How much does the domain suffix matter?
Hi all!
First post here. Whoot! I'm curious how much a domain suffix really matters. I'm starting to think about a side hustle name for my app and you can imagine a lot of the good domains are taken.
Thanks for the input!
I always try to go for .com. If your .com is taken you might try [name of app]app.com or get[nameofapp].com or something along those lines.
Paul Graham has an essay on this exact topic: http://www.paulgraham.com/name.html
It depends on how much you'll depend on offline advertising for your traffic. If not at all then it doesn't matter at all, if heavily then it is very important to get a .com since no matter what you tell people that is the first they'll try.
True. Even target audience matters. For non-techies, dot com is a must.
Thanks for all your responses!
I definitely want a '.com' but it can be tricky finding any domain that isn't already taken, even with the combo of '.io' or '.co'. I suppose it's not something that makes a huge difference from what I'm gathering. There are probably better things to worry about. haha.
Google has officially said that TLD makes no impact on their search results. It's about CONTENT :)
A great website for finding domain name ideas is domainr.com
.com is best.
If you're building in the software space and a .com isn't available, go for a .co or .io.
If you're not in software, add a prefix or suffix to a .com. For instance
(Although if you do this, people might start calling your product "Get ___", "Try ", " App", or "Use ___". I've seen it happen numerous times. Not a huge problem, but one to think about.)
I've also seen successful products built on .net domains, like Minecraft. (Acquired by Microsoft for $2.5 billion.)
Another thing to think about is email: many people will add .com to email addresses out of muscle memory. It might be useful to use a .com for email addresses for this purpose. Otherwise, important messages could fade into the ether and your contacts will think you're ignoring them.
I still think that .com is a must in some cases, but we run a network of summer camps under [CAMPNAME].camp and have seen no complaints from very normal parents.
I think the winds are changing on the supremacy of .com. However, if you're trying to build a large business, .com remains crucial.
Lastly, Basecamp was basecamphq.com for a very long time. So having the most-awesome-domain-name-in-the-world matters less than having the most-awesome-product.
If your SEO is even vaguely on-point -- and not doing so isn't really an option -- then in my experience it literally doesn't matter a damn. For both Quail (quailhq.com) and Offramp (offramphq.com) I doubt I've missed a single customer due to not having the obvious canonical <word>.com domain.
Your mileage may vary, of course, but from my data (analytics + asking) I've found that the wild majority of my users get to my sites by typing the name of the app and maybe a related keyword (e.g. "offramp emails" or "quail software") into Google and clicking the first plausible-looking result that shows up. Depending on the adword cost that may not be viable for you, but it's certainly worked out for me in a variety of (very different!) domains!
With the new TLDs, you can make the 'suffix' part of your brand. My site is cycle.travel - cycletravel.com would be much less impactful. (Most people will probably reach your site via Google et al anyway!)