already explained above that Steve Jobs chose the name Apple after being at an apple farm. He thought the name was fun and not intimidating.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin named the search engine Google as a play on the word Googol, which is the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros. Jeff Bezos named his company after the Amazon River, which is the longest in the world. Amazon’s tagline was known as the Earth’s Biggest Book Store.
Pierre Omidyar named his company eBay as a shortened version of the original holding company Echo Bay Technology Group. When he tried to register the name EchoBay, it was already taken by another company. So he shortened the name to his second choice.
This is a problem that you will most likely run into when choosing a website name, finding out that it is already taken. So be prepared to either come up with another name, compromise on a slightly different one, or settle for a .net.
Sometimes I Like to Get Naked for Lunch
When it comes time for you to decide how to create a website name, first make the choice of whether you want to be among the popular names like EMD or be bolder for a brandable name. Click the enticingly titled link above. I reveal a couple more in-your-face memorable brands you may have heard of.
https://legitimatejobfromhome.com/how-to-create-a-website-name-brandable-or-emd/https://legitimatejobfromhome.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/How-to-Create-a-Website-Name-0.jpghttps://legitimatejobfromhome.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/How-to-Create-a-Website-Name-0-150x150.jpgCreate a free websiteEMD Exact Match Domain,how to create a website name,website brand name
Hi, thanks for the advice on a domain name. Coming up with my last one took awhile. One for WA referrals, etc, will take a bit more time. Since my first site is related to Baby Boomers, I am wondering if I should go with that, or will it shrink my audience??
Thank you again,
Laura
You are welcome Laura. Though choosing the words Baby Boomers may narrow your audience, the Baby Boomer audience is massive. So I think that may be a good approach to take.
Great Post! It is very interesting and informative content to read. Thanks for the useful article.
You are welcome. Happy to have helped you with this information.
“If I were to say I got naked for lunch, sat under a tree, and held an apple in my hand, you could think I was Adam without my Eve.
But because of the power of branding it could really mean that I got a Naked Juice, sat under a tree, and was holding my Apple iPhone. On that Apple I would be looking at Amazon. The river/jungle or the retailer? Because of the power of branding you would guess that it was the retailer.”
Wow!! Thats a really cool way of looking at it! Thanks so much for this article it really made me think! I recently created a website called addictedtoice.com because I have a medical condition that causes me to be addicted to crunching on ice-cubes – unfortunately I didn’t research very well and discovered too late that ICE is another name for Crystal Meth!!!
Thanks for the article, really good!
You are welcome Jo. I am happy you liked my blog post. That really sucks about your website domain name. I would have never thought about the meaning of ICE and especially that you used the other words Addicted To, that must have been a disappointing revelation. Perhaps addictedtoicecubes would be a better option or crunchingonice. I hope you have decided on possibly changing your domain name if it is not too late.
Hey Robert,
It’s important to always keep the reader in mind and not the bots. I mean it’s great to get a website listed on Google, but I kind of steer clear of EMD’s. The reason being is because years an ago Google put the hammer down on EMD’s, therefore, I like to play it safe.
I always try to make them short and sweet. I do prefer .com, but I kind of disagree with not using just .com. There are others like .co, .org, and .io are hot as of lately.
I would certainly stay away from hyphens, though. The harder you make it for people to remember the worse of the domain name. I like to use the radio test. If you have to explain two things it’s not a good domain name. For example, if I got to explain it’s a .org and not a .com and also there are hyphens in the domain name then it’s not a good idea.
One thing I have done over the years is create a website and then as time goes on and I think of something more brandable or memorable I will 301 redirect that website to the new one. Even better if you use an EMD keywords to 301 to your brandable website. Might be a little grey hat SEO, but it is effective.
Thank you Garen for your comment and your insights into how you feel about picking a domain name for your websites. When I first started out I was more focused on EMDs because it just sounded better for the niche I was promoting. I also didn’t quite understand how you could make a brandable name still be relevant to your niche.
But experience in online affiliate marketing is a bit of a learning curve and as time has gone on I started thinking about the names for my upcoming niche websites that could be brandable. I too remember when Google put the hammer down on websites with EMDs, but fortunately that only targeted websites with multiple affiliate links and lean on helpful content. Did you know that if a website with an EMD provided authoritative content without a ton of affiliate links, Google did not penalize it?
However I still see the benefits of a brandable name. When you can think of a name that is not only relevant to your niche but is also short, catchy and memorable, you have a better shot to not just capture your target audience but also attract those who are curiosity seekers. These types of people, depending on the quality content provided, could become new members of your target audience and thus customers.
When a website name is memorable it is easier for people to share it with others, especially by word of mouth. I am starting up a new niche website in the hemp niche market, where I will promote various popular and healthful hemp products. I chose a brandable name while listening to a rock and roll song on the radio. The title of the song is very well known and all I did was substitute the first 4 letter word with the word Hemp. Now my new brandable name is catchy, memorable and only 10 letters long.
Hey Robert,
I wasn’t aware that EMD was not penalized if it isn’t overloaded with lots of affiliate links and does, in fact, have decent quality content. I really believe Google do have to do something about EMD because people were getting complete junk websites ranked just because they had their keywords in their URL.
That is awesome about the hemp niche. It’s really a “hot” niche to get into these days. I am actually going to be doing a niche on that too this year. I have several websites I am always working on, but with the legalization of Marijuana in the United States, it’s really a niche that has some real money in it :).
Google did crack down on websites with EMD names but realized that not all were spammy sites. So they only went after those types of sites. This is yet another example of how Content is King. When you can provide good content, even an EMD cannot bring you down.
Yes, the hemp niche is hot right now. Even though hemp is not marijuana, which many people believe wrongfully that it is, this niche will continue to grow hotter because of its mounting health benefits and also indirectly because of the legalization of marijuana.
This is a great article and very timely for me as well. I started my first website a couple of months ago. I wanted to go with an EMD but it was taken and eventually, I used an abbreviated version of my first choice which immediately turned my domain into the second type “Brandable”. It’s still too early to say whether it will make it as a Brandable name. Time will tell but this is what I will share.
If you are going for the Brandable name approach, really try to use a name that is easy to pronounce instead of something that is newly created. Robert mentioned some examples such as “Apple”, “Amazon” and I think these names are perfect because people are generally familiar with them, thus making them more catchy. I am also enlightened to learn that Jeff chose Amazon for its trait of being the longest river which syncs with his vision of Amazon (in the early days) of becoming the largest online bookstore.
A tip from me to contribute to this interesting discussion. When brainstorming for an EMD, sometimes I find it helpful to listen to relevant podcasts. During the podcast, the speaker may mention a certain unique short phrase that epitomizes what the whole topic means. Try that short phrase as your domain name. It may just make the world of difference and differentiate you from the crowd.
That is a great idea Jude about listening to a podcast or even some other relevant audio/video presentation for domain name ideas. It is very true that the shorter and even more memorable a domain name is, the better someone will remember it.
I like how you said that the domain name you eventually came up with was an abbreviation of your first choice, which made it brandable. This is exactly how the company website name of eBay came about, as I have explained above. Sometimes a brandable name can be as simple to find as that, sometimes you have to be creative.
I love how clearly you make the distinction between EMD and brandable names. I opted for a EMD as I was not interested in creating a brand but only a niche site. Long-term thinking is needed to see beyond the horizon. Yes you may want a niche site now but what about later? If you want to develop it into a brand some day then a brandable name may be better. Would you agree?
Thank you Peter for your comment. As you can probably see from the name of this website, Legitimate Job From Home, I too opted for an EMD to represent my niche website. But I started this site back in 2013 / 2014 and since then I have seen the power of what brand names can do.
Though I am not unhappy that I chose an EMD for this website, and like I said above that there is no right or wrong choice, I have already chosen a brandable name for my next niche website. Because this is relatively a new and upcoming niche market, I want to stand out among the crowd and capture my target audience.