ZebraDomain.com

In recent years some people have argued that since single word .com domains have all but run out and good two word domains are disappearing faster than beer in a college party its time to start looking for longer domain names. Today the average domain name is said to be about 11 characters (interestingly ZebraDomain is 11 characters, well 14 if you count the .com TLD), so keep that in mind when you go looking for your next domain name.

Of course as time goes by domain names will inevitably get longer but each additional character means a substantial increase in the number of potential domain names so this process will take time.

Moving away from combinatorics, some people have suggested that it might be time to look for longer domain names. What is a long domain name? well, if the current average is around 11 characters, anything above that should be considered long (or at least above average). Of course some people have decided to take this advice to an extreme like:

thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com

or

llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochuchaf.org.uk

or

iamtheproudownerofthelongestlongestlongestdomainnameinthisworld.com

These are all gimmicks as no sane person will ever bother typing them. So out of the 63 max characters on a domain name (67 if you include the TLD) what can still be considered reasonable?

Lets look at some examples:

renewableenergyworld.com – This is a 20 character domain name (on a very hot topic). In this case not only is the name too long it is also fairly difficult to spell (renewable).

digitalcamerareview.com – Is 19 characters but is also much easier to spell.

technologyreview.com – Is 16 characters (still about 5 characters above average) but a significant improvement (going down to 2 words) with very simple spelling.

These are just 3 examples. It might be possible to find a 20 character domain name which is still simple enough and memorable but for the most part I would suggest looking for names no longer than 16 characters or at worst just under 20.

Of course all of the above is relevant to .com domains. Different rules apply to different TLDs (and for the most part you will be able to find shorter domain names on any non .com TLD).

To sum things up – try and follow these basic guidelines:

1. Shorter is still (usually) better.
2. The average domain name has about 11 characters so try not to move to far away.
3. If you do decide to pick a longer domain name look up to around 16 characters and in any case try to avoid 20+ character domains.