Long Domain Names

Using Long Domain Names

Over the years it has been long held wisdom that domain names should be short and memorable. This is great if, and it’s a big if you can get a short name that works for your business.

Often however, that is tough since short domain names are usually taken or not available. So what does one do, go for a longer one?

These days the notion that domain names must be short is not as valid as it used to be. Not only are there websites with long names, but it is usually very difficult to find a short relevant domain name that fits your business or personal requirements. There are many successful web sites that have long domain names such as thefreedictionary.com.

Long and Short Domain Names

When your Web site is only going to generate traffic from online advertising such as Google’s AdWords or natural search engine results a long domain name is a good way to go. On the Internet people find your site by clicking on hyperlinks. In such a case the link already has your Web site’s domain name typed in for them. So if you have a long domain name it is already there for your visitor and they do not have to remember it. Here is an example of a long domain name whitegoldengagementringsonline.com which I had a couple of years ago and another example bestowgoodluck.com.

For example, suppose you own a website maintenance company and you specialize in offering reasonable cost website maintenance. Why not call your site BestWebSiteMaintenance.com or something similar? It’s long but it communicates to the customer what your service is and perhaps even more valuable it will communicate important information to search engines about your site since it has important keywords indicating what your site is about.

Search engines use the words in your domain name as one method of figuring out what your web site is about and use that information to help determine where to rank you in the search results. So if you have the words “best website maintenance” in your domain name search engines use that information to possibly rank you higher than a domain name that does not contain those words. So by naming your site “BestWebSiteMaintenance.com” you have an advantage over BobsWebSiteMaintenance.com when people search using the phrase “website maintenance” or “best website maintenance.”

So, if your business is tightly focused on website maintenance you might as well use those words in your domain name if it means that search engines will match you better than those sites without those keywords in their domain name.

Domain Names for Personal use

What about non-internet marketing or domain names used for personal websites? Are long domain names okay for such uses? Yes, but it is advisable to get a domain name that is easy to type and remember. You also don’t want a name that people can easily misspell or one where there are multiple ways to spell it. Because people may have to type it in try to not make your name too long.

Sometimes, depending on your business or other purpose for your website, you might want to use a catchy or otherwise short domain name if one is available. This is sometimes called branding since the name is usually unique and will be associated specifically with your business or even personal website. Brandable domain names could be ones such as kboxx, yolky, or barepaw.