When you submit a keyword, you can receive one of the following messages.

Approved

The keyword was approved, and is in effect. There’s nothing more to do.

Needs approval by Brandpa

The keyword is not recognised, and someone at Brandpa will need to manually confirm that it is acceptable. Depending on the time, day, and current demand, this might take a day or two. We don’t notify you if a keyword is approved.

Don’t repeat keywords that are inside the domain

You can’t just repeat words that are already inside the domain. For example, if your domain was “Facebook”, you don’t need to include the words “Face” or “Book”. This is just to save you time – Brandpa detects these words for you automatically, so there’s no need to tell us about them.

Is automatically added by Brandpa

Several things are automatically classified by Brandpa, and cannot be manually set as keywords. These include:

• The length of the domain (“4 letter”, “4L”, “LLLL” etc)
• The pattern of the domain (“CVVC”, “CVCV” etc)
• Whether a domain is alliterative (e.g. “FrankFish”, “TastyTreats”)
• And more, which we expand over time

Because these are automated, you don’t need to add them yourselves as keywords. Importantly, if we allowed this, we end up with multiple webpages that claim to have “4 letter domains”, “LLLL domains” (etc) but which all have incomplete listings, which is a terrible experience for our buyers. For these reasons, we prohibit any such statement automatically.

Instead of “original-word”

The keyword was replaced by something that Brandpa has chosen as more appropriate. “Original-word” will contain what you originally asked for.

There are many reasons we might replace a keyword, including to correct spelling, to remove inappropriate or confusing language, or to make it consistent with other domains.

Can’t include generic words

So-called “stop” words, which are commonly used between words in the English language, are not allowed. Examples: “the”, “on”, “of”.

Can’t use special characters

Keywords can only contain English letters and numbers.

Offensive words are prohibited

Swear words and other offensive terms are prohibited.

Trademarks are prohibited

Common global trademarks (e.g. “Microsoft”) are prohibited. Ambiguous trademarks (e.g. “Apple”) are excluded, as they could also be a valid keyword.

Keywords can’t contain numbers

Numbers are not allowed in keywords. If a domain contains a number itself (e.g. “shop247”) then Brandpa detects it automatically, and you don’t need to add it.

Can’t be this short / Can’t be this long

The keyword must contain at least two characters, and no more than 30 characters.

Rejected by Brandpa admin

The keyword was manually rejected and no alternative was provided.

Anything else

When rejecting a keyword, our administrators can sometimes add a custom message. If it doesn’t match any of the messages listed above, the message is specific to your keyword.

Appealing a decision

If you believe a keyword was rejected or replaced inappropriately, please submit a support ticket to let us know.