The Curious Case of Cebu Pacific

If you want people to remember your website, you must follow this simple rule: shorter is better.
Why spend millions for advertising costs when you can build a nationally recognized brand by
picking the best domains for your company? Big companies would spend lots of money to become
a household name. ince not all of us are capable to spending that much, you can start an effective
advertising strategy by marketing your company with the right domain name.
!he second largest airfleet carrier of the "hilippines is using cebupacificair.com for their domain
name. While their real brand name is #ebu "acific $ir, they are popularly known as %#ebu "acific%.
&owever, their advertising is trying to drive home the fact that their domain is cebupacific$I'.com.
!his is because people will not remember %air% when going to their website. (ven )oogle !rends is
showing that people are looking for %#ebu "acific% more than %#ebu "acific $ir%.

!here will be people who searched for %#ebu "acific% who will definitely be misdirected into going
to other websites.
Don't confuse your clients. Your domain is your primary identity online. Get a domain that fits
your brand.
What makes a domain name "bad"?
*uite simply, a bad domain name is hard to remember and +nd. It,s a name that is not consistent
with your brand name.
In this sense, #ebupaci+cair.com is a bad domain name. -id you know that for every . people who
)oogle /cebupaci+c0 only one actually searches for /cebupaci+cair0? #heck out this )oogle !rends
chart:
!he stats still look bad for #ebu "aci+c even if people search for their brand name with spaces. 1ou
can see that out of 2 people who )oogles /cebu paci+c0 only 3 to 3.45 people look for /cebu
paci+c air,, and /cebu paci+c airlines0. !his means that people are 2 times more likely to type in or
visit 6by clicking a link7 /#ebupaci+c.com8ph0 instead of the of+cial domain, /#ebupaci+cair.com0.
What makes a domain name "bad"?
earch engine results by country also doesn,t bode well for #ebu "aci+c. 9or e:ample, if the
potential customer is in ingapore and )oogles /cebu paci+c0 there, the results are still deplorable.
Instead of the of+cial #ebu "aci+c website turning up on the front page, a negative e:perience
about the company makes it as the top two result; !his is a huge turn<off for someone who wants
to avail of the company,s services. !hose are lost revenues right there.
#ountry results for =apan also doesn,t show the #ebu "aci+c website. Instead, the >th search result
leads to negative comments about the company, yet again. ince #ebu "aci+c used a domain name
that included an unnecessary keyword, thus mangling it, the chances of their of+cial website
appearing on )oogle?s top ten results in countries other than the "hilippines are really small.
$ll this could have been avoided if only #ebu "aci+c refused to mangle their domain name. It has
condemned itself to being hard to search for because of a simple mistake. Big deal; !hat?s so easy
to +:; Why don?t they @ust buy a new domain name that can...wait a minute.
omeone else is currently sAuatting on /#ebupaci+c.ph0, making money out of the traf+c it gets by
putting up ads that invite the visitor to avail of T!"# airlines.
$ cybersAuatter has also put up shop on #ebupaci+c.com. ame mode of operation < the domainer
put up ads that invite the visitor to purchase tickets from #ebu "aci+c,s direct competitors in the
"hilippines.
o there you have it. #ebu "aci+c is currently using a domain name that is hard to remember and
search for due to an unnecessary suf+: 6/air07 @ust so they can get a .com name.
#ebu "aci+c,s solution? pend millions in advertising to make sure that people remember their
domain name; !his defeats the purpose because it only increases the value of the cybersAuatters,
domains < the ones who actually &$B( the brand name of the product they,re advertising.
$dvertisements @ust drive even more traf+c and revenue to the cybersAuatters.
Cet,s all remember that good advertising only has one message, and that message should reinforce
your brand instead of destroying it.
I,m sure you,re curious < ho$ much traf%c is Cebu Paci%c actually losin&? Dore importantly, how
much money in the form of ticket sales is the company losing because of their bad domain name?
!his graph shows the amount of traf+c #ebupaci+cair.com gets everyday. Based on this, we want to
know how much type<in traf+c the website is losing every month.
9or the amount of type<in traf+c 6people looking for their website by typing what they think is the
of+cial domain name7:
Cet?s assume 3>E of overall traf+c is type<in
)oogle !rends estimates that there are 3.k uniAue visitors8day going to #ebu "aci+c?s
of+cial website.
We then compute the 3>E of the estimated type<in traf+c 63.k7
#ebu "aci+c loses 3,F>5 type<in visitors per day or >G.> thousand type<in visitors per
month.
$s we?ve established above, there are around . people who incorrectly type in the domain name
of #ebu "aci+c for every one person who gets it right. Dultiplying >G.>k monthly visitors by ..H, we
can say that #ebu "aci+c is losing 3G2,H55 visitors8month;
!o$ much money does the company lose e'ery year (ust because of a
bad domain name?
Cet?s use InAuirer.net as a benchmark since it?s the top website in the "hilippines. !he site charges
I>8cpm.
$ssume that there?s a 4E clickthrough rate per InAuirer.net
Jut of #ebu "acific?s )*+.,- missed 'isitors.month there are /0))*- impressions lost.
!hat?s easily 1,2034, month or 1,/+ thousand e'ery year5
$nother way to estimate the monetary loss of #ebu "acific is by looking at the lost income due to
misplaced traffic.
$ssume that for every 355 visitors to #ebupacificair.com, 4..E buy a ticket.
Infer that the profit for every ticket sold is ".>5.
If there are )*+.,k lost 'isitors.month then that means that there are *02/4 lost
passen&ers.month.
!hat?s worth P,.*6 lost income.month or 17+7 thousand e'ery year.
!hink about it < that?s a huge amount of income lost @ust because of one seemingly small mistake.
If you want to avoid this, register your brand?s domain name immediately before somebody else
does.
What is the 'alue of Cebupaci%c.ph domain name?
Kse !aylor series to compute. Cet pL interest rate the #ebu "aci+c can get on their money 6KI7.
8f the interest rate is 390 the cebupaci%c.ph is $orth :17+7T;:).23;.:.23;< 1)/.,6
Don't make the same mistake. Get the ri&ht domain0 ri&ht a$ay $ith dotP!