Start-Ups Fail With Domain Name Choice: Name Ninja

Start-ups fail to get a domain name that reflects their business name face an uphill marketing battle according to a report from a domain name consulting firm. Choosing a hard-to-spell name that fails the “Radio Test” is the number one problem, followed by not having the exact match .com domain.

According to a report from Name Ninja, a boutique domain name consulting firm that advises business, over two-thirds (68%) of domains chosen by start-ups fail the “Radio Test”, meaning the names are not spelled the way they sound. Not having the exact match .com domain though, which the report neglects to advise, would generally be a failure for US-based businesses or those that might one day have global ambitions. A start-up that doesn’t intend venturing beyond their borders would generally be better off with their country code domain.

Other start-up domain problems include having a .com domain, again in the case of businesses the report analysed, that appends other words to the start-up name. But the same would apply for those using a ccTLD domain in their own country.

According to the analysis conducted by Name Ninja, almost four in five (79.6%) preferred a .com domain, 6.1 percent a ccTLD domain while .io (4.3%) and .co (4.1%) also had some popularity.

“If your start-up is named Fashion Ferret then the optimal domain name is the exact match .com domain FashionFerret.com,” explains domain name expert and Name Ninja President Bill Sweetman, adding “Using anything else is risky because it’s likely to confuse your customers and drive up your marketing costs.”

Name Ninja analysed the domain names of 491 start-ups attending the upcoming Collision start-up conference. They found 386 or 79 percent of the start-up domain names were counterintuitive and likely pose marketing challenges. Only 21 percent of start-up domain names were the most intuitive domain name.

“I get it. Most start-ups don’t have much cash to spend on their domain name,” said Bill Sweetman, who has helped hundreds of start-up founders get their dream domain name. “But let’s not forget that your domain name is a key marketing asset. You don’t have to spend a fortune to get a memorable domain name. There are lots of free tools and service providers that can help you no matter what your domain name budget is.”

 written by David Goldstein