Short domain names OR longer and better branding?

[aandy501]

I'm in this pickle, I have 2 domain names that I like. One of them is 6 letters long and goes well with what I'm going to do, but it doesn't have flair. The other is 13 letters long which consists of 2 words, and it's a bit more of an attention getter as well as better branding qualities. The shorter could be branded too.. but it's just a bit more difficult imo.
What would you do?

[proson]

well most "domain gurus" say the shorter the domain the better its value since they are easier to remember than a longer
domain.

[Fishnagles]

I think the shorter domains do better in the search engines too......

[hittjw]

How about buying both domains?

You can use 302 redirects to split test the two, see which one produces the best results, then 301 redirect the loser to the winner.

Screw brand, it's all about net revenue and sometimes two word domains are easier to associate with a purchase.

Best,

Justin

[Darksat]

I think the shorter domains do better in the search engines too......

Thats totally wrong, the domain with the most keywords in the url is the best one for the search engines.

[Fishnagles]

Well, I don't have any diffinitive proof of it, but I think the shorter the domain, the better.... Like a 4 character.... Or a three character.... I would imagine there must be some credit given for such an authoritive domain....

[Darksat]

I have been doing SEO a long time and I have never heard that before. Google has plenty of other factors to judge domains by, what sense would it make to take domain name length into account?
I have heard that more than 1 hyphen in a domain name is bad, but thats about it.
Although it should be fairly easy to test out this theory.

[Fishnagles]

As far as experience, SEO is my middle name..... I have been doing it for quite some time as well.. I agree with you on the double hyphen, as more than one seems only to be an SEO tactic... As far as why Google may give some "extra credit" to a short domain, especially a keyword one, in my opinion, is the less likeliness for it to be used as spam and they are harder to come by....

If I were a search engine, I think I would prefer the domain www.searchen.com over www.searchennetworks.com

Now both would work, but the shorter, algorithmically speaking, I would feel more comfortable with... To me, shorter is better... That's just me.... Search trys to be human.

I'm surprised you have never heard of this being discussed.... Alot of speculation is out there on the subject. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=seo+%22url+length%22&btnG=Google+Search

I didn't read all the comments - but despite whatever they may say, I believe it does matter.

[backstreetviking]

I perfer to the short one .
The short one can be remembered more easily. If the domain is too long , it will not easily to be remember.

[thoran]

well, this is quite an tricky queation to answer . This will purely depends on your need. If, you need a small domain name you can have or even you can og for the larger domain name. The maximum length of the domain name is 256 characters.

[domainauctionsscript]

I would recommend to use a domain name that focuses on the keywords that you want to target. For example, if you have a website that sells socks, you should look for buysocks, findsocksonline, buynewsocks, etc. This will help you in the long run with SE results, and will be easy to remember for your customers because your domain reflects exactly what you are selling, and the customers are looking for.

Good luck with your preoject! :)

[ami006]

I'm in this pickle, I have 2 domain names that I like. One of them is 6 letters long and goes well with what I'm going to do, but it doesn't have flair. The other is 13 letters long which consists of 2 words, and it's a bit more of an attention getter as well as better branding qualities. The shorter could be branded too.. but it's just a bit more difficult imo.
What would you do?


Though Everyone will say the Shorter is the best for Domain Names but I think few of the longer names could also do good, they may be like keyword type or defining some product or service in its full in full for example like DomainTheftProtection.com, domainnamesforsell.net etc I hold few of such names