If you use a generic name like Sold and don’t own Sold.com, it might be harder for people to find you.
TechCrunch is reporting today about Sold, a company that apparently make selling your used stuff easy. The company has raised seed funding from Google Ventures, Greylock, and a couple other groups.
Which is all well and good. But the company’s domain name is usesold.com.
Sold.com, where I first went to find out more about the comapany, is owned by Auction.com and is used for real estate.
Now, I’ll cut Sold some slack here. Currently it’s an app, so people who want it will often find it via the Apple or Android marketplace. And GetSold.com, which many app makers would have chosen, is already taken. SoldApp.com is also taken.
But usesold.com? At first when I saw it I thought it was something like u sold or us sold.
If you name yourself something generic and common like this, you’re going to run into some problems.
First, it will be difficult to trademark and protect your brand. Second, if people want to find your website, after trying Sold.com they’ll probably go to Google. Ranking for something generic like “sold” on Google isn’t easy. To its credit, the company seems to rank well on Google for the term “sold”. But it’s hard to rely on that.
I think the company would have been better off creating a brandable name that still brings up the same connotation. It would be easier for people to find them.
You could argue that this is an example of why we need domains like sold.app. Yet I suspect Sould would have had to purchase sold.app from someone else (maybe even the registry), so it’s not like it would be freely available. Also, what if the company pivots to an online marketplace in the future? Then it’s pigeon-holed into an .app domain.
Kassey says
This only shows that domain name must be part of brand/company name decision.
Scott Neuman says
Funny enough but I bought Sold.nu to sell NEW items on Ebay Still haven’t used the domain name yet and it’s parked but another extension might work well for them.
acroplex says
Another reason why Candy.com sustained a huge penalty from Google. Brands win over generics when search engine visibility is part of a marketing game.