Spaces, an apostrophe or reading the domain extension as part of the address can all lead to domain faux pas.
Case in point: the Italian battery company, Powergen, thought it would be a good idea to create a website using powergenitalia.com domain. However, this does not translate batteries or power to consumers! Instead, they immediately think “powerful genitalia”.
It is unknown whether this choice was the result of someone’s vengeful juvenile sense of humor or complete cluelessness; however, the address is now no longer online.
There are countless other examples from this category, all of which show that marketing departments considered their domain’s presence and potential meanings far too late. Our tip: be absolutely sure that you test your brand name with its preferred spelling in combination with all the major domain extensions so that there are no embarrassing “domain hacks.”
The overview of the full article about the 10 Golden Rules can be found here.