People often swap web site names between each other. They tell them to their friends, neighbours, colleagues and so on. Think how difficult it would have been for Google if their web site name (domain) had been something like “www.automatedsearchenginesystemnotrelyingonhumaneditors.com”. And what about people who try to recommend web sites along the lines of “www.ourcompanyname.com/reports/pdf/public/12345-abc.htm”; such things are hardly catchy, easy to remember and pass on.

Often, online business owners forget that one of the principal ways in which their web site will gain traffic is by the passing on of their domain name by “word of mouth”. Hence it is vital to have an easy to recall, catchy name. However, new research shows that businesses often neglect the name of their web site.

Indeed, the study conducted for Fasthosts and reported in New Business magazine found that one in every 20 businesses can’t even remember their own domain name….!

The fact is, according to the survey, that businesses spend less than an hour thinking of a domain name, or the possible variants. The result is that many online business owners are unhappy with the domain name they have, but feel it is too complicated to change. Consequently, they probably don’t do as much online business as they might – if they had given proper attention to the domain name.