I was Skyping with someone a couple of days ago and he was referring me to a URL that he decided it would be better to type. One reason was it was not in English and I have no foreign language skills. The other reason was the URL was http://www.maatschappelijkverantwoordondernemen.be. Now that is a URL. I recently saw a presentation by David Esrati from The Next Wave where he talked about his 80-40 Rule. The basic idea is that URLs are less important because 80% of browsing starts in the search box. 40% of users are so clueless that they type the URL in the search box. If this is true, having an awkward domain name is not so much of a problem. Social bookmarking and blogs probably help too. But I assume that there are limits to acceptable awkwardness.
BTW, kudos to J Rulnick for having the foresight to register chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg.com after the longest place name in the United States! He gets the 80-40 rule! I think?
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when speaking of long domain names you can’t forget the self-proclaimed record holder:
http://www.thelongestdomainnameintheworldandthensomeandthensomemoreandmore.com/
Seth, Thanks for the mention. The 80/40 rule is just starting to be understood by marketers- however, many still think that Search Engine Optimization is a solution- instead of more and better content.
I tell clients the way to tell how often to post is when your visits start declining- you know it’s too late.