I have been in the domain name industry since 2005/2006 time frame and I often hear people compare domain names to physical real estate, with an expression of “Location, Location, Location”.
So is that really true?
This weekend I watched a TV series on Netflix called “High Profits” which was about a company that is in the cannabis industry. They were forward thinking and secured a location in 2009 on Main St. in Breckenridge, Colorado. When recreational marijuana sales became legal on January 1, 2014, Breckenridge Cannabis Club (now: Backcountry Cannabis Company) was the only marijuana business in the heart of the tourist city and business was booming from day 1!
BCC was not the only dispensary in town, but they were the only ones on Main St, with easy access to tourist. The other dispensaries were 2 miles away as governed later by the city council on “Airport Road”. Although only 2 miles, consider that tourist do not have transportation, BCC was the best and easiest option for most consumers.
It was ALL about Location!
The city council long tried to keep a “clean image” for the tourist community and constantly were trying to push out BCC from the downtown Main St location. Spoil alert: BCC did lose the fight and is no longer able to sell cannabis at that location after a long fight with the city of the Main St. location…. One I do not agree with BTW!
So this had me thinking, could this situation compare to domain names? This physical location was so extremely important to the success of this company! Can a company do the same thing as BCC did and have a large portion of the success be because of it based on a domain name?
Location
In the BCC case, IMO, it was a combination.
- forward thinking to secure the physical real estate long before anybody thought it would matter.
- fighting to remain and be the only one
Domain name comparison
Early registration of the domain name or purchasing it before another end user does would be the forward thinking part. As a reference to “Location, Location, Location” that is hard to do IMO with a domain name. Location can be looked at in a couple ways.
- being #1 in search engines. This can often result in better results with an exact match domain name but isn’t always needed.
- is more a “brand” IMO, because if you sell marijuana, owning that as an exact match domain like Marijuana.com simply makes sense. The problem, there are other terms like cannabis, Mary J, Pot, Weed and many other slang terms. IMO, this is more brand related than location.
So can a domain name “really” reflect “Location, Location, Location” as BCC had in Breckenridge?
I do not think one can really compare it and this was simply a unique situation where the physical location was simply the one key factor and was done with forward thinking.
Fighting to remain, would be constant: staying on top of the search engines and further branding of the brand for direct navigation.
Global
Since, at the time of the TV series (2014), Colorado was the only state where recreational sales of marijuana were legal, domain names would not have helped bring in global sales, other than brand awareness. Online sales of marijuana are not and have not been legal in any US state.
From a volume standpoint, I think online sales would allow the global reach via domain names, but in this case, it wouldn’t be legal and isn’t a comparison.
Overview
Location, Location, Location was the clear winner for BCC and was unique to the point that I do not currently see a comparable to use it via a domain name. Direct navigation is a factor and can relate to the 3 L’s and domain names. Search engine placement can be a factor and can relate to the “location” via exact match keyword. Trust is a factor and reflects the domain name used but I can not solely put that on “Location”, although it reflects EMD.
While thinking it over, I do feel that domain names are more of a “brand” and branding tool than location. There are things 1 domain name can bring that another can not.
If you have not watched the show High Profits (also on CNN), it’s one worth your time. Two young entrepreneurs (Caitlin & Brian) fighting the fight with pure emotion along the way, learning as they go. The ups and downs (like having to shred $1 Million dollars worth of weed due to a law that prevents them from moving the plants from one warehouse to another) of owning a business and putting up a fight.
