question Should a specialised website use a domain name that is general or particular to that topic?

[Denjiro31]

According to what I understand, it's usually simpler to launch a website that focuses on a narrow niche as opposed to something too general (for example, instead of "Dogs," perhaps something much more particular like "Puppy training for the Norwegian Lundehund breed").

Does your domain name need to be that specialised to that market, though? Do you have to make it like the aforementioned example, norwegianlundehundbreedtraining [dot]com, or can you go with something more generic, like dogacademy101 [dot]com (with the latter in the hopes that you might eventually grow it into an authority site)?

 

[jhm]

Getting too specific limits your market. Dog academy dot com, fantastic. Being specific: Labrador academy dot com...sucks. If you're an end user specializing in just Labradors, then fine. However, as a domain investor, it would be wise to keep it general as "dog", to not limit yourself to that slither of end users, in comparison. For an improved hit rate, keep it general. IMO

 

[cooljub]

Hi, is it for your own site?

If it's always going to be breed specific, then would something like "lunderhundtraining" suffice? Question whether you'd necessarily need to specify "Norwegian" or "breed".
Shorter is generally better because it's easier and more memorable - pare it down as much as you can while still making sense.
norwegianlundehundbreedtraining [dot]com is too long.

If you're planning to open it to other breeds later, then go for a more generic "dog" name and maybe use sub-domains or separate pages for different breeds.

 

[NickB]

Content is king when it comes to ranking (as well as technical SEO) so as long as the domain has a decent level of relevancy to what's it's selling then it's all good when starting out....Also if you narrow the niche to much you don't leave much room for expanding into other areas/products etc

As the site/company grows you can look at acquiring a better domain from a branding perspective......

As mentioned above shorter is always better.......

 

[the_poet]

In an ideal world, the domain should always be the .com exact match of the website's main theme. Of course in most cases that's not possible (that's why valuable .com's are a scarce resource), so what you do is adding keywords to your domain and/or using alternative TLDs.

 

[bmugford]

It depends on a lot of factors, including geographically in many service fields.

I would not make the domain so detailed that it becomes too long, awkward, and narrow.

I prefer a domain that would look good in marketing or on a business card.

In your example good domains would probably be the breed, breed + training, city + dogtraining, or something broad like dog academy is fine.

You can basically tailor the website content to be what you want.

You can also pay for advertising when it comes to more specific terms.

Brad

 

[HotKey]

Yeh, what @cooljub said. Your domain name should be somewhat representative of what you intent to deliver. This excludes one-word catchy terms of course, as they more relay an idea than a niche. Eg., doggy.com. And much more difficult to acquire.

If you're looking to expand, go more generic and shorter, otherwise put in the work and build and attract.

Long-tail domains like the example you provided, with a more specific subject in mind, are fine if developed properly. These kinds of names might need some help in attention via social media because, even though they might be searched for, it takes time for them to gain a ranking of sorts in a search engine. And domains that have a history with a website with relevant content will usually be found first.

Outside of one-word or even two-word domains, I find you should do the best you can in focusing on exactly what you want to deliver to your users, because it also creates a trust factor. Trust = longevity.

 

[poweredbyme]

If you are a producer, choose a domain describing that single product best. Length isn't much important. Be specific as much as possible if you are a procuder. Buy other domains for each new single product you will produce in the future. If you grow enough choose your brand for your domain.

If the number of product types reaches to become full category of products, combine all sites into 1 single website for that particular category. Try to provide all types of products in that category at all times.

If you sell products in very different categories or
if you already have/if you plan to have a well known market share choose your brand for your website.

If it's a 1 man operation with limited resources choose a domain that is short, generic and general as much as possible.

 

[TribeMagnet]

Agreed as stated so far, slightly geneal and short as practical without losing meaning. I would also add two further points.

• If you're adding numbers like 101 there should be a seriously good reason. People don't know whether to type them out or use numerals if they hear the url, also with some fonts the numbers can be hard to read and it could be mistaken as LOL for missed opportunities.
• If your specialty is hard to spell. that's double the reason to ratchet in or out a tier or two.

 

[HotKey]

Clear as mud, @Denjiro31 ?