www.MarineVinylFabric.com

Marine Vinyl Fabric may not be the sexiest of products but when you think about where it's used – "I'm on a boat!" – its sex appeal goes up exponentially.

The same goes for URL selection and display. You may not win any graphic design awards for a logo that just simply shows the URL with dubs (aka www) and Leading Caps (aka Title Case) but top SEO results and zero ambiguity on what the website offers will surely draw some wandering eyes.

ClassesPlease.com

Shannen Doherty's keepin' it classy with this URL!

DemocacyForAmerica.com, WeAre[Ohio].com

You may think the one on the right is a stumper, but if you live in Ohio you will recognize the bumper.

ThereAreWorseThingsThanCornSyrup.com

Peter Askew snagged this one off Saturday Night Live. Beyond being funny, the URL display is, well, sticky.

LasikPlus2020.com

Here's a nice clean URL with Camel Case and a unique tracking code to measure conversions. You don't need lasik to read this one clearly!

GRAMMYINTHESCHOOLS.COM

I've been a little delinquent in checking the Good URL Bad URL mailbag but Brian Leiberman has been consistently loading it up. I still have a bunch to get to but wanted to post this one he potted tonight on the Grammys. Despite the ALLCAPS and Spacing Issues, this URL is relatively easy to read. *Channeling Joan Rivers and the URL Fashion Police* This URL is a best-dressed nominee!

KeepDelMarClean.org

Mr. Askew checks in with #44 here. He spotted this at Think Tank conference. While I don't love the Spacing Issues staggering the URL across 3 lines, the Leading Caps (which I just learned is technically called Camel Case) and Alternating Fonts more than make up for it. I also love the slogan here. In it's effort to keep it clean, Del Mar is definitely keeping it real.

www.FreshSeafood.com

Peter Askew sent this one in from Seattle. Love how they use "Smoke" like it's a verb rather than an adjective. At least the URL is sea-worthy, as in worthy of being seen.

ThatsaPlus.com

United really plussed up this URL. Nice Leading Caps. No dubs. They should get a positive charge from this one!

BeenThereSeenItDoneIt.com

Domainer Chris Brown asked me what I thought of this URL. While I like the selection and presentation (despite the spacing issues), I can't see this fetching anywhere near the asking price of $150k. Brown is holding steady to his belief that this could be the first six word domain sale to break the six figure barrier. If that happens, we'll surely have seen it all.

THINKBEYONDTHELABELSM.com

Brian Leiberman checks in with his 3rd URL-spotting to date and asks, "What were they thinking?" Truth is, I really don't mind this one. Despite ALLCAPS, spacing issues, and a service mark, the URL is actually pretty easy to make out and the logo, all told, is quite elegant what with the dot-com bleeding outside the "label" and, thus, reinforcing the call to action.

Let this be a reminder to all the URL-aholics out there that none of my rules are hard and fast and, in some cases, breaking one or more of them can actually help an organization's cause. When creating (and evaluating) URLs, I urge you to think outside the box if you want to get a Good URL label.

G.cn

Peter Askew saw this great (and rare) 3-letter URL on the TV show, Amazing Race. Of course, the drama between Google and the Chinese government has been as exciting as any reality show plotline and ended with Google pulling out of China after getting hacked. This URL now redirects to the Google Hong Kong site where results are not censored. Too bad, this was one Good G.url.

SHEKNOWS.com, SheKnows.com

Dipping back into the GUBU mailbag. Here's one from Bob Kahns. He says, "Alternating font helps, but the all caps hurts. She might know everything you need to know about health & wellness, but she doesn't know good URL tactics."

While I applaud the pun, I don't agree with the assessment. I think the Alternating Fonts makes it clear what the 2 words are despite the ALLCAPS. So chill out, Bob, she knows what she's doing. :)

Sit Means Sit.com

Peter Askew is back with SkewURL #40. I'll overlook the spacing issues here because the letters are close together enough (not to mention it helps separate the 2 s's) and the Leading Caps make it clear it's an URL. I also think it's a pretty clever URL choice for a dog trainer. This URL is pretty doggone good!

FreeMaxClarityOffer.com

This one I nabbed myself off the boob tube. Great trackable URL for DR TV. And nice use of alternating fonts and Leading Caps to make this URL quite legible. They really max out their placement here, bringing clarity to the URL. Not much free advice I can offer them.

HostGator.com

Thomas Umstattd Jr. submitted this "permanently good URL" that he came across in a Host Gator forum. Apparently this guy did it for $2k and a trip to Vegas. As I told Thomas this can be classified under "Bad Decision, Good URL."

Parks.it

To show that it’s not all bad in Italy, here’s a nice clean URL that I presume is for the Parks Department. When it comes to good URL presentation, they Get.it.

www.4LEONI.com

Not sure what to make of this one. The only certainly is that the food at this restaurant in Florence was top notch. It’s URL uses the number 4 instead of spelling it out, which matches the brand name so no problem there. It uses ALLCAPS for LEONI which I don’t love but can’t really fault. Again, I’m over the dubs. So that leaves the dot-com and, I guess, at some point you have to choose between appealing to natives and tourists. I suppose natives have less reason to visit the website -- they know where it is, how good the food is, etc. So we’ll give 4 stars to 4 Leoni’s -- both the food and the URLs were prepared and presented well.

Ferman.com

While I was on hiatus, Bob Kahns picked up the URL-spotting slack, filling my inbox with nuggets like this one. He likes this logo URL "but at the same time it looks a bit funny with the .com so large." I agree whURL-heartedly. It is funny looking but it does gets you looking. And, even though the fonts and treatments don't go together, there's no questioning what the URL is here. So, while this URL could stand to be Ferman-ted a bit longer, it's still got some decent hops.

LearnFromGoogle.com

This will be my last post for a while. Taking a little hiatus so I can focus on writing my book, Everything I Need to Know About Marketing I Learned From Google, which will be published by McGraw-Hill in the Fall. More details on that project at LearnFromGoogle.com. While I'll be covering more than URL best practices, you can be sure I'll pepper some of the good (and bad!) stuff into my manuscript. My deadline is March 31st so I'll be heads down until then. In the meantime, please keep the submissions coming so I have plenty of material to work with when I come out of hibernation. I promise I'll post each and every one of them. Thanks to everyone out there for supporting my URL-aholism over the past 2+ years and 400+ posts. See you in April!

Update 1/10: Just came across the Google permissions policy which prohibits use of its brand name in domains so I migrated over to GoogleyLessons.com. Also bought LearnFromGoog.com and EverythingIKnowAboutMarketing.com. Just have those redirecting for now. What do you all think? Which is the best URL?