I love telling people that I have a four letter domain name, but unfortunately, the people that aren’t in an online industry don’t understand why I am so excited.

Short and Easy to Remember

One of the first things that is so great about the domain is that it is short. Having less than five characters makes it easy for people to remember. If you were looking for this site, would you rather type in extraforeveryperson.com or just Xfep.com?

Type In Traffic

Shorter domains, especially ones that are real words, but even those that aren’t get a bit more type in traffic than other domains. When people first start getting used to the Internet, some of them will just type in what they are looking for and put a .com on the end of it. For example, someone looking for “love” online might just go to Love.com (owned by AOL, ew!).

Branding

Short domains are also easier to brand, in part because of the above points, but also because if I want to make business cards or other marketing material for this site, I only need to include my four letter domain.

Unique and Rare

The last important key to having a short domain is that it is unique and rare. Currently, when I go searching for a domain for a website, my first, second and third choices are rarely available. There are so many domain squatters who take the good domains in hopes of making a great deal of money on them someday that I find myself registering domains that are much longer, and less in line with my personal needs than I would hope for.

Anyone want bnintendowii.com?

Conclusion

So when you are picking out your domain, try to make it short, easy to remember, and unique. I know finding a great domain can be difficult in this day and age, but if you spend the time, you might be amazed at what you can find.

Originally posted on August 8, 2007 @ 3:52 pm