Domain names and extensions

[ToyBoxOrphan]

I will confess that the technical side of this has always been lost on me. Back in the day, it was just generally agreed upon to get a .com and it was't all that hard to find one that you liked. Things are so much different now! I've tried several combinations of various different ideas and if they aren't already owned by someone, they're premium domains that cost a small fortune. I'd rather spend the money I have on good software.

It seems like it would be more important to have a good domain name than a .com extension. Is it still super important to get a .com and if not, what are some extensions your recommend?

 

[PoetJC]

It seems I read in a thread posted not too long ago that Google has a rule as concerns the myriad TLDs available now: they're all weighted the same. So ... a .com is no more important in Google's eyes than a .online site. Your best bet is to simply concentrate on providing content that your users want to see.

J.

 

[Pete]

I think being memorable is more useful these days.

A forum I'm currently working on is "the something Network" where I don't really want to outline what the something is until it's ready to go, but I own the relevant something.network domain (and the relevant somethingnetwork.com juuuuuuust in case)

I figure it'll be the little touches that make the brand distinctive and memorable.

 

[Tecca]

A lot of this is going to depend on your marketing tactics. If you're going for print, TV ads, and generally anything offline, then a memorable domain (preferably .com or a country TLD if you're outside of the US) is important. If you're primarily advertising online such as through Google and Facebook, the domain name matters much less; people are going to click the link, not type it in.

Of course, it's still good to be memorable regardless of marketing, but it becomes much less important in online marketing.

While I still try to go for .coms whenever possible, other variations can be valuable for your business if the .com is taken. It's even better if the .com doesn't resolve anywhere and it's just someone sitting on it to sell. That way there's no competition, and anyone that accidentally types the .com version won't find a competing website.

Other good ones:

• .io if you're in the tech industry
• .co as an alternative to .com if there's no direct competitor using the .com version
• .net in Germany is as popular if not still more popular than .de
• any ccTLD if you're targeting a specific country: .co.uk, .de, .in, .ca, etc

I personally prefer the shorter 2-3 letter TLDs, but they aren't any more valuable than the longer new gTLDs (maybe perceived value). Like PoetJC mentioned, the rankings will all be weighed the same in search engines.

Moving forward with the site is more important than getting OCD over its domain name; once you've built a following and start earning income, you can look into purchasing the .com variation if it's for sale.

 

[Gnomenclature]

I think being memorable is more useful these days.

A forum I'm currently working on is "the something Network" where I don't really want to outline what the something is until it's ready to go, but I own the relevant something.network domain (and the relevant somethingnetwork.com juuuuuuust in case)

I figure it'll be the little touches that make the brand distinctive and memorable.

Thanks, all. I think we decided on a forum name and we got our domains.

Now to get up to date on hosting, which I'm sure has also changed quite a bit since the last time we did this. We used URLjet that time around, but I remember not being all that pleased with them, though darned if I can remember why.