Domains for Startups #1: The less-obvious pitfall to getting your second choice domain

We’ve seen it time and time again. A startup can’t get the domain they want, so they end up with a word like “get” in front of it, or “online” behind it. I’ve heard from many startups that this isn’t an issue for them, and the reason they almost always give is, “well we show up fine in search engines!”

Sure, it’s true. If you have some solid SEO chops you can (and will) get your site ranking for your company name, heck you could even outrank the person who owns the exact-match domain since Google is domain agnostic. However there’s one factor that is often overlooked and the second I say it, it hits home.

email

What about your email?

Yes, a potential client can find you on Google, but what happens when they email you, and out of force of habit, write the email to you@yourcompanyname.com vs. you@getyourcompanyname.com or you@yourcompanynameonline.com? Now someone else gets that email. This is much worse than having someone accidentally end up on a competitors site, now they’re sending what could be very sensitive information to someone that you don’t know.

I’ve owned a particular one-word .COM for years now and at one point I put a catch-all email account up just to see what came in. The results blew my mind as hundreds (yes hundreds) of emails hit my catch-all account and yes, it was all from people just typing in the wrong domain name. So next time you’re thinking about going with your second choice domain name because you’d rather register a domain for $10 than buy one for a few thousand…I’d think twice.

What do you think? Comment and let your voice be heard!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton