Technology, business and change
The catchiness of your domain name
An important step in the lifetime of every blog is to get its own domain. A lot of bloggers have blogspot or WordPress hosted blogs and there comes a point where it’s important, for credibility, to get a real domain. I personally think a good domain name is extremely important to establish your brand and we’ll have a look at common mistakes while picking a domain name.
Getting a domain name is hard
First of all, getting a domain name is hard. A couple of years ago, it used to be very easy as the number of available domain names was still under control. Now, it seems like every possible domain name is already taken and you can’t even consider getting one like internetmarketing.com. But you know what? I don’t care. I don’t want internetmarketing.com and you don’t want it either (well, I don’t know in fact). I don’t want onlinecasino.com, poker.com or whatever premium domain name. These are the type of domains you want if you’re making 20,000K a month and want to buy an established business. I personally prefer to start new projects and start things from scratch, but it’s really not the purpose of this post so we’ll get back on track: getting a domain name is hard. It’s hard, but not that much if you’re using a bit of creativity.
Don’t confuse website name and subject
One of the first mistake you can make is to confuse ‘website name’ with the subject/category of your website. Let’s say your website is about cats, your first reflex will be to get a domain like: cats.com, onlinecats.com, cutecats.com or something similar. Why? Why would you want your domain name to be the subject of your website? You can have a blog about cats and still have a domain name like ‘catzy.com’. It’s true we still have cat in ‘catzy’ but it’s not a problem, we now have a catchy name and you have better chances for ‘catzy.com’ to be available than ‘catsonline.com’. I personally find it easier to remind ‘catzy’ and it really sounds great to me, which would ensure people would go back to your website if they ever need information about cats.
Think about the big names
Let’s make a little comparison with some of the biggest websites out there. I will list a couple of .com domain names and what could have been their domain names if they used their niche instead of an original name.
- google.com: searchengine.com
- youtube.com: submitvideos.com
- facebook.com: socialnetwork.com
- twitter.com: microblogging.com
- shoemoney.com: makemoneyonline.com
- John Chow: makemoneyonline.com also
- techcrunch: blogabouttechnology.com
- digg: votewebsites.com
- delicious: socialbookmarking.com
You see how boring these names are? I mean, Google is much more appealing than searchengine.com and the same goes for all websites listed above. Take Facebook for instance, I’m pretty sure that at the time of registration, socialnetwork.com was probably taken, but what about facebook.com? facebook.com was probably available and it cost a little 9$ to register the domain name like any other domain.
You see how important being creative in your domain name is? Not only it ensure you can pick an available domain name, but it also ensure your domain name is a catchy one.
Establish a brand
When picking a domain name, you want a name that will be great to establish as a brand. I would personally enjoy putting seohorror.com on a t-shirt, but I don’t think something like onlineseo.com would look as good on the same t-shirt. This is one thing I consider when picking a domain: would my name look great on a t-shirt or mug?
You also want people to remember your name so they can talk to their friends about it. If you have something too generic, people won’t remember it. If your name is something really unique, then it’s easy to remember. What’s also important for people to remember your domain name? Make it short! You don’t want a 100 words domain name: below 15 characters and two words is good. Again, it’s not an exact science as there are always special situations where a longer domain would be suitable, but in most cases, 15 characters and two words is OK.
Get that domain name!
It’s now time to get that domain name. Start your search on websites like Go Daddy for available domain names and remember not to confuse category/subject with name!
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Wow, what a cool idea you did. I know I really need to work on backlinks and links and so on for my blog. Thanks for the add by the way, I added you too. I think your site is full of information and very helpful.
Thanks for your comment Laurie and yes backlinks are important for every blogs!
I just used my own nickname.
It’s short and I capitalize first letter in links (in text, doesn’t matter in urls) that makes it actually look like a name of something, not long unreadable bunch of small letters some sites end up with. 
I like seohorror btw. Especially how “h” acts as a natural separator – you have no problem reading url in all lowercase.
Your domain name is excellent: short and easy to remember! It’s a good example of how your site’s name doesn’t have to be related with your subject.
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[...] See the original post here: The catchiness of you domain name [...]
Totally great post here Ben. I have to say that a couple of times I did it your way and a few times I put my keywords in the url because I really wanted to rank faster. I regret the latter now, because my blog, for example should have had a brand url instead of a KW url. Oh well live and learn. There’s always next time!
Thanks,
JR
[...] rest is here: The catchiness of you field name Posted in Domains on Jul 27th, 2008, 8:14 [...]
awsome post. bard didnt got it right i guess,whats in a name ?
a lot!
JR: Yep, we learn and make mistakes everyday in this business…That’s why I love it!
Kerry: Thanks for your comment!
A lot of valuable information there for me to think about. My blogs are currently hosted by blogger.com and seems to be developing a following and a 3-rating with google. I have blog space with my domain name, but I’ve gotten so used to using google that I’ve not used my domain blog. I’ll have to re-thing that strategy…:-)
Derek: Yeah, I think it’s actually ok to stay with blogger, but as I said, there comes a point where your own domain can give you a bit more credibility. It also helps you to establish a brand. But I know it’s tricky to re-direct your traffic to a completely new domain especially when you’ve built backlinks and everything pointing to your “blogger” account! Good luck!
Thats very much true if you got the domain which suits for your niche than I think have won 25% battle.
One trick you can use is to simply ignore the domain name you’re using. For example, I have niche site that’s a persons name but the only place you’ll see that name is on the nofollowed ‘about’ page and the URL itself. Everything else points to a product keyword. I did this to take advantage of this 10 year old domain I bought.
If you’re starting out with a new domain and you want to put the keyword in the domain name but it’s already taken, just add to it. For example, if kittycats.com is taken try kittycatcircus.com or kittycatzoo.com. Or reverse it, catskitty.com. This isn’t all that great for a branding a flagship site but works well for niche sites.
Yeah it’s hard when you’re just a small site. I think if you have a big budget and you’re building a bran then you do want to go with something catchy, but if you’re just a small website/blog and want to see quicker ranking results than you’ll want to use something with keywords.
Frank: Yep, these are good tips!
Pittsburgh News: I don’t think it’s a question of budget, it’s really a question of creativity and finding something unique. I don’t see quicker ranking as a factor. I mean, if you want to establish a brand, it’s long term anyway. But I guess for short term blogging you’re right!
Great topic- I think its really important to remember exactly WHO you are reaching (or trying to reach) when you select your name. Some audiences are all about credibility and others will just respond to names with a catchy ring, regardless of what your site is actually about. Most audiences have a combination of criteria and fall somewhere in between. But keeping it simple and congruent is always the best.
Totally true, it also depends on the audience you are targeting. That’s why it is always important to know the type of traffic visitors you will get with your website.
Thanks for sharing!
Yes, I agree…I love picking out domain names. I like to play on words a little bit, mix it with the sites theme, but keep it memorable.
I love your list of boring names by the way lol, I think you’re right. I sure am glad we have Google instead of searchengine.com hahaha
hehe thanks! Your domain name is excellent by the way, remembered it the first time!
[...] My friend, Ben, of SEO Horror, wrote an excellent post about how domain names play a crucial role in the branding of websites at: The Catchiness of Your Domain Name. [...]
i rather liike my sites url choseit works well for my free subdomain blog service, you can choose it at choseit.com
very brandable premium domain name also and a year old so alls good pr1 in 32 days 
Tyrone create as last blog post..
I love your name mate, it’s very brandable as you say! Pr1 in 32 days is also awesome…Keep up the good work!
also id like to ad that catchy is good but it doesnt have to be sayable.
craxi, not a word but you could brand it well as it would actually create talk about what the word actually serpose to mean and how to say it, word of mouht is a powerful traffic tool
Statistics show (yes statistic time) that every person that loves a site will mention it to at least 6 other people within a week.
Google became famous that way.
Tyrone create as last blog post..Traffic Tips For 2008 Part 1
I find it very difficult to find available domain names for my various projects, especially in the credit and finance niche. It’s just too bad that there are so many cybersquatters that sit on decent names and demand a king’s ransom for them.
Shaun Carters last blog post..Stocks Climb, Oil Falls
I have found recently that finding decent domains is very difficult. Using tools like ajaxwhois.com helps quite a bit since it will tell you instantly if a domain is available.
Wow I didn’t think that the domain name is very important. I should have choose the best for my blog. I have chosen “tadoscoppernicus01″ which sounds scientific yet I don’t have any post related to science or whatsoever. lol. Maybe I should try to post one. Is it a good idea Ben? Thanks for posting this. Maybe next time I handle a site then I will first consider the name of the site and incorporate it to what we are all about.