Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Domain names are really important - but companies don't seem bothered about them
People often swap web site names between each other. They tell them to their friends, neighbours, colleagues and so on. Think how difficult it would have been for Google if their web site name (domain) had been something like "www.automatedsearchenginesystemnotrelyingonhumaneditors.com". And what about people who try to recommend web sites along the lines of "www.ourcompanyname.com/reports/pdf/public/12345-abc.htm"; such things are hardly catchy, easy to remember and pass on.
Often, online business owners forget that one of the principal ways in which their web site will gain traffic is by the passing on of their domain name by "word of mouth". Hence it is vital to have an easy to recall, catchy name. However, new research shows that businesses often neglect the name of their web site.
Indeed, the study conducted for Fasthosts and reported in New Business magazine found that one in every 20 businesses can't even remember their own domain name....!
The fact is, according to the survey, that businesses spend less than an hour thinking of a domain name, or the possible variants. The result is that many online business owners are unhappy with the domain name they have, but feel it is too complicated to change. Consequently, they probably don't do as much online business as they might - if they had given proper attention to the domain name.
You can find out more about how to choose and use domain names at my latest in-depth article.
Labels: internet
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Readers' Comments:
At
December 05, 2007 9:57 AM 
said…
At
December 05, 2007 11:05 PM 
Graham Jones said…
Thanks for your comment. Amazing isn't it how big business spends tons of money getting nowhere. Anyway, just off to change my name to iGraham - sure to bring me in millions....!
Well after disagreeing with you yesterday I'm whole heartedly with you today, Graham. However, it's hardly surprising there are so many rubbish URLs being used when you see how much effort a lot of companies put into naming their products. If anyone reading this has a product to name please understand that putting a lower case i in front of a noun or verb won't make your product the next iPod.
And let's not forget the free email addresses that many businesses are still using. You know the ones along the lines of name@businessname.freeserve.com. I think I know how Jesus must have felt curing the sick when I've told (already successful) organisations that I could provide name@organisation.com email addresses the same day for less than the price of a round of drinks in a half decent pub. And it's so easy to achieve that we don't even charge people to do it.