I have recently been reading Charles Messenger's The D-Day Atlas and on two of his maps, one of German coastal artillery in Normandy and another of the Allied bombardment plan, he marks an area as "Band" to the east of Sword Beach. Alas the book provides no further clarification to this, and a Google search provides conflicting results. Some say that Band Beach was a naval bombardment sector rather than a landing zone, others say that the Royal Marines were to land there if the 6th Airborne Division did not succeed in destroying the Merville Gun Battery. To my amazement neither Hastings nor Beevor talk about the area either.
Follow up question: were there any beaches that were abandoned as a possible landing zone in Normandy? Such as facing too stiff of resistance or the beach was too fortified?
No, this beach was given a codename but not planned to be invaded. If the Melville Gun Battery was not destroyed the plan was for allied ships to hammer it.
Source: Melville gun battery museum.
I have never seen a plan for Marines to land there so if you have a reference Id love to see it.
Taking the beach there wouldn't do very much.
The important part of the eastern bridgehead (British 3rd infantry and Commandos landing on sword beach and 6th airborne landing east of the caen canal) was as follows:
3rd British: Capture caen, link up with the Canadians landing on Juno
6th airborne: destroy guns which could hit sword beach capture bridges over the caen canal and the orne and lastly to destroy bridges east of the orne. This would let the allies hold the high ground east of Caen and also breakout from Caen.
Commandos: land on sword and go inland 5 km to link up with the 6th airborne.
I dont really need to source this as it is all very well known info but since this is my first answer and I know people here are strict.
The Canadian Battlefields in Normandy, a visitors guide. Terry Copp and Mike Bechtold. Canadian Military History Vol 13 Num 1 and 2 Winter/spring 2004.
Major and mrs Holts definitive battlefield guide DDAY Normandy Landing Beaches 7th ed Tonie and Valmai Holt
I will say personally that I doubt landing on Band would have helped any of these objectives and that it would have been hard to link with sword because as you can see from google maps, the river is wide at its mouth.
EDIT: showing more clearly what each units goal was.