Abstract: This paper provides the first large-scale empirical
evidence of the association between specific properties of internet
domain names and website performance. We analyze over one million
internet domain names, linking their phonological and morphological
attributes to the realized demand for their associated websites. We test
hypotheses related to how the names sound, how they look, their ease of
recall, and the likelihood that they will be typed correctly.
We find that certain attributes of names are associated meaningfully and
significantly with the demand realized by a website. The websites with
the highest demand have names that are short, include dictionary words,
avoid punctuation symbols, and use numerals. The use of phonemes
associated with disgust is negatively associated with performance for
most websites, but positively associated with performance for adult
sites. Some of these results from the on-line world are likely to hold
off line, while some are not. These findings can be used in conjunction
with other criteria as part of the selection process for names.
One example of the findings in the paper is:
"We find that shorter domains (measured as number of characters or
syllables) perform better. This suggests that, in contrast to the
literature that found recall benefits of longer names in the offline
world, with respect to domain names, the increased navigational yield
effect of shorter names may exceed any benefits to recall of longer
names. A one standard deviation increase in the length of a domain name
measured as number of characters (number of syllables) is associated
with a decline in site rank of 7.34% (2.99%). Alternately, an extra
character or syllable is associated with a 1-2% lower rank."
To download this INSEAD Working Paper by Karan Girotra & Karl T. Ulrich in full, see:
ssrn.com/abstract=1714992
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