Should a Domain Name Describe Your Business?

[donniedarko]

Apologies if this has already been asked but I did a search and couldn't find anything.

I'm currently in the process of setting up an online t-shirt design selling business and am trying to think of a good name. I'm wondering if the name should let people know that I'm selling t-shirts or does it not make any(or little) difference to the amount of traffic my site will get?

Many thanks,

James

[DavidHorn]

My advice to customers is to choose a domain name that is a) easy to say over the phone - so don't include hyphens or words that can be mis-spelt easily, and b) no more than 3 words long (and, preferably, fewer).

An alternative is to make up a name completely - or take a name out of context. Neither the word 'Amazon' or 'Google' started out with the meaning that we now, most readily, associate with them. If you have a good brand marketing campaign you can change peoples word associations - like these two internet behemoths have!

Good luck!

[Ian J]

I've always read in the SEO forums that it's helpful to have your major keywords in the domain name if possible.

That's assuming that you are relying on the search engines to drive traffic to your site.

[billhilton]

In a word, James:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Ahem, sorry - maybe that's overdoing it a bit. It seems to me that the answer (as with so many things in this business) is both yes and no.

It's not a good idea to be overly literal. In the early days of the web lots of people thought they were being very clever spending a lot of cash on very literal domain names. That worked to an extent, though I'm not sure Cars.com was worth the $7.5m that it went for in 1997 or thereabouts. Other literal names have just bombed. Books.com got swallowed by B&N, who in turn have had their hides whupped by Amazon.

So David's right - you might as well have a name that's memorable, something easy to hang your brand on. That can be a name, a random word, or even a made-up acronym. I *could* have called my domain something like www.a1topfreelancecopywriter.co.uk - which describes perfectly what I do, but is nowhere near as snappy www.billhilton.biz, which is kind of easy to remember and alliterative.

[fastfences]

Hi James,
Just to add to the varied opinions here; I would try to use at least 'shirts' in the name. What if things go well and you want to do other advertising later, local paper or leaflet for mail order maybe? Then, you will already have a name associated with your product, which I believe will assist with brand recognition.
Cheers, Nigel

[billhilton]

Good point, Nige. If you're a top brand like Amazon you can get away with it, but maybe for a small startup the combination of abstract and concrete is the best bet.

[donniedarko]

Thanks for all of your responses. The only related word I've considered including in my domain name is 'tees' as I don't think using the word 't-shirts' in a domain name sounds particularly snappy. I could be proved wrong though.

Like billhilton said, the answer is both yes and no. I just need to weigh up the pros and cons although I would like some more opinion as to the importance of including the word 'tees' in my domain. I also would like any good suggestions for a domain name that include this word too!

[Enigma121]

Thanks for all of your responses. The only related word I've considered including in my domain name is 'tees' as I don't think using the word 't-shirts' in a domain name sounds particularly snappy. I could be proved wrong though.

Like billhilton said, the answer is both yes and no. I just need to weigh up the pros and cons although I would like some more opinion as to the importance of including the word 'tees' in my domain. I also would like any good suggestions for a domain name that include this word too!

Tees is all a bit american and will clash with anything in the Middlesborough area, as well as attracting significant unwarranted competition from Golf sites.

A frequently used word around our neck of the woods is "top".

This allows all sorts of variants such as custom-tops, designer-tops, printed-tops etc...

You like ??? (they are all out there, at least today anyway...)

[donniedarko]

I'm not sure about the word 'tops' as it could include long sleeve tops, jumpers, etc. I'll just be selling t-shirts. The problem with using 't-shirts' is that people may think it's spelt as 'tshirts'. The simple thing with 'tees' is that it's easy to spell/remember and goes relatively well with a number of other words. I know there are also disadvatages to all possible names but I need to assess the pros and cons of each possible name and go with what I think is best.

[MinuWeb]

A domain name should be easy to remember and easy to say over the telephone
the problem with "T" in the way you are using it is it could be

T
Tea
Tee
Tees
Teas
Tease

Using "Tees", think about how you would say it over the phone.

"Tees******.com, thats tees spelt t double e, s....... etc etc"

Hyphens are ok as long as they clearly seperate 2 easy words, my-site.com is easily pronounced as "my dash site dot com"

[webit]

A point I'd like to make is about our domain names.

We have webit.net meaning the Web, IT network and we have to explain what is about all the time.

We have some new ventures with the domain name of www.theshoppersbible.com (we also have theshoppersblackbook.com and some other viarents) which people instantly know what the sites about.

Just my 2 pence.

[MinuWeb]

We have webit.net meaning the Web, IT network and we have to explain what is about all the time.

When you tell someone the domain name do you say "webit" (like "web bit") or "Web I T" ?

[crus]

Hi,

if you can afford it buy tshirts.co.uk

It will guarantee that you are successful.

Keyword domains are king!

Simple as.

D

[webit]

Hi,

if you can afford it buy tshirts.co.uk

It will guarantee that you are successful.

Keyword domains are king!

Simple as.

D

Thats why we use the site name (the items we want to be searched for and can afford) as the domain name. Might be wrong but it seems the right thing to do.

Re: the Webit name meaning, we tell it as the network that brings the Web and IT together, hence webit.net.

[clairemackaness]

how about www.shirtprint.co.uk

[crus]

Hi,

if you can afford it buy tshirts.co.uk

It will guarantee that you are successful.

Keyword domains are king!

Simple as.

D

Thats why we use the site name (the items we want to be searched for and can afford) as the domain name. Might be wrong but it seems the right thing to do.

Re: the Webit name meaning, we tell it as the network that brings the Web and IT together, hence webit.net.

I just posted after reading a comment above that seemed rather ignorant of the current domain marketplace.

Keyword based domains like men.com are still changing hands for huge sums of cash.

Now call me old fashioned but a return ofover 1$ million in 2003 on a 15$K investment in 1997 is not bombing.

Simply put, yes the prominence give to the keyword in the domain may change from SE to SE over time but people will still type in natural keywords like sarongs.co.uk, cranium.co.uk, nunchucks.co.uk, stunguns.co.uk so the value is their irrespective of the SE policies.

D

ps webit, it defo dont feel wrong!

[Magsite]

As most of you know I've got several domains related to my Lottery Syndicate Promotions including www.joinalotterysyndicate.com and betterchances.co.uk

It does help especially when new to have a related domain name.

I've got the following tshirt domain name www.teddyt-shirts.co.uk

I've no idea why I got it either!

Lisa