Just wanted to share a story with you about an Austin business owner that gets it! The “it” I’m referencing is the value in owning and operating his Austin-based mattress company using keyword-rich domains.
As our boys move into the toddler stage, my wife thought it was a good time to transition them to twin beds.
We live not to far from a mattress store (as shown in the picture) that we’ve done business with before. I hadn’t realized it, but soon found out that it had been in business for the past 11 years. Again, we had purchased a few mattresses from this company over the years.
Nevertheless, my wife had been by the mattress store and found our oldest son both a twin mattress and box spring. So of course, ole’ dad was tapped for pickup and delivery services.
Luckily, the store is about 5 minute ride from our house, if that. I didn’t think nothing of pulling up to the store, Austin Discount Mattress. I was simply there on a pickup and delivery assignment, and back to the house in short order, so I thought.
When I entered the store room floor, I was shocked to see their wall. In fact, I was so excited that I had to take pictures of the store, and meet the owner if I could.
Once I saw their wall and the front window of their store, I was ready to stay ALL DAY long in deep conversation about the various benefits they’ve received using the domain AustinMattress.com.
The salesman on duty for the day, Dave (seen in the picture), was very pleasant and informative, helping us find what we needed in short order.
However, I couldn’t resist wanting to know more about the domain plastered on their wall. And fortunately, my wife and I were the only customers in the store on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.
I had to know how long they had used the domain AustinMattress.com, so I asked. Dave told us that they had only had this name a little over a year, but quickly noticed an increase in website traffic and search rankings.
The interesting thing is that their continued to use the Austin-Mattress.com domain, which contains a hyphen. The hyphenated domain is what they started their business presence using, but quickly found that many prospects and customers were leaving out the hyphen when typing the domain into web browsers.
So, the business owner set out on a mission to find the owner of AustinMattress.com and was able to successfully secure the domain (didn’t say how much, but I’m certain the domain’s one-time investment was worth the long-term ROI). Instead of transitioning the website (looks to be an aged static html website with not much content) from the hyphenated to the non-hyphenated version, the owner simply had AustinMattress.com redirected to Austin-Mattress.com.
Not just the use of one, but the use of multiple domains
In addition, Dave shared with me that the owner had also purchased domains surrounding Austin cities. Dave specifically mentioned the owner securing CedarParkMattress.com a few months ago, and that is too boosted their primary website traffic.
By this time, I couldn’t stop smiling and salivating. I was like a kid on Christmas morning. Heck, I had almost forgot I was there to purchase a twin mattress and box spring.
But that’s not all. The cherry on top was when Dave told me that the owner was adamant about owning the surrounding City+Mattress .com domains, because the company couldn’t afford for the competition to own the domains and put them out of business.
Not only that, but AustinMattress.com DOES NOT advertise at all using any traditional marketing strategies or paid search marketing services. The domains are increasing business while reducing, if not eliminating, their marketing spend unlike the competition.
I almost fainted in joy as all of this was music to my ears as domain investor, hearing a salesperson and owner confirm what I’ve known for years about keyword-rich domains used as a business’ primary web presence.
Quite curious about AustinMattress.com’s competition
I searched “mattresses austin” when I got home and there are quite a few mattress places in the Austin area sporting the various keywords of “discount”, “mattress”, and some use “Austin”.
In my opinion, a few domains were to close to infringement. Compare AustinMattress.com to the list of domains below, talking about COMPETITIVE LOCAL MARKET for mattresses.
Unlike the competitions domains, here’s what I love… AustinMattress.com is short, easy to remember, and passes the radio test. Take a moment and review.
- AustinConsignmentDepot.com
- MattressManAustin.com
- AustinMattress.net (Seriously? What happens to those that type .com instead of .net? Whoops!)
- DiscountMattressOfAustin.com
- FactoryMattressTexas.com
- SleepWorld.net
- AustinMattressAndMore.com (infringement in my opinion)
- TheSleepShopAustin.com
- AustinNaturalMattress.com
- AustinMattressDiscount.com
- LunarMattress.net
- TheFutonStoreAustin.com
Seeing the list above of mattress companies in Austin (as shown in search results) would make me wonder if there is a credible business using AustinMattress.com.
Therefore, I would type AustinMattress.com in the web browser (bypassing search engines) even if I didn’t see it in search rankings or among this list of domains.
A proven lesson for businesses to increase revenue, and reduce or eliminate marketing spend
In closing, I was quite giddy to experience and hear AustinMattress.com’s story, and wish them continued success in the future. Hats off to business owner for making a sound investment in using keyword rich domains to ensure the credibility and longevity of AustinMattress.com.
I constantly “preach and teach” about the importance of keyword-rich domains as a business’ primary web presence. However, most business owners roll their eyes and remain arrogant in wanting their “branded domain” to be the web presence.
This is just one of MANY stories of business owners KILLING the competition, making hand over fist in revenue, while reducing and eliminating marketing spend.
Meanwhile, keyword-rich domain businesses FORCE their competition to forever increase marketing spend year over year. The competition can do nothing more than try to achieve a lesser level of success using knock off domains.
Which side of the keyword-rich domain equation is your business on?
Again, hat’s off to AustinMattress.com for a smart decision. That’s it for now, but I’ll be sure to write about more of these businesses that use keyword-rich domains as I see them around.
P.S. And I give an even bigger hat tip to the owner of Mattress.com.
As a domain investor and business consultant, Alvin actively participates in daily domain auctions. Outside of auctions, he passionately shares his views, opinions, and vision for how businesses should and should not use domain names to generate greater customer growth and revenue.
