Is your domain name easy to pronounce, easy to spell and easy to read? Do people remember your domain name or do they tend to forget it and type-in the wrong domain. Do people ever tell you they tried to find your domain name and ended-up on a different site?
If you are launching a new business, have you considered the importance of having a memorable company name and corresponding domain name? You will be spending a lot of time and money to build and market your business. If people see your ads and publicity items, you hope they will remember your business name and domain name. If not you will have to pay significantly more to reach your market and retain your customers as you grow. Look at your marketing budget and consider this: How much would it be worth per year if 20% more people could remember your name and find your site? How much more much would it be worth if twice as many people remember?
There is a case for calculating an ROI on name memorability. I would love to hear if anyone has developed a methodology for doing so. Multiple names could be tested and ranked for memorability. This relative scores could weighed against the projected marketing budgets for one or more years. Of course there are other important factors such as search engine optimization, relevance and relative keyword values. Memorability is can be seen as one of several important factors to consider.
Factors in Memorable Domains:
- Easy to pronounce: How easy is it for people to pronounce your domain in the primary target language? How about in secondary languages?
- Sounds catchy: Does the name sound catchy and roll-off the tongue?
- Easy to spell: Does the domain name sound like the way it is spelled? Do you find you have to spell it out to people? Do you need to spell it out in radio ads?
- Short: Is the domain name short enough that people can glance at it and remember it?
- Word Roots: is the domain name made-up of common words or recognizable parts of words? If incorrectly spelled, is it a common alternate spelling (such as “nite” for “night”). Does it contain common domain name elements?
- Use of Hyphens: does the domain name rely on hyphens? Domains with hyphens are harder to market and harder to remember.
- Use of Numbers: Does the domain include one or more numbers? Domains with numbers tend to be harder to remember, especially if the number stands in the place of a letter (such as a “1″ in place of an “i”). There are a few exceptions to this, such as terms that commonly contain a number in them, such as “3D.”
- Brandable Words: If you have created a brandable domain name that modifies common or combines words in some way, are the modifications memorable? If the word is made-up or used in a new context, will people be able to remember it? Some good examples of memorable words in new contexts are: Yahoo, Google and Amazon. Good examples of modified words include: eBay, Facebook, YouTube, PayPal and Twitter.
- Easy to See in a Glance: In advertising is it easy to see the name in a quick glance? Will people have to slow down or glance again to catch it?
- Domain Extension: What extension are you using? .Com is the most memorable default extension in the United States. Other generic TLDs, while less memorable, can be memorable in the right context. .Net and .Org are common and people are used to seeing them. .TV domains are more common for video and entertainment related sites. Some other domains could be memorable in the right context.
These are a few things to consider in assessing your domain name for how memorable it will be. If your name is not memorable you may have to spend significant more money and effort to advertise and build your brand. Memorability should be considered along with other important factors, but should not be dismissed in a quest to save money.
