A survey has revealed some business owners selected their company‘s web address in less than an
hour, roughly the same length of time they take to pick a new coffee machine.
The survey by Fasthosts Internet revealed that the majority of businesses recognise that the
choice of web address has a lasting impact on the business but 41% admitted to spending less than
an hour on this matter.
One in four small businesses has concerns over whether they made the right choice when
picking their web address and one in three believes they could bring in extra revenue by changing
it to something else.
The research also found that 61% did not seek a second opinion when coming up with their
domain name, and 52% did not consider options such as .biz, .net or .eu at all. Often the best
available domains belong to less obvious suffixes, and it is always advisable to seek external
opinion on what a domain could suggest about your business.
One in four firms wanted to improve either their domain name or the suffix, the survey added,
while 33% thought doing so would bring in extra revenue. But 24% of these businesses said they were
unwilling to attempt to change the name because of the perceived amount of work involved.
While most UK small businesses now recognise the benefits of having a website, the research
would suggest that not all are optimising their web presence. Some 5% of business owners surveyed
admit to having themselves forgotten their own domain name.
“Businesses should consider all available options before purchasing their primary domain name
and must recognise the lasting impact that a domain name can have on sales and image” said Mark
Jeffries, Chief Technology Officer at Fasthosts.
Is your web address good enough?