Domain names can clearly come across the wrong way by just looking at them. Take Kentucky Fried Chicken’s stab at using its acronym with a marketing message to Unthink the fried side of chicken. KFC® ended up promoting the ad campaign with the domain name UnthinkFC.com . If one were to separate the companies acronym from the first word in the domain… you end up with Unthin KFC. Not the message the fast food company wanted to come across as. They intended with the domain name to be Unthink FC as in Fried Chicken and even owned the double K domain name UnthinkKFC.com but used the single K domain name in its ad.
So today I was reading a story on Yahoo.com about the New Orleans Jazz Fest that is coming up but when I saw the domain name the jazz fest is using, I had to shake my head! Make up your mind, are you having a jazz fest or no? Your domain name may come across to those that simply see it, as you are not.
NoJazzFest.com
It just so happens that the acronym for New Orleans is a word, NO. Using the acronym turned into a domain name speaking of No Jazz Fest!
So what can you learn from this?
Use extreme caution when using an Acronym with words in your domain name. With the two examples I just showed you, clearly it can become a problem. For those not familiar with NO being an acronym used for New Orleans, one could think the site may be protesting a specific jazz fest.
Domain names should never look like a licenses plate because Keywords are important on the internet and they also make domain name easier to remember! People searching for the New Orleans Jazz Fest are very likely to use that full term when looking for it on the internet and matching your domain name to that search term will greatly help your site rank for the matching searched term on search engines. Trying to "shorten" up the domain name using an acronym can clearly come across the wrong way to some.
If the domain is used in advertising, it just simply will not look good and could become confusing to many that do not instantly think of New Orleans and the No is used as an acronym.
So if you are wondering, yes there is a jazz fest coming up in New Orleans and even though their domain name states otherwise, you can learn more about the upcoming event at NoJazzFest.com .
Jimmy
God I hate jazz!
Except for New Orleans jazz.