Long descriptive .co or short non-sense .c o m?
Hi all,
For some time I've been working on a new SaaS idea that currently does not exist (no competition). Nobody Google's for it, as the idea is new. My projected way of customer acquisition does not involve my customer actively searching for it.
I started with registering a descriptive .co (for example: quickbaking.co for something that will help you quickly bake things) as the .com was available but overpriced for an unvalidated idea.
Recently I've come across a short 6 letter .com that is available, which doesn't mean anything but has 1 word + R something like quickR.com (as example). Also (to stay with this example) quic.kr is available too.
Now I started thinking (and I'm by no means either an expert on SEO or brand building), wouldn't the non-sense .com be better as it is a short .com and if it becomes a (moderate) success the brand can be built around the non existing word instead of a descriptive .co?
I would appreciate your input! Thanks
The long descriptive domain name (specially if it has your keyword in it) gives you some extra points with SEO. It is also easier for people to immediately get an idea about your product/service without you having to explain it in detail.
Also although the domain name will be longer but if it consists of english words, it will be easier to say, remember and recall.
If you use a shorter domain name with random words (or custom brand name) then you have to put in a lot of effort (and budget) to associate that brand with what your users should expect from it.
For example when you hear about a website called buildyourwebsite.com you know immediately what to expect at the site. Compare that with an imaginary website called wizbldr.com.
Which one is easier to remember and tell somebody during a meeting or over a phone?
PS: I am not affiliated with any of these sites. I mentioned them just to show as an example :)
Thanks, you make a good point. Together with the input from Rab below, I think the descriptive longer name will work better for the start. If it might take off a rebrand could always be considered if needed.
I had the same idea but i already invested in this domain : growith.us which means Grow with us and i think it's good to have a short domain name with a meaning of course, than a 12 letters domain name or more .. i agree that people understand what's on your website if you have a long domain, but sometimes they misspell some words because they dont remember it well , like theprofessionnalhackers.com (toooo long and may lead people to forget if there is an 's' at the end or not ....
Without knowing what you're trying to do, I like quickbaking.co. When I started googling that on mobile, there were nine suggested searches that start with it. So you could def get some traffic from it down the line.
Even though it may not have short term value, I believe it'll be better in the long-run.
And depending on what you want to do, quic.kr can be used as a url shortner for links to quickbaking.co properties?? Not sure if that would apply to your goals, or if it's even a good idea.
Yes the URL shortener could be handy in the future. Thank for your response.
Imo. Forget the .kr hack. Buy the 6 char com. Put up a poll.
I agree the 6 char allows future brand building if successful but if the descriptive brings high chance of success now then you can rebrand when you've made enough dough. See TaxiStartup to Onde as a nice example (from .com to .app in fact).
Thanks for the time to answer my question. I've thought about a poll, but in the end I'd appreciate the well thought answers more, even though there will be less, over the single click inputs you get from a poll.
Your answer of rebranding was something that I never considered, but I actually really like. I took the 6 letter.com and I will see in the future. As I'm lucky enough to be my first customer, I'm thinking of when my MVP is done, to copy the SaaS to a second hosting account of mine. 1 is hosted/branded as the 6 letter.com the other with the descriptive .co. I can do an A/B test during beta testing to see what works better.
Many thanks for the input.
My rule of thumb is do your best to get a good .com, even if it costs money. This is your address... If you opened a brick and mortar store, where you open it matters. You wouldn't open it in a crappy neighborhood with the idea that you could move later when you're successful.
Spend the money if you're confident in the idea. I've paid $3500+ for domains that I don't even use right now because of this mentality. Having that good domain now is better in the long run.
You make an interesting point actually. Although in that case I made the capital mistake of registering the .co a while ago, which now signals to the seller that I might have an interest in acquiring the .com as well.
Maybe I reach out to see what their asking price is for the descriptive .com