Can We use WordPress Word in our Domain Names?

using WordPress Domain Names
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When I was planning to start a new domain on WordPress the first few names which came into my mind was with keyword WordPress. I was about to buy the domain name but luckily while talking to one of my blogger friends, told me about the issues with using WordPress in the top-level domain name.

After little research I landed into the page from WordPress which clearly says

For various reasons related to our WordPress trademark, we ask if you’re going to start a site about WordPress or related to it that you not use “WordPress” in the domain name. Try using “wp” instead, or another variation. We’re not lawyers, but very good ones tell us we have to do this to preserve our trademark. Also many users have told us they find it confusing.

To be honest I second their opinion of not letting anyone using WordPress in top-level domain. Though users are free to use wordpress in sub domain. For example

WordPress.shoutmeloud.com and so on.

I was reading a post on WPgarage which faced the similar issue as they had WordPress in primary domain name , but later they moved to WPgarage from WordPressgarage.

Even I was confused before selecting the name for my WordPress dedicated blog and after all this confusion I bought domain name WPSutra for WordPresss tutorials and themes.

On the other note, if you buy  a domain name with WordPress as word, you might not face any problem in beginning but later get ready for mail from Automattic company.

In case you have any existing domain name with WordPress as domain name, move it to wp equivalent domain name. For ex : WordPress Sutra to WPSutra . For this you need to do a 301 perma redirection.

Do let us know your thought about Matt preserving its brand name by not allowing WordPress fans to use WordPress as key in domain name?

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Authored By
A Blogger, Author and a speaker! Harsh Agrawal is recognized as a leader in digital marketing and FinTech space. Fountainhead of ShoutMeLoud, and a Speaker at ASW, Hero Mindmine, Inorbit, IBM, India blockchain summit. Also, an award-winning blogger.

21 thoughts on “Can We use WordPress Word in our Domain Names?”

  1. satyanarayana

    Hi….
    Harsh agrawal sir
    I have been following your posts for the last 2 months which have been helping a lot to a new blogger
    like me.

    I just posted 4 posts on my blogger, and before proceeding further I would like to shift my blogspot
    domain name to custom domain. I have a doubt that, can I use some others blog name like “TRACK”
    to register my domain as “trackexample.com”(just for an example I have mention this name).
    How can we know that name was trademarked, is there any tool to find out.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      @Satya
      There is no such tool that I know of. Don’t use popular & existing brand names in your domain name. Ex: Google, WordPress, Facebook, AdSense & so on.

  2. Nitish Singh

    Thank you for the article. It saved me tons of hard work.

  3. Asim

    Can i use the word ‘blog’ in my custom domain

  4. Ashik

    Hey it is Better to use the Own name in the Domain like AshikTricks.com ,denharsh.com….!!

  5. Janmejai

    I was totally unaware of this fact,thank god i preferred to have a short domain.
    Lesson-Always do some research before taking any step.

  6. WP Content Plugins

    I was also going to add the word wordpress in my domain, but then thought it will be trademark. Finally i added WP in my domain.

  7. pramodh

    I completely agree with Matt… Many people just start blogs with top level keywords and put some crap into it. Who knows, it may be dangerous too. This would lead many people into trouble.

    So, Matt has taken a really good step here.

  8. Pritush

    there are lots of domain with word facebook, some of this have similar layout but their objective is to scam people, this might be their initiation to control modified wordpress installation that contain some harmful codes.
    “wrdpress” or “wordpres” or “w0rdpress” can be use though 😀

  9. Miriam Schwab

    The issue of the WordPress domain is one we’ve been discussing for years. When we started WordPress Garage, we had no idea that using the word WordPress in the domain name would be problematic. I actually disagree with those that say that it’s trademark infringement – we’re a fan blog and we’re not trying to pretend we’re affiliated with WordPress in any way.

    However, the head honchos at WordPress and Automattic do a good job of shunning those who use the word WordPress in their domain name. For example, they will never link to a blog with the word WordPress in the domain. So we moved our blog over to http://wpgarage.com, which was actually a good learning experience for us.

    Basically – you can’t beat ’em, so you might as well join ’em.

    1. WPMineworks

      I’ve read through whole of Miriam’s post and found it extremely enlightening as a discussion. Thanks Miriam. I’m in process of starting a WordPress… oops! WP related blog site and hope to write about this issue which normal bloggers and WP lovers hardly have knowledge about the domain name policy they have deep in wordpress.org
      Well, this has turned me to be a regular reader with ShoutMeLoud and WPGarage 🙂

      1. Miriam Schwab

        Glad you found my post useful about WordPress in domain names, and welcome to the WPGarage readership!

  10. Kurt Avish

    I fully agree with Matt to preserve his domain trademark.

    While some people can use “WordPress” in their domain for professional and legit things, there are “troufess” in this world who will also use it for ugly and spammy things.

    Recently I saw many using Facebook and Wikipedia name too in their domain. (I am referring to absolute s*cking sites here not even worth to compare with the original Facebook and Wikipedia).

    So I fully back WordPress and Matt in this.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      I second your Opinion Kurt. I have seen people creating hacked wordpress templates and themes sites , while using WordPress in domain name. More over no one will like to dilute his brand name. But at times, they should have a special team who can accept few blogs which has wordpress in their domain name and is helping wordpress to grow. After all they are getting free advertisers.

  11. tushar

    well, i matt wants to reserve wordpress, he deserves it…after giving us such a wonderful platform to blog….

  12. loveish

    I don’t think legally there will be any issue. You are paying for a domain name and it should be urs. There are so many sites about orkut and they are using orkut in their domain name. So why should wordpress has a problem with that.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      Loveish it;s about preserving brand name. Orkut is not concerned with this, but wordpress is and it’s actually a smart move IMO.

  13. Chethan

    hmm every netizen must be able to choose his own domain name… why restrictions when we pay??? WordPresspush.com will be no where related to wordpress.. still will this be a problem??? I need more details why exactly we can’t choose wordpress in domain name…..

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