Are Long Domain Names a Big Deal?

In December I received long and breathless e-mails from two well-known Web marketers. They included phrases such as "time sensitive" and "extremely profitable." One said, "I was so excited I almost fell over."

Wow.

What's the big deal? The powers that be have now extended the allowable length of domain names from 23 characters to 67 characters (that is, 63 characters plus ".com" bringing it up to 67 total characters).

Frankly, I'm underwhelmed. I have four guidelines to help me select good domain names for my clients:

1. Short.
2. Memorable.
3. Related to your core business or business name.
4. Hard to misspell.

The difficulty with long domain names is that they are NOT short, and therefore easy to mis-type when being entered. The longer the domain name, the more complex the series of embedded words, the less memorable it becomes, and the more confused potential customers will be.

I own a number of domain names, but after a good bit of experimentation, I find I only use a few. Here's an example:

From the standpoint of marketing a company using a long domain name, long domain names are a disaster.

Search Engine Positioning

Are there ANY circumstances in which a domain name over 23 characters might be useful? Sure.

If you're deep into search engine positioning you've learned that having the keyword in the domain name can be an advantage in getting you ranked higher with some search engines. So conceivably you could string together a bunch of key words, such as:

collectible-teddy-bear-teddybear-bears-bearhug-beary-nice.com

and perhaps get your teddy bear site higher in some search engines. (Of course, the more such words you string together, the less "focus".) Since the long domain name would never be typed in, but only used for gateway or doorway pages that point to your main domain, the long domain name wouldn't be noticed. Will this catapult you from #100 to #10 for a keyword. Don't count on it. Will it help? Yes, some, with some search engines.

 Protection

Should you purchase a 23+ character domain name to protect a trademark or business name that your competitor might otherwise buy and use against you?

You figure it out. If it isn't a good domain name to start with, why would a competitor be able to undermine you with a bad domain name? Perhaps, just perhaps, a competitor might divert a little bit of traffic, but that's much easier to do with misspellings than with long domain names.

So is the ability to register long domain names "an incredible opportunity"? Will it "skyrocket your profits"? Not exactly....

 Domain Name Gold

I've found that there are many good shorter domain names left, if you know how to look for them. Generally, you can create some wonderful domain names by combining a descriptive adjective and a noun. The adjective creates the "feeling" you want with the business, the noun identifies the type of business.

For example, let's say your selling Civil War memorabilia. (I've been fascinated with the "War Between the States" for years now.) Specifically, let's say you want to sell authentic US and CS belt buckles. (Gee, I've always wanted one of those. Actually, they are called "belt plates.") A number of domains are gone:

civilwar.com
brassbuckle.com

But how about:

All available at this writing. Let your imagination go, here. Remember, the guidelines are: (1) short, (2) memorable, (3) related to your core business or business name, and (4) hard to misspell. Here's a recent domain I obtained for one of my sites:

http://www.jesuswalk.com

It's short, memorable, related to the core business or business name, and hard to misspell. Though maybe I should purchase jesuswok.com for people who can't spell. :-)

I'm convinced that there are many thousands of name combinations that you can find and use successfully for online businesses.

 What's the Big Deal?

The big deal, in my opinion, is not the possibility of long domain names, but (1) competitive prices and (2) the promise of superior customer service now that one company no longer has a monopoly as the sole US domain name registrar. Competition will improve service and prices all around. So shop carefully for a domain name registrar, and get the best price/service combination you can. For a list of registrars and prices see

http://www.domain-price-wars.com

I believe that the $35 to $70 you'll pay for the first two years is a real marketing bargain -- so long as your domain name meets the four criteria: (1) short, (2) memorable, (3) related to your core business or business name, and (4) hard to misspell.