An article by Media Post assesses the potential value of a good domain name related to a brand name or search term. Based on research by domain management company Sedo, it claims that the domain name is central to brand recognition and that direct navigation to a site (where people open a browser, type in a domain name and expect to find the correct website) remains the most popular web navigation technique.

Of course, it would appear that the outcomes reported by Sedo might be biased in their favour, as they claim that people use domain names like search terms, so that rather than entering them in a search box, they enter the name in the browser. However, others may feel that the most common way people will try looking for a website or brand is to go to Google and type the name into the search box - which certainly seems to be reflected by many web stats.

The article says that Sedo claim that "domain names matching search terms that define the business can generate between 10,000 and 30,000 unique visitors monthly". They also say that these domains can lead consumers to a website much more easily then if they had to find the information through a search engine because companies have to invest a lot of money in search engine marketing, both SEO and paid clicks.

However, this appears to be research that supports a sales pitch very conveniently. Few domain names other than the most global brands or search terms would generate that level of traffic per month from people typing in the URL on spec, and in most cases a company or brand name will easily rank first on Google's search results, which makes it a convenient way for people to find the site they want.