Some words are trademarked and as such they cannot be used in other non-owners' marketing materials without some form of permission or recognition. Even though you are a Realtor, if you want to use the word "Realtor" in your domain name, beware! The National Association of Realtors owns the rights to this word and has rules about how it may be used in members' marketing.

You can use your company name or your name and include the word Realtor, but you cannot use the word Realtor to point to a location or concept. Here are some clear examples of what is acceptable and what is not:

www.YourNameRealtor.com = Acceptable
www.YourCompanyRealtor.com = Acceptable
www.YourCityRealtor.com = Not Acceptable
www.AnthingElseRealtor.com = Not Acceptable

So JoeSimonRealtor.com is okay, as is SimonCompanyRealtors.com, but SeattleRealtor.com and JoeSimonSeattleRealtor.com is not. Nor is GreatRealtor.com, nor BestSeattleRealtor.com.

A domain name squatter is currently selling RealtorGod.com and RealtorGoddess.com, which they claim are "Four Star Locations on the Internet". They want you to "Make them an offer". Sooner or later, someone from the legal staff at the NAR is going to send the "owner" of this domain a cease and desist letter, as they will to all those using their trademarked word improperly.

Actually, NAR's rule makes perfect sense. If you were a Realtor in Seattle, would you like it if one of your competitors was able to register SeattleRealtor.com? For more information, contact the NAR directly: Trademark@Realtors.org.

Other trademarked words

RELO® is also a word that someone else owns, and which you cannot use in your web site name indiscriminately. Contact generalinfo@relo.com for more information. I've also seen agents use trademarked words such as RE/MAX, Century 21, and Coldwell Banker in their web site name. Better check with those organizations first, because it is a hassle to change web site names! It's not a good idea to use your company brand in your domain name anyway - what if you change companies?

Beware of words that are trademarked by others. Domain squatters generally lose when they go to court over the rights to a trademarked name. You can check on trademarked words for "free" here.

Forget About Search Engines

I used to recommend that you get one domain name for marketing, and one for search engines, each name pointing to the same web site (yours!). The web site name for search engines generally looked something like this: Mobile-Alabama-Real-Estate-Homes-Properties-Houses.com. Packed full of key words that are clearly differentiated with dashes, the idea was that a domain name like this would help you in the search engines.

Like I'm always saying, search engines change all the time. Every day they get wiser to all of our tricks. Well, they have wised up to the trick of having one web site with multiple names. 90%-100% of the time they'll ignore every name but one.

It is true that a few search engines "index" (pay attention to) the words in your domain name. But it is just the tiniest part of the search engine puzzle. All things being equal, the minimal positive effect that key words might have in a domain name is far outweighed by the negative effect that a clumsy key word stuffed web site name can have. Would you rather visit La-Jolla-San-Diego-California-Beach-Homes-Luxury-Properties.com or LaJollaForever.com? Which would you remember?

Some people say there's another reason that domains stuffed with key words are good for the search engines: When the name appears in any search results, it tells people what they'll find there. I find this logic specious. With reasoning like this, Amazon.com should have been BigOnlineBookSeller.com. The HTML Title tag, the META Description tag, and your overall marketing should have the burden of fully describing what your site is about, not the name alone. Don't saddle yourself with an awkward domain name just for the search engines.

Published: April 9, 2001

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Lawrence Schoeffler is Vice President of Dominion Homes Web Services and founder of NUMBER1EXPERT. Dominion Homes Web Services includes Advanced Access, Agent Advantage by Homes.com, and Best Image Marketing, and is a division of Dominion Enterprises. Advanced Access is the industry leader in agent websites. More agents invest in an Advanced Access website than any other. Agent Advantage is the official agent website service of Homes.com, one of the most popular real estate portals in America. NUMBER1EXPERT by Best Image offers America's Top Performing Web Sites, with traffic and leads unequalled in the industry, sold exclusively to Top Selling Agents. Email Lawrence at .