UK businesses "live to regret" domain names

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 5 Nov 2007 at 11:43

While naming a business is often a long and thoughtful process, choosing a website address is often regarded as a much smaller decision. According to a new survey, 41% of UK businesses spend less than an hour choosing their website address, and over half don't think to seek a second opinion on this critical decision.

Unsurprisingly, one third of companies later regret it, believing their revenue could improve if they had a better domain name.

A quarter of companies worry that their website address isn't catchy enough, while 5% of business owners admitted they had forgotten their own address entirely.

Despite this, a quarter of companies said they would be unwilling to attempt changing their domain name, believing it would involve too much work. The survey involved 615 companies, and was conducted by the hosting company, Fasthosts.

"Businesses should consider all available options before purchasing their primary domain name. A web address is often bought in haste at the start of a business project," says Mark Jeffries, CTO at Fasthosts.

One can only assume that the same relaxed attitude to domain names is present in the US; home of Flickr.com, del.icio.us and qoop.com.