premium domain name (worth it?)

[godoit]

Im thinking of buying furnituremagic.com but am put off of it due to the cost. £2k.
Is the .com worth itor should i go for .xyz and save to costs.
Are domain names that important

 

[fisicx]

Are domain names that important

Not really.

A lot depends on you and your marketing. The actual domain name doesn't have to be your brand name or describe the business. Two good examples: B&Q has diy.com and Amazon doesn't tell you anything about their business.

So you could be godoit.com with a strapline of 'go do it, buy a sofa today'.

 

[WebshopMechanic]

I think brand names are important but the domain name is not the be-all and end-all unless it's a single word. Single words are like number plates = very desirable and expensive.

Yes, keywords in the domain help a little for SEO but it's not going to save you if you have a poorly optimised site. Assuming your site is well optimised you could adapt it like people do on Twitter to something like wearemagic.com, bringthemagic.com, iammagic.com or fmagic.com. I'm not sure if they are available but you get the idea.

Choosing a .com is advisable unless you are a tech start-up.

Matt

 

[webhostuk]

Yes personally I feel if you have a good plan in place, it's always good to go for .com domain if you are getting it in your purchase range.Premium domains are worth what the purchasing party is willing to pay. So if you can bargain and get it for the price you want to go for it.

 

[Paul Murray]

I personally wouldn't pay £2k for a domain name. Bare in mind there's the annual cost to renew it too, I'd find out what that will set you back before you take the plunge. Try prefixing or suffixing a couple of characters like ukfurnituremagic.com to see what's available.

I'd stick with .com where possible, or get both/whatever versions you can to prevent someone else using a similar domain name. The .com is easier to remember for most users. A .xyz TLD would be great if you were being creative with it in some way, but unless it obviously links to your domain or business I'd probably avoid it.

I've heard of less tech-savvy customers not understanding that you can have a .xyz or .shop or .website TLD and therefore not knowing these are website links.

B&Q has diy.com

I seem to recall this was during the time when keywords in domain names were seen as good for SEO, or it may even pre-date that wave. I've always wondered if they used that domain for SEO purposes or just because it's more user-friendly/less ugly than than bandq.com or bq.com.

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

diy.com is short and snappy so even if not for SEO purposes it is a great domain name for them to use (shame the website is pretty bad to use as a consumer - especially the mobile version). Agree with above to go for a .com if you can but don't invest in premium unless you feel your marketing strategy really needs it.

 

[NuBlue]

I personally wouldn't pay £2k for a domain name. Bare in mind there's the annual cost to renew it too, I'd find out what that will set you back before you take the plunge. Try prefixing or suffixing a couple of characters like ukfurnituremagic.com to see what's available.

It's premium because someone has already registered it and they think they can sell it for £2K. That's nothing to do with the renewal cost of a .com domain which should be the standard amount of the registrar, typically less than £20 per year but yes, it's definitely worth asking to confirm.

This isn't the case with the new GTLD. If one of these is a premium domain, e.g. something like rentals.london, the registration cost and renewal would be the same and very expensive.

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

@NuBlue good point. I should have clarified the term 'Premium'

 

[Paul Murray]

It's premium because someone has already registered it and they think they can sell it for £2K. That's nothing to do with the renewal cost of a .com domain which should be the standard amount of the registrar, typically less than £20 per year but yes, it's definitely worth asking to confirm.

This isn't the case with the new GTLD. If one of these is a premium domain, e.g. something like rentals.london, the registration cost and renewal would be the same and very expensive.

Some domain name providers have wildly varying fees for 'popular' domain names, and not just GTLDs but regular .com too. This probably only applies if you purchase it through them since I assume they're reselling them, but it's definitely worth checking they won't try and add a premium on when you transfer it.

 

[NuBlue]

Some domain name providers have wildly varying fees for 'popular' domain names, and not just GTLDs but regular .com too. This probably only applies if you purchase it through them since I assume they're reselling them, but it's definitely worth checking they won't try and add a premium on when you transfer it.

Exactly, .com domains registered brand new have no concept of being premium. Registered domains being sold by the owner go for whatever price the buyer & seller agree on. Ongoing renewals should be at the normal rate for a .com, not the price paid for it.

 

[jibbajabba]

A few post ago I wasn’t ready now I am, Storefront building this weekend. Suppliers on the wait and shipping sorting. Marketing strategy is in place but I am missing a brand name…..

How hard is it to choose, I have a domain – furnituresticker.com (the TLD furniturestickers.com was the 2k one)

Should I just use the domain name as the brand name, its not as catchy as I would like but it has a little Seo value. I’d like Funteriors but that domain is sold, I put in a bid but no reply.



I have been down this rabbit hole this whole week. Entirly.

 

[antropy]

Im thinking of buying furnituremagic.com but am put off of it due to the cost. £2k.
Is the .com worth itor should i go for .xyz and save to costs.
Are domain names that important

It depends on a lot of things. I mean, you don't mention your current sales, if there's any reason furniture magic is a special term etc. etc.

Also, you could offer them £500 and see if they accept.

 

[jibbajabba]

current sales arn't much, enough to figure out its going to work but awaiting the name before I market. No reason why its a special term. Just trying to think of something that will be good for the customer

 

[antropy]

If it's a new business and you haven't fully decided on a name then I'm sure you can come up with something that's available and not a premium price. It's probably only worth paying that sort of money if it's important for your brand I think but you never know.

 

[jibbajabba]

but you never know.

Maybe I need to just make a decision. I have gone through a few but nothing has stood out. I like Kayak's story of how they got there brand name and something tells me I should copy there process.
they chose Cake because everyone likes cake, right? then that was taken so they chose Kayak because it sounded good.

 

[antropy]

Haha yes cake is a great word, it conjures up nice images and tastes! It's like the PHP framework CakePHP. In fact a lot of IT things use food based words like Android versions: Icecream Sandwich, Kitkat or Linux Mint, Peppermint OS. So it is important how a brand feels.

 

[Deleted member 59730]

Single words are like number plates = very desirable and expensive.

So how much would a single word beginning with A be worth?

 

[antropy]

So how much would a single word beginning with A be worth?

What like antropy.co.uk?

 

[Page]

averyinterestingquestion.com
(lol)

About £16 a year

Save your 2K you will need that for your business

But spend time getting the name right - but not sat on your own in a room - do with a couple of others

Have google booted up and a thesaurus and a place where you can purchase domains and it will show what is available

https://www.heartinternet.uk/domain-names

Then our policy is that it should spell as sound for our target market

And that it should have few google hits as extremes

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=f.....69i57j0l5.4824j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=f...ome..69i57.23495j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I would say you need COM and .co.uk - but then use one
Pros and cons to both

There will be thousands and thousands that are right for you - I am not saying these are available but to help you think

furnituresuprise - with in built click bait

furniturekingdon

furniture4you

furniturefurniturefurniture

furniture-magic.com

And on you go

Ideally it should give some indication of what you do

So furniture made bespoke from wood is different from furniture beads and headboard

 

[antropy]

do with a couple of others

That's true actually, some people are just very good at coming up with good names!

 

[fisicx]

Unless you sell stickers that attach to furniture and plan to never ever ever expand to do anything else your chosen domain name isn’t very useful.

But a made up name (like antropy) can be used for all sorts of things.

 

[Alan]

I paid £3,000+VAT for a one word .co.uk domain, at the time I thought it was worth it. The value is the value perceived by the buyer.

 

[Highland Spring]

Keep looking - don't be too phased by the fact that someone has registered already the name you thought of. Look at one of the 100's of new domain types, or just rethink and come up with a new one.

 

[Russ Michaels]

The key is to use a domain that is easy for people to remember. There are now 100's of TLD's to choose from, but average joe tends to only knows about.com and .co.uk and maybe .net and .org so this is something to bear in mind. Also average joe is not very computer literate and has a tendency to always SEARCH for a site rather than enter the domain name, so as long as you are the top result for your own name, then this probably counts more than the domain.
I used to have a .co domain but most people used to type .com or .co.uk instead, which caused me no end of problems with emails bouncing and people going to the wrong website. Even worse this was people who worked in the Industry, even Microsoft couldn't get my domain right. SO I would definitely avoid .co

 

[SuperLiamUK]

@Russ Michaels is right, domain names are meant to be easier to remember than your server IP address and the more memorable the better. You want as short as possible but don't pigeon hole yourself just looking at domains with furniture in, you can always go for a branded domain name and focus your SEO and marketing on getting what you sell across.

For your price range you should be looking at branded domains anyway and sites like brandbucket would be a good place for you to start.

 

[fisicx]

Look at one of the 100's of new domain types.

No, don't do this. Worst thing you could do. People don't like them and Google ignores them.

 

[DEFCON1]

Im thinking of buying furnituremagic.com but am put off of it due to the cost. £2k.
Is the .com worth itor should i go for .xyz and save to costs.
Are domain names that important

If that particular domain is important to set the foundations of your business then 2K is nothing.
That's assuming you also have a fair budget for everything else.
It's not a great name in it's own right, is there a reason it may have any current value that's unique to your business?
Do you even need a .com?
If only selling in the UK then stick with a .co.uk with .uk as your 2K budget would also stretch further.
Stay well away from the .xyz or anything else.

Not really.

A lot depends on you and your marketing. The actual domain name doesn't have to be your brand name or describe the business. Two good examples: B&Q has diy.com and Amazon doesn't tell you anything about their business.

So you could be godoit.com with a strapline of 'go do it, buy a sofa today'.

The 2 domain names you used as examples are premium domain names in their own right.
Of course domain names matter.
If you can get a domain name that's better than your brand name similar to those examples then you would need to add quite a few zero's to the end of that 2K budget.

 

[Alan]

Google ignores them.

What do you mean, ignores the keyword in the TLD? Or wont list the new TLD?

Certainly I know domains with 'new' TLD's that rank number 1 for their specific niche keywords.

I agree however that people don't like them, especially the ones that can get confused e.g. .uk rather than .co.uk - .co rather than .com