Short or Long domain names ?

How easy is it to remember? That is how I would score how well you are branded.The rest is about what/how you build it.
-5 if not .com
-1 for plural/ed/ing
-1 for easily misspelled
-1 for two words
-1 for multiple meanings
Etc.

It's important to remember brand architecture consisting of the three types of brands(see below). Each type of brand requires a different domain strategy. Generally the corporate brand domain is the most valuable and most coveted. Product and sub brands can benefit with a portfolio of long tail exact match domains that may or may not identify with the corporate brand.

1. Corporate brands - Amazon.
2. Sub-brands - Amazon Web Services
3. Product brands - Amazon Echo

I think that, like many things, there are no easy rules here. I agree that short is an advantage, but not an absolute imho. One point from the podcast (see below) was that an unusual spelling (like Lyft) is easier to deal with if the name is short. A name that is both long and unusual (e.g. made up word or wrong spelling) is a big negative, but one or the other is manageable in many cases.

With sufficient marketing might and dollars, almost any name can be effectively used. We certainly have cases of words which are not easily spelled (Lyft or Flickr), not simple (AirBnB), not short (KitchenAid), not inherently related to the operation (Apple, Amazon), etc. that have been hugely successful as brands.

By the way overnight I just listened to the latest DNW podcast which is with Eli Altman (he is second generation in naming, his father started the company) at A Hundred Monkeys and is about corporate naming. A few points that stood out to me - normally they have a two pass system with 600 + possible names during the first pass! He said that while they educate end users re domain prospects (like typical cost if you want a short correctly spelled word in .com) the domain availability consideration comes later in the process and they do not even at second stage consider it too much. He also mentioned that corporate leaders are increasingly open to other domain possibilities, including alternative extensions if their preferred name is not available (or not at a cost that they can afford) in .com. It is a great listen.

In my mind the one absolute in naming is that it should evoke positive feelings (or at least not negative ones). The podcast guest I guess suggested another absolute, or near absolute, is that the name is not boring.

Bob

Boring Company

Short for Branding Long if highly understood descriptive
but im a noob, so..

Personally, I like short brands. I perfer Web.com more than Network Solutions.

But for companies, I’m a fan of ’made up names’, such as Google or Agoda.

However, it also depends on the niche. Audemars Piguet and similar exclusive brands works great, even if they are long (and hard to pronounce).

shig said:

How easy is it to remember? That is how I would score how well you are branded.The rest is about what/how you build it.
-5 if not .com
-1 for plural/ed/ing
-1 for easily misspelled
-1 for two words
-1 for multiple meanings
Etc.

Click to expand...

There are some exceptions to the plural ending rule; rentals, campers, trailers, cars, sometimes motors and a few others.

Length doesn't make a difference if it's catchy and memorable. A couple of examples are WeBuyUglyHouses.com and ForSaleByOwner.com. Both are four words and extremely long but it doesn't make one bit of difference.

Remember this? Yahoo Settles Lawsuit and Gets Flicker.com Domain Name
https://domainnamewire.com/2010/06/14/yahoo-settles-lawsuit-and-gets-flicker-com-domain-name/

Short creative names are great for branding but not owning the correct spelling can be a big problem. SmugMug.com closed a deal for flikr.com in April.

People know who lyft is because they are an app based service and the search feature in the app store will rank by popularity. ++The got billions in free media exposure.

mr-x said:

People know who lyft is because they are an app based service and the search feature in the app store will rank by popularity. ++The got billions in free media exposure.

Click to expand...

No doubt App Store (and or Google Play) are great for promotion, but you need to first get popular enough to rank high for it to have much impact. With about 2 million apps in store many apps (and their names) wallow in obscurity. There is no doubt that a desired (and unique or better than competitors) product, a good name/domain and effective marketing all work together to separate some names from others.

Bob

Fancy.domains said:

But for companies, I’m a fan of ’made up names’, such as Google or Agoda.

Click to expand...

It is interesting that in Google case they did not intentionally make up the name, as I understand it, and had meant to brand on the word 'googol' (liking the idea of such a big number) but someone spelled it wrong and submitted it that way and the rest is history.

Bob Hawkes said:

No doubt App Store (and or Google Play) are great for promotion, but you need to first get popular enough to rank high for it to have much impact. With about 2 million apps in store many apps (and their names) wallow in obscurity. There is no doubt that a desired (and unique or better than competitors) product, a good name/domain and effective marketing all work together to separate some names from others.

Bob

Click to expand...

Agree, Lyft and Uber created the market so competition was light and publicity was plentiful. Flikr was a commodity service and their name held them back imo.

Lots of moving parts but generally, I think the domain / website for an app is less important than a saas company.

Bob Hawkes said:

It is interesting that in Google case they did not intentionally make up the name, as I understand it, and had meant to brand on the word 'googol' (liking the idea of such a big number) but someone spelled it wrong and submitted it that way and the rest is history.

Click to expand...

Actually Googol.com was registered 2 years before Google.com. If Googol wasn't already registered history could have been changed and Google would probably have been Googol.

Two example creative names that in my opinion are close to perfect:

1) Outdoorsy.

2) RVShare.

Should be no trouble guessing what these websites are about or finding them if you need their service. Estimated they spend 10K to 20K a month advertising on google so a memorable, easy to spell name is important. Otherwise you're financing the company with the correct spelling.

Lyft sucks as a website. Rocks as an app /service.

hookbox said:

Actually Googol.com was registered 2 years before Google.com. If Googol wasn't already registered history could have been changed and Google would probably have been Googol.

Click to expand...

By the way here is the story of the naming from a colleague of the Google founders. It's good they dod not stick with BackRub!

https://graphics.stanford.edu/~dk/google_name_origin.html

Size does matters.

In domaining, the shorter the better imho