Shakespeare famously wrote, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” While that sentiment is admirable in the case of two feuding families in fair Verona, or if you’re hitting on that English Lit major at the bar, the same sadly does not apply to the URL (Uniform Resource Locator, or what people type into their browser) of your website. Obviously you should avoid cryptic abbreviations and list the name of your brand as closely as possible in order for your target audience to find your site, but you should also consider what your website name says (literally) about you.
Well, that’s enough for the sugar-coating. Today we’re going to talk about URL’s that are unintentionally…let’s say “inappropriate”. Depending on the name of your business or brand, it’s possible to snag a naughty site name due to pure circumstance. Now, is this a subject that only applies to a niche of website owners? Yes. Can it be considered immature to blog about the subject? Perhaps. Is the subject of unintentionally dirty-sounding websites hilarious? Oh, you bet your sweet bippy!
Now based on the research I’ve done, there are 3 ways to deal with this issue. The first is obtaining a new URL or modifying the exiting one slightly, the second is feigning ignorance, and the third is running with it like an Olympic sprinter. At the risk of raising a few eyebrows of the IT department who will no doubt be VERY interested in my browsing history, let’s look at a few examples!
In the “Oh crap, we better change our URL” category, there’s the official site for Lake Tahoe (formerly gotahoe.com), which is now gotahoenorth.com, and tech resource site Experts Exchange (I’ll let you figure out that one yourself), which was slightly modified to experts-exchange.com. The “maybe no one will notice” category includes a resource for those seeking a therapist (therapistfinder.com), a site for finding who represents famous celebs (whorepresents.com), and a humble blog for an art gallery in my hometown of Columbia, SC (ifartgallery.blogspot.com). I could only find one example of embracing an unfortunate URL, but it’s definitely a stellar choice. The uniquely named Ferreth & Jobs law firm can be found online at ferrethandjobs.com. Don’t forget to buy a t-shirt.
So there you have it, a few examples illustrating the importance of taking a closer look at your web address. While they succeed in being memorable, hopefully they’ve taught you the importance of a hyphen.
