i understand the need to start an online business on a solid footing. that is probably why a good domain name is a good idea. For those searching for exact keywords for their domains, this works in the beginning.

However, I don’t think that the domain name is that important as the domain ages. If one has put an effort into branding their domain name however good or bad it is, the results will show in the long run.

it is my view that the domain name has diminishing returns as the site ages.

I know all about the problems of money too. I had to shelve a J/E dictionary site I was planning due to nothing but bad experiences with investors. So I’ve put that idea sort of on the back burner for now (saves having to find a domain name for it too =)). I say sort of, as I’m developing a kind of sister site/service intended for in-house use where I currently work. Instead I’m concentrating on my game related site and as I said, I don’t think an informative name actually helps in that field.

Oh, and I’ll be keeping an eye for that tornado of yours. I certainly would like to see it in action. So good luck with that.

anyway, the most relevant links are at the top.

so it’s all really about marketing really and MONEY (which I don’t have)
oh well…

I apologize if all of this has been too far off-topic but I think it’s relevant to what we are talking about… what kind of domain name one should buy. what the rules are, etc.

I see what you are saying. You prefer short brandable names over descriptive names. But I guess you are adding another layer … that the brandable name (in this case tornado in a box) needs to have some scintilla of meaning to it ?

Google for example is a brandable word that does have some deeper underlying meaning (a googleplex of data) which fits with a search engine.

My idea with tornado in a box is this. Hopefully it will have that feeling of a search engine place:

1. tornado’s are fast ………. search engine’s are fast
2. box ……… a server

so it is going to be a fast search engine

but it’s going to be a search engine that helps you discover things, more like stumble upon than google.

however, I am adding a semantic layer to this thing.

when you search for ‘Athena’ you will see links in a tornado-like directory structure:

Greek Mythology (44)
Greek Gods (23)
Athena (3)

and you will see related terms separated out on the side:

Candy Bars (21)
Brands ( 16)
Athena Candy Bar (4)

The numbers don’t add up – just made them up for this.

And the other part of Tornado that I like … which ties in with the whole notion of ‘discovery’ is this:

You will start out on a page called Kansas.aspx

and you can then let the Tornado take you somewhere else
and learn / find interesting things.

So that’s why I like Tornado In a Box.com better than discoveryengine.com.

Of course, ideally it would be nice to own all these:

search.com, searchengine.com, discovery.com, discover.com,
discoveryengine.com, tornado.com, tornadoinabox.com, etc.

but like you said, some “darn” people in the world own ALL of the good domain names and it makes me mad.

But I … hee hee… I repeat I with a capital ME … own the great fantastic name Tornado In a Box !!!!!

hee hee. I’m just having fun with it.

Anyway, I’m a programmer for a living. I will hopefully get this thing on-line soon. I made a firefox extension already and designed my database… just need about 3 months of free time darn it… and eventually I’ll get it done.

thanks for your comments.

David

Besides which, most .coms which would be descriptive within the subject of my site, are being domain sat. And I simply refuse to deal with such people. Mind you, most of the other well-known sites that are similar to mine also have names that bear little relation to their content. I think that could just be the nature of that area mind =)

Now, out of the two examples David listed, I find discoveryengine.com to be rather interesting. Tornadoinabox is catchy, but I’d probably expect some sort of webcomic to be housed there.

Finally, I think it’s pretty important to consider who/what you are creating your domain name for. Is it for your visitors? The subject of your site? Or are just selecting it for a search engine? I would really hope it wasn’t the latter of those.

There are plenty of other ways to get good SEO from a domain name. You don’t have to have keywords in the domain name itself.

I’m pretty sure I’m in band camp B. The only thing I don’t agree with is number 1 … that a name must be “short”. I think Memorability is the only thing important. And the actual site must be good … which is where I am now … my site has nothing.

I’m working on it though 🙂

I think its funny and easy to remember and I really want to use it.
But everyone says that a domain name “must” be short.

People bookmark sites they like anyway, so does the length really matter if a name is highly memorable?

I will appreciate any feedback, good or bad.

check my article on how to get domain rank #1 on google

ie there are no top 100 sites with a zillion characters in their domain because there are no sites with a zillion characters in their name.

I’d say that’s just common sense and does nothing to further the cause/effect debate! Not to say the output wasnt interesting in its own right :).

Reminds me of Freakanomics!

How I think that correlates to your study here is that older domains tend to do better. Older domains generally have fewer words because those domains were available way back when. 🙂

I don’t really know what the top 250 sites are, so I can’t say if the data supports my thoughts on this or not.

BTW: .COM is primarily for commerce / commercials, and a “round table” and a “roundtable” are two different things (so that — and the fact the English is not the only language on the planet — is the primary reason to prefer using hyphens for domain names with more than 1 word).

Incidentally, how did you identify the number of words? (for example: “ex” and “ample” could be considered to be two words — how would you decide to count them as 1 word or 2?)

All in all though, I am in agreement with you: too many people pay too little attention to content — and the *ONLY* content that *REALLY* matters is the domain name.

🙂 nmw

If you sell something to local market only, therefore, going with a local extension might be the preferred solution.

@Namer.ca, if you want to target a local audience, like UK residents or Australian residents, then yes a local extension is the preferred one. If you want to tap on the global audience, however, .com is the way to go.

Well done

Great article!

Generally, the idea that – if you’re a national brand then use your nation’s extension, or if you’re international use .com – holds well I think.

i pretty agree with this post..you are right, domain plays the most important added value to your site actually

the tld is the second biggest important role actually
btw, if your site is big like myspace or facebook then don’t even care to have whatever extension, your value is still there

This is a great post indeed. Personally, I think a domain name needs to be both informative and easy to remember. If someone can remember our domain name after just one glance, then we have an advantage over our competition.

Regards,

Alan

I am pretty sure there would be causation also, if you keep the other variables fixed as I mentioned.

So back to the point at hand, a domain name and its site’s success are correlated, but there is not necessarily any causation involved (though there could be – it would require experimentation).

Great post. I’ll be sure to link to it from my blog when I write a future post on naming your startup for early entrepreneurs.

Thanks for the analysis.

Patrick

Those were two separate points on the other article.

In fact, if one could sample a large enough number of websites, say 100,000 websites, I am sure it would be possible to find a correlation between the size and quality of the domain and the success of the website.

Of course there is a bias coming from the “cause” as you mentioned, meaning that web experienced people will inevitably be aware of this fact and they will tend to start projects on better domains than inexperienced people. But this bias should not render the correlation invalid.

Thanks for the comment.

I was left wondering though, what the 7th characteristic of a successful domain was, after you managed to summarize them into 6 points 😉

That said, I’m inclined to agree with your “Law of Domain Names.”

If you don’t have money to spend, I would say go with the best .com you can find.

Thus a new one will have only small choice with domain name like experimenting with a different name or choosing a different extension other than .com .

Which is better ?

Good post – I love statistics. But I think the site names that stick in my head are the play-on-words or the funny ones. (I won’t name drop here…lol.)

@Paula, I never said that a competitor with a better domain will necessarily do better. All other variables being equal, though, he will.