Domain Name Buying: Keyword Rich VS. Short and easy to remember

When it comes to buying domain names, what’s more important? Should the have more of the keywords (e.g. FreeEmailAddress.com) or should it be a (2-3-4 character) short and easy to remember (e.g. cj.com) domain name? I’ve been reading and interacting a lot in forums as well as experts advices and found quite a mixed view on this debate…

… After assessing and looking at other points of views, it all comes down to 4 factors which (I believe) determines which is more important (note: not arranged by importance):

1. Spelling

When we go visit websites, what we ‘normally’ do is type it in the address bar of our browsers. And so one crucial thing here is that the domain name is spelled or typed right, if a person was to misspell even just one character, then they could be redirected to another totally different website. So length and typing errors are taken into consideration.

Keyword Rich

Domain names under this category, mostly makes sense as they target specific keywords to gain traffic from search engines. Their spelling is usually taken from dictionary words and combined together to create a domain name. Some, however, combines the keywords with popular web 2.0 prefixes and suffixes which doesn’t make it a ‘dictionary’ word and does cause misspells. Also when two words, where the first word’s last character is the same as the second word’s first letter (e.g. deleteddomains.com), are combined, it causes confusion on how to spell and usually makes spelling mistakes.

Short and Easy to Remember

In this category, most letter combination don’t make sense, but is so short that there are a huge probability that a person will remember it. It usually has around 2-3-4 character length and is mixed together to create a domain name. Realistically, 2 character domain names are all taken and 2 characters are also gone with a few no-sense domain names being deleted (around 3 – 8 due for deletion), it will be tough to find a good domain name buy. And to acquire a certain 2-3-4 character domain name that does make sense, at this point in time, does cost a huge huge huge amount of money.

2. Remembrance / Say-ability

When talking about websites (offline), we usually say the words of the domain name (e.g. come visit techfilipino.com when you have time). One way that I found that makes a great domain is being able to say it to other people, and getting the pronunciation right the first time. Also after being able to share it to others, how easy is it for them to remember?

Keyword Rich

Being Dictionary based, words are common and very easy to remember. Say-ability might not be so great, as using combination of dictionary words, would make it longer and sometimes hard to pronounce. However, long keyword rich combinations (2-3-4 or more word combination) would make the domain name quite hard to remember.

Short and Easy to Remember

Remembrance and say-ability in this category is great, not only is a few characters easy to remember but also being able to say it out easily is a plus. Yet, certain word combinations might not be that easy (e.g. ri3f.com) to remember.

3. SEO

With Search Engines dominating the websites on time we spend looking for resources online, being Search Engine Optimized is very crucial at this stage. Being able to top the Search results in Search Engines is a must to be visited by hundreds, thousands and millions of internet users worldwide. A lot of websites pay thousands of dollars each year to just get into the 1st page on the search results on a certain keyword (e.g. tech news).

Keyword Rich

Search Engines gives great ranking on Domain names that is keyword rich, usually they do get to the first page of the search results in no time.

Short and Easy to Remember

Doing Search Engine Optimization would be harder for this, as their domain name doesn’t make up a word that is being searched on search engines. It would have to produce great contents and SEO codes to optimize itself in the rankings. It would take time and money to get into the top pages of Search Engines.

4. Plural / Singular

When purchasing Domain names, Having a singular / plural counterpart does affect traffic to a certain extent. (e.g. gangventure.com / gangventures.com).

Keyword Rich

In this category, plural / singular does affect this a lot. Being ‘dictionary’ words, they’re bound to plural / singular spellings. Which means that you would have to spend more in acquiring singular and plural spelling of the keyword.

Short and Easy to Remember

Usually this domain names isn’t so much affected in plural / singular, the shorter it is the better, so it would make sense not needing to get a plural name.

The Winner?

Keyword Rich domain names has an advantage over spelling and Search Engine optimization, where as short and easy to remember domain names has an advantage on Remembrance / Say-ablity and Plural / Singular.

It might seem like a well balanced match, but when really looking at the availability of the two, a big difference emerges. Most keyword rich domain names are usually available (for registration), as it is usually lengthy and not too attractive to domain name buyers. However, short and easy to remember domain names are very very rare, and is usually up for sale at a very high price. The importance of Search Engine these days also gives keyword rich domain names a big advantage, as big traffic comes from search engines and that not being visible in those websites mean a big loss in traffic. With these points, I declare Keyword Rich Domain names the winner.