What’s So Special About a Dot-Com Name? All That Matters is That The Name is Good, Right?
So is a dot-com better than all the other dots? Short answer, yes. This is because the web is a dot-com universe. When people think of the web they automatically think “dot-com”. It wasn’t called the “Internet Company Bubble Crash” or the ” Online Business Bubble Crash” it was called the “Dot-Com Bubble Crash”. Think of every major player on the web, see any dot-nets? How about dot-biz? The occasional dot-org, yes, but overwhelmingly it’s a dot-com world.
It’s easier to match people’s perceptions than to change them. To the public it’s assumed that ALL domains end in dot-com unless you specifically tell them otherwise. If you don’t have a dot-com, it forces you to emphasize the suffix part of your domain instead of the name itself when marketing. Not a good branding strategy.
So how bad can it be? If you don’t have a dot-com suffix, this is how your marketing pitches will go:
“Go check out my website. It has everything you’re looking for.”
“Wow! So what the address?”
“It’s www.veryhelpfulwebsite.BIZ.”
“Very helpful website…got it.”
“Don’t forget the dot-biz”
“Dot what?”
“Dot biz. If you just type in veryhelpfulwebsite without the biz it will take you to the dot-com version which is a totally different website. In fact, it’s not even a real website. It’s being squatted by some asshole who’s filled the page with AdWords hoping to make a few bucks. I tried to buy it but he won’t sell it to me.”
“Dude, then why did you get veryhelpfulwebsite.biz?”
“Well it’s a really good name with great keywords but unfortunately the dot-net, dot-org, and dot-info versions were already taken.”
“So instead of just picking a different name that has a dot-com, you’re going to spend the rest of your life explaining to people that they must remember the dot-biz part or they’ll go to some bullshit spam site.”
“Umm, yeah.”
Make Your Online Life Easier
This doesn’t have to be your destiny. Make your life easier. Try hard to get a dot-com. Your browser defaults to the dot-com option if you leave off the suffix, it feels more real, and everyone just assumes a dot-com suffix unless you tell them otherwise.
And once you get the dot-com, grab the dot-net and dot-org versions as well. This helps protect your dot com brand from squatters and wannabes.
Good luck.
File Under: Choosing a Dot Com Suffix – Domain Name Theory – Domain Names and Branding – The Psychology of Domain Names and Dot Coms
Houston Window Cleaning
1 year ago
I have a .net website and am working hard on my SEO. My question is; are .com domains easier to optimize?
The Naming Dude
1 year ago
Well you did one thing right today by posting on a “dofollow” blog and using a good keyword for your name that links to your website. It’s obvious that you’re trying to get a link but I’m going to leave it as I find the irony of asking an SEO question, while employing an SEO tactic, amusing. But back to your question “are dot-coms easier to optimize”? The answer is no. A domain is a domain. However they are much harder to market and brand, especially if someone else owns the dot-com version. If that’s the case that will always be a little cloud hanging over your head. But for raw SEO results it shouldn’t make a difference. It still takes the same amount of work.
Adam
1 year ago
Thanks for generously sharing so many useful tips.
I am about to begin a blog and this will help me tremendously.
Of course it has given me many things to consider as I update my website too.
I appreciate it.
Jenny
1 year ago
Naming your site after your domain may seem obvious to some of you, but you’ll be surprised to learn that not every website is named after the domain name even when the webmaster owns that domain name.
Naming a site after its domain name is important, for the simple reason that when people think of your website, they’ll think of it by name. If your name is also your URL, they’ll automatically know where to go. For example, when people think of thefreecountry.com, they don’t have to wonder what URL to type into their browser to get there. The name of the site is also the URL.
Advanced Computer Repair
1 year ago
What about using dashes. Any SEO lost by that? Such as Advanced-Computer-Repair.com
The Naming Dude
1 year ago
Not at all. In fact it’s the opposite. It’s good for SEO. Just bad for branding. Imagine having to say “Check out my site, it’s advanced dash, computer dash, repair dot com”, every time. What a mouthful. So it’s good for SEO, but not so good from a branding and word of mouth perspective.
Advanced Computer Repair
1 year ago
I was thinking of picking up some local town names as domains and pointing to mine. Any value in that? Such as newyorkcomputerrepair.com
The Naming Dude
1 year ago
Nothing really. The only advantage to having additional domains point to the real one is to catch misspellings. In other words, since these are redirected domains, they will never have page rank or be indexed as a normal website. So they will count for nothing in the search engines. The only thing you can hope to gain from them is getting traffic from someone who typed in the exact phrase “newyorkcomputerrepair” in the address bar. Which is highly unlikely. If I was to do the multiple domain route, I would actually put unique content on the site and have a nice mini site that would at least have a chance at getting traffic. I’d just use the same phone number and have all the email forward to my main account. I would link all these mini sites back to my main one, which over time will help your rankings, especially if some of the mini sites start performing well on their own and achieve some PR (page rank).
Bernard
1 year ago
I have had my website since 2002 and the domain name (except for the dot com part) is also the name of my software. I have now discovered that another software company is using the same name for their software and a domain that is also the same, but with a different suffix (.net). What can I do to stop them using my name? They seem to be bigger than me.
The Naming Dude
1 year ago
That’s a complicated question. It’s not as easy as you’d think to stop someone from using a trademarked domain name. Which brings me to the first question. Is your name trademarked? By this I mean have you been granted a trademark by the USPTO? If not, have you been putting the TM next to your name when using it in commerce. If not that can you prove you’ve been using well before the new company? If so, do you think you could demonstrate that the average person would be confused by this company using your trademarked name as their domain? Are they using it in a manner that is protected by the first amendment (social commentary, satire, parody, etc.)or is a matter of intentional squatting to trick people into buying their product over yours.
These are the questions that need to be answered. Depending on how strong your case is, and how much money you to can spend on lawyer fees, will more or less determine the outcome. Hopefully your case is strong and you can get it resolved with a few letters from a trademark attorney instead of a big fight.
Bernard
1 year ago
thanks TND, that is very helpful comment. I don’t have a trademark, but I can prove ownership of both software name and domain name since well before the other guys came on the scene with their product, which is less than a year ago.
I’m just a little guy and don’t have the money for a long-winded fight with an organisation that are in the top 100 on the Fortune 500. But, they claim on their legal page that they “own” the name, so that’s my entry point. I’ll just have to find a lawyer that is happy to accept part of a settlement as payment.
Much obliged for your quick comments.
Nancy
5 months ago
Hi TND,
Great stuff you have here! I learnt a lot. I would like to buy a domain and thinking what is the best name. Now I am going for a generic domain.com however it has been taken. (Later only brand.com)
Question:
1) if e.g. bags.com is taken, what if i buy : a-bags.com? Will it appear when someone types bag.com? (adding an a- in front)
2) It’s ranking will depend on the work I do for it to be picked by SEO and not influenced by the a- in front? Meaning it can be in page 3,000 000 if i do not do anything for it to be picked by SEO?
thank you for reply,
Nancy
The Naming Dude
5 months ago
The “a” in front won’t matter much either way. It will be a combination of on page and off page SEO that will determine the ranking. Keywords in your domain are not that critical. Meaning, all things being equal, it will not dramatically effect your rankings. If it did, we’d all just scoop up generic domains and throw adwords on them and watch the money roll in. But that never happens. Even a keyword exact match domain still needs to do serious SEO work to get the rankings and traffic.
For example, if you search for diamond jewelry, most of the top 50 results don’t even have those words in the domain. Only one actually uses both terms and they are at position 46. There are over 15 million exact matches for that term. So in this case, a keyword domain achieves nothing. Now, diamond jewelry is a super competitive phrase as the ROI for dominating those results is so high because diamonds are expensive. So that’s exactly what one would expect. Other terms won’t be so competitive but it clearly illustrates the issue – a keyword domain is not a free ride to the top of the SERPs.
Now, are you using this as an example or are you literally thing of “a”. I wouldn’t pick “a” or use a dash. I’d pick something that adds meaning to the domain. Bestbags, buybags, bluebags, importedbags, etc.
Nancy
5 months ago
Thanks so so much for swift reply!!!
I am newbie with newbie questions, lol!!!
Jim Proser
5 months ago
Naming Dude,
Thanks for the help. I was looking everywhere for the answers to suffixes and hyphens in domain names. Several of the big gurus I pay exorbitant fees to just tell me “don’t do it” because they don’t really know and don’t want to spend the time to find out. Thanks. You’ve made my life a lot easier. Does Google have a general address where you can find out answers like this?
Irene
4 months ago
Hi TND,
Need to ask:
1) I have few domain names in mind which are keyword friendly. Just for example I use: beadedstrapbags.com
Another domain I have in mind, just example: coolshoes.com
Is it better I merge these two into one domain and put a brand for it, for example: Hannods.com. So if people go to Hannods, they can find a variety of goods under that brand name. Then i put shopping cart & credit card processor for it.
I can outsource to other companies if I am unable to handle the orders?
Thank you TND.
The Naming Dude
4 months ago
That’s a tough call as I don’t know what your long term strategy is from a branding point of view. I assume you don’t own coolshoes.com as that is already an established business. I don’t know if you own the other domains though. If you are planning to really sell shoes and beaded bags on the same site, and you aren’t a huge retailer, then I’d go for keyword domain and divide up my inventory. Either that or spend a fortune on Adwords. When you start a business selling commodities your chance of success is extremely low unless you:
1. Have deep pockets and can throw a lot of money at your business
2. Are selling a niche product with almost no competition (for example: you are an exclusive distributor or the only distributor)
3. Offer a value added service (customization, enhanced warranties, expert installation and advice, etc)
4. Really ARE the lowest priced option on the web
Basically, if your products can easily be bought on Amazon and other major retailers and competition has created razor thin margin for your category, you have very little chance of being successful without a big budget and hyper aggressive SEO plan.
life story media
3 months ago
I got a .com by adding SF, my city, to my domaine name. i like the .com but am afraid people will forget the sf and either fail to find my site or end up somewhere else. Someone else has the domaine name I want (and has held it for years) but they have no website at the moment. Would it be better to have my company name with no SF after it, and to use .us or .biz or .net? Which or these alternates would be best? (I think .net if also unavailable.)
thank you for you help!
life story
The Naming Dude
3 months ago
First, go register mylifestorymedia.com. It’s available and makes total sense. In fact it’s better than the one you want.
Second, I’d try to buy the domain you want. Maybe you could pick it up for a couple hundred bucks. Never know. You can usually find their contact info by doing a whois search.
Thirdly, I’d go for the SF version in a dot com. A local business called Silver Spur went with the city initial route. So it’s “scsilverspur.com” – the SC stands for Santa Cruz. I thought that was a good compromise. Better than .net or .biz for sure.
I just don’t think it’s worth it to spend all that time emphasizing the dot biz or the dot net prefix of a domain so people don’t mistakenly go to the dot com version. Best just to get the dot com version, even if it’s not you first choice.
It won’t work for all cities, but when you live in a famous one life San Francisco, it works well. We all refer to San Francisco as “the city” or “SF”. I rarely say the whole name. And of course, NEVER “frisco”.
life story
3 months ago
Thank you very much naming dude for your clear and quick reply! I agree with other’s here that it can be difficult to get this kind of info/advice, especially for the tech challenged like me.
I like your suggestion of mylifestorymedia.com. I followed your advice immediately and registered that domaine name. At register.com they suggested lifestory-media.com. I think you’ve said that you don’t like dashes, better to add something that enhances meaning. Still, they offered to add lifestory-media.com for $5.00 per year so I took it while I work out my marketing including the best way to be consistent with my name on my website, email, etc. About marketing… register.com saw that I have flash (a slide show) on my home page. They said search engines don’t like flash on a home page and its a bad idea. I’ve worked with a designer to get that slide show and wonder if I need to redesign for SEO reasons???? I looked at your website and see that at least one or two you’ve designed have (beautiful) “slide shows” on the home page. (BTW your work looks great.) Your advice on this is much appreciated!
life story
The Naming Dude
3 months ago
Having a Flash slideshow is not a big deal SEO wise. Unless it’s the ONLY thing on the home page. Then it’s a problem. Yes, flash is basically invisible to search engines. Some of the slideshows you see on the sites in my portfolio are actually javascript friendly.For the last year or so ALL my slideshows have been javascript. I avoid flash now.Plus the things you can do with javascript these days is amazing. pretty much indistinguishable from flash now.
As for the two domains, mylifestorymedia.com is superior. Besides hyphens being a pain in the ass to verbally explain, it also means that if someone typed it in without the dash it would still go to that other site, whereas mylifestorymedia.com is yours free and clear.
Mr.Meshack
1 month ago
hi, waoo it so good to discover you as there are many fox out there try the same, don’t get tired if you can,
As I reach here after well need help and I found you dearly helping Plz accept my Gratitude and appreciation and as you help others plz and help me too!
my domain name was already taken the first and only choice.. and now I got wonderfully two prefix to add and they are available, one is alley and the second is site, where fxmediaalley,fxmdiasite it has been tough to go with any as my website and my business is all about website,graphics and printing any suggestion