Time and again I see little niche sites using trademark brand names in their url's. This is a truly reckless and a very stupid thing to do.
Here you are spending valuable time, working hard on your site designing, promoting, link building and your site has high search engine rankings and making you money and then the brand name company notices you and it's over. At the very least your site will have to come down and at worst the brand name will sue you for copyright infringement.
It is illegal to use any copyrighted brand name trademark within the url or as the name of a site, many people do not even think of this fact and find great keywords that include brand names and use them.
Most of the big companies have a long page of legal terms that list all their trademark names and their variations and they clearly state how they can be used.
When doing keyword research for Internet marketing we inevitably come across tons of great keywords that use trademark names and especially within the electronics and computer niches, Apple ipods, Dell laptops, Sony, Acer laptops, the list is endless and it is really tempting to use them in the url because the ranking power increases greatly when using keywords in the url, but for the long term this is way too risky.
I was reading a blog post the other day, I didn't save it or I would link to it, but the marketer made the mistake of using Dell in his url and Dell had contacted him and demanded he take his site down. Of course, the site was ranking on page 1 for the keyword, which is how Dell noticed him, and making money and now that's all over.
Did he have regrets? Of Course! It's just not worth it.
Can You Rank Without Using Keywords in the URL?
Yes, but it will usually take more keyword anchor text backlinks, how many depends on the competition for those keywords.
So there are two choices:
1. Choose similar non-trademark keywords for the url and do all the on-site optimization for the trademark kw, such as h1 tags, keyword density, title tags etc... and focus your link building to get lots of anchor text links with the trademark keywords.
This is the best option when you come across really highly searched for trademark keywords that have low competition, well worth the effort.
2. Choose completely different keywords within that niche that do not have trademark names.
Follow Me on Twitter @: AMater
(13 comments)
I’ve heard that if you do this, you can link to the trademarked company’s affiliate sites and help promote their products, and this will keep them off your back. Presumably this is because you’re advertising the products and helping them make more money. Is there any truth to this?
Alan @ Work From Home Ideass last blog post..What Makes the Forums You Participate In So Great?
@Alan
I have never heard this, you can always contact the company and ask for permission to use their trademark in the url, I suspect most of them will say no no matter what you do with the site, but you never know.
Follow Me on Twitter @: AMater
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@JR, I suppose another thing to do would be to request a partnership where they would allow you to use the name in the domain. Just a thought.
According to the reference given by Eunice, it appears that there would only be an obvious infringement if the site appears to be that of the trademark owner… and if the domain was very close to the owner’s. So, if you made it clear that you weren’t affiliated in any way with the owner of the trademark, is that okay? I didn’t read over the FAQ’s yet, so maybe they answer this already.
Alan @ Work From Home Ideass last blog post..What Makes the Forums You Participate In So Great?
@Alan
Well if your name is Dell and you make a site called dellblog.com and you blog about your daily life then I imagine Dell could do nothing and probably would not care. B
But if you make a site called dellblog.com and you are an affiliate hawking Dell computers then that is a whole different story. In the end the later scenario is the one we should worry about, since we are marketers targeting keywords for profit.
Follow Me on Twitter @: AMater
(13 comments)
@JR, Agreed, but if you were selling the company’s products as an affiliate through the site, then what would they care as you are bringing them new customers and helping them earn more? Unless of course you were doing it a different way.
Alan @ Work From Home Ideass last blog post..What Makes the Forums You Participate In So Great?
@Alan
Well some may not and may actually give you permission (which would have to be in writing, btw), but think about it, they would have no control over what you do on your site and they would then risk their brand being associated with whatever you decided to do or say and the big co.’s probably would not ever risk their reputation that way, even for some earnings, they actually spend millions on branding and it is all about their reputation.
@Alan
Also, like I said in the post, every big company has a terms/legal page and on it they will list all their brand trademark names and variations of such, they also state how they maybe used and how they may bot be used. Most of the ones I have read explicitly prohibit the use in url’s.
Follow Me on Twitter @: AMater
(13 comments)
@JR, That’s why when doing our research we should look into every aspect of the niche before proceeding forward.
Alan @ Work From Home Ideass last blog post..What Makes the Forums You Participate In So Great?
Well, in case they allow you to use url with their name and help them raise money – will it really help you? You will start losing your clients as you will redirect them to company’s website. I think the best option is not using companies names’ at all!
John
I had no idea that it was against the law to use a trademark in a URL. Thanks for the info!
jlbraaten @ Internet Marketing for Beginnerss last blog post..Online Marketing How To
@jlbraaten
Oh yes, it’s the same or worse than a content copyright infringement and the big companies spend millions on branding their brands. For them to be associated with anything that is not theirs is very risky, it could mislead the web visitors because if they see the brand in the url they might think that it is the brand’s website when it’s really not associated at all.
Follow Me on Twitter @: EuniceCoughlin
(25 comments)
I learned all about this back when I started my first SBI site but totally forgot all about it when researching a new niche recently. Thank goodness I was reminded of it before I started building. I noticed that there were some sites that were using this trademark in their domain name and thought I could get away with it but decided in the end it wasn’t worth the risk.
Live and learn! At least I was only out $10 for the domain name and a little bit of time in research.
Good post and timely!
Eunice@Simple Internet Strategiess last blog post..Opportunity.Com Good Only for Serious Internet Marketers
@Eunice
I know me too, there was a great keyword that I wanted to use as well and then decided against it, not worth it at all, we work to hard to take silly risks.
Follow Me on Twitter @: EuniceCoughlin
(25 comments)
Someone referred me to this info…tells you all you need to know about trademark and then some http://www.chillingeffects.org/trademark/
Eunice@Simple Internet Strategiess last blog post..Opportunity.Com Good Only for Serious Internet Marketers
@Eunice
Cool thanks for the reference
Follow Me on Twitter @: AMater
(13 comments)
@Eunice@Simple Internet Strategies, Thanks for that resource. It’s very useful!
Alan @ Work From Home Ideass last blog post..What Makes the Forums You Participate In So Great?
Follow Me on Twitter @: AMater
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Here’s what I found going through the FAQ’s section in regards to losing a domain name:
Q: How can I lose a domain registration in a UDRP?
A: The trademark owner must prove three things: (1) that s/he has a trademark right that is identical or confusingly similar to your domain, (2) that you have no right or legitimate interest in the domain name, and (3) that you registered and used the domain in bad faith.
If you can provide evidence against that, then I would say there’s no reason to worry.
The best thing to do is not register a domain name that is very very close to any trademark name, or one that could be confused as the actual trademark owner. For example: jcpenney.com, and you register jcpenney.net, if it was available. That would be an obvious infringement.
Alan @ Work From Home Ideass last blog post..Finding A Profitable Niche So You Can Work From Home on the Internet
All good points. Many times however a company will permit these things to happen because any press is good press and if somebody else can help brand you then let them do it.
For example, how many Pokemon websites are out there using the Pokemon trademarked name? How many nintendo websites are out there using the Nintendo name in their URL?
It’s a risk you take I suppose.
Brawnydts last blog post..How to Get An SEO Job Part 2
Follow Me on Twitter @: AMater
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@Brawnydt, I would imagine as long as the exposure they’re receiving is helping improve their image, then why bother? If you’re helping to increase the awareness of their brand because you’re a fan, then I’m sure some companies would be okay with that. It’s basically free advertising and publicity for them.
Of course, it’s still a risk, and as JR pointed out, we should look into the company’s policies before going forward just to make sure.
In your example, yes, there are many websites like that, especially related to Nintendo. The Nintendo Corporate site actually doesn’t specifically detail this issue and says to seek your own legal advice, which is probably why you see these websites all over the place. As long as they’re helping the image and reputation, I don’t see what the problem would be.
Alan @ Work From Home Ideass last blog post..What Makes the Forums You Participate In So Great?
Using trade mark as a URL I thinks it is against to law in different country and (ISO). Because One firm or a company register under that name than how can another do this. This will be effect their business. Does it not happen?
My brand is my URL: “DJ MC”; but when I grabbed my domain name (in 1998), someone already had “djmc.com” so I needed a “hyphen” (dash) in the URL. Coincidentally, the dash separated the two key words and actually helped me in the SERP for the word “DJ”.
Follow Me on Twitter @: DennisEdell
(224 comments)
Ok listen up! LOL
eBay has shutdown COUNTLESS sites of all shapes and sizes for having eBay in the URL somewhere.. I didn’t understand this for the longest time as most if not all the sites were “helping eBay”, by giving away or selling tools and such for buying and selling. As JR pointed out though, a lot of it is better safe then sorry because they can’t know what you may change it too later on.
Now you may or may not be able to get permission for an official affiliate thing, who knows; but yes always get it in writing.
On the other issue, surprisingly I can tell a personal experience story using “Dell” lol.
I was about 19 when I first started to go into business for myself in direct sales. Being as my last name is Edell, of course my first choice for a business name was “Dell Distributing” (I was young, lol). This was 1989-90 before URL’s.
Speaking on this issue at long length with a friend who knew this stuff inside and out, I was advised; “As long as you are not in the same business (ex: computers and computer accessories) then it was OK.
Now keep two things in mind – this was a long friggin time ago so who knows, and, this was merely registering business names, nothing to do with URL’s. I assume now the rules (whatever they are) apply for both as both should be the same anyway for branding purposes.
Dennis Edells last blog post..12 Tips To Increase Sales On Your E-commerce Website
@Dennis Edell
I guess as long as you are not selling computers then you would be fine either way. I still see those ebay sites around, saw one the other day, I think it was e-bay4you or some crap like that.
Follow Me on Twitter @: DennisEdell
(224 comments)
@JR,
I’m sure there are hundreds if not thousands out there…I just use the word “yet”. Like you said, it’s not worth the long term hassles
Dennis Edells last blog post..12 Tips To Increase Sales On Your E-commerce Website
This sounds like a good strategy but in the end it will backfire. You will build up inbound links and then right when you are getting popular you will be taken down for name infringement.
Top Rap Songss last blog post..Top Ten Songs
Hi, You use word band I think you wanna to say brand. Brand name is also useful with hard work am I right about it.
Thanks for the info I will have to consider this when developing my keywords.
Is there any restriction on countrynames in urls? I have a few domains with country and city names.
@Roy
I do not believe so as long as you do not try to trick the SE’s into thinking you are a gov site.
Hi,
Its not a criteria that you should keep the keywords in url but it is good that keywords in url.
Many of sites will rank without having keywords in url.
Thanks.
Hi,
Brand building is very difficult work.
It needed lot of effort.
Thanks for the sharing.
Good advice. Which also goes… Don’t take short cuts. With a little more work those sites can rank well for other ‘generic’ searches and do just as well which will turn into long-term income.
Chris@Diabetes Curess last blog post..Reverse Diabetes
A very important point and something that we hardly ever thing about. As some have already said you can get away with it if you’re an affiliate for smaller sites but with the larger companies you’ll most likely get in trouble.
Mikael @ Retire Earlys last blog post..Google Keyword Competition: How to Do Competitive Keywords Analysis
Thanks for the heads up on this JR.
I wonder if there is some rule of thumb on how important it is to have the product name in the URL for the serps. This plays into the question of how much harder it is to rank for a keyword that is similar to your URL keyword but not the same.
I understand it is mostly about the link anchor text but I wonder how much more difficult it is when the keyword is not in the URL.
Thanks for all the great info.
Agrande with network marketing leadss last blog post..Network Marketing Lead Prospecting Requires Planning
@Agrande
The difficulty and amount of backlinks really depends on the competition of those brand name keywords, if there are higher PR sites on page one then it may take thousands more backlinks.
@Neostead,
lol, it is??
Hi there I have just stumbled upon your blog, and have found it to be very interesting, I never knew that one could not use a trademark in ones url this is the first I have heard about this thanks for the information.
Regards
Janet
What, no article about the May 28, 2009 Page Rank Update? Looks like SOMEBODY has been caught napping! (LOL) My site returned to PR 4, after having been demoted to PR 3 for just under two months.
@Matt
LOL, no I actually just got back from Vegas last night and was going to post about it today.
Follow Me on Twitter @: sindiatour
(2 comments)
I learnt a lot from your postings. Thanks for posting such useful articles.
LM@South India Tourisms last blog post..Jun 1, Honeymoon South India
Well, I am not sure how illegal is to use the brand in the URL. And I am not sure what you mean by saying “URL”. As far as I can understand you mean the whole URL and not only the domain name. But even in their affiliate programs many brands allow the use of their name in the URLs as long as it is after the 3rd “/” (i.e. http://www.example.com/brandnamehere).
@papi
I am referring to the domain URL of the site, the index, where marketers use keywords that involve brand names, like applelaptopdotcom, that would definitely be a copyright infringement.
And if you read trademark terms of use, which most of the big companies have on their sites, most explicitly prohibit the use of any or all of their trademarked names in the domain.
@JR, ok. If you are talking about the domain name, yes, there is copyright infringement. As long as nobody notices you, it’s ok. But if you’re not noticed by the brand owners then you’re not noticed by buyers as well. So, there is no point risking all your hard work for better serps on specific keywords. On the other hand, there are many other ways to greatly improve your rankings without risk involved.
@papi
I agree with you completely!
Hi,
I think brand building is not the one day show.
It really requires hard word work and effort.
Its a continuous process with no limitations.
Thanks.
Using trademark is a good thing isn’t it?
Ben Peis last blog post..Your e-Book – Should It Be EXE or PDF?
About Using Trademarks and Brand Names in the URL http://bit.ly/4HhX0K