Research Reveals Users Looking for Two-Word Domain Names find an Exact Match Available in a .com Only 13% of the Time

Future Analysis Will Explore User Response to Descriptive Domains that use Both the Right and the Left Side of the Dot to Create Business Identity

A recent DomainsBot, Inc. study, “Domain search behavior in relationship to the availability of .com,” revealed when people search availability of their preferred two-word domain name, they find an exact match in a conventional .com only 13 percent of the time. The company is planning further research to learn how users respond to short descriptive domains that use both sides of the dot and forego .com for top-level domains available in hundreds of options. Examples include brewing.studio, vacation.rentals, and OneStream.Live.

DomainsBot, the provider of Pandalytics, which provides data and insights on the domain and hosting market, used anonymized data from its name suggestion service for the study conducted to benefit the internet community.

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Key Findings Include:

• The number of people searching for a domain increased by 37 percent in May 2021 compared to search volume in May 2020.
• People are using fewer queries to search; the number of people who searched more than six times decreased by 26 percent.
• Users tend to search for domains with a certain number of words consistently. About 75% search for domains made up of two or three words and they tend not to add additional words to increase their chances of finding an available .com domain to register.

Author of the report, Emiliano Pasqualetti, DomainsBot CEO and chief data scientist, comments, “We have noticed little user interest in increasing the odds of finding an available .com domain by searching for longer queries or more words than their original idea. It seems users tend to prefer shorter names, so it will be interesting to see the results from our next study on user response to shorter descriptive domains.”

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DomainsBot plans to conduct further research to answer questions, including: How many users register a descriptive domain if the .com equivalent is already registered? Do users accept descriptive domain suggestions when they can’t find an available .com name? Are more users looking to a secondary market?

Mina Neuberg, CMO of TrueName by Donuts Inc., a global leader in descriptive domains, says DomainsBot’s findings align with their observations. “Our clients don’t want longer domain names that are more difficult to remember, are less representative of their business name and brand, and are often inaccurate (people compromise and choose misspelled words). Modern entrepreneurs are open to using more meaningful and shorter descriptive domains such as .agency, .business, or .live that are better for their online identity. They also want options, which are limited with the more relevant and memorable .coms increasingly bought up. Here’s how this might play out— emily.salon vs. emilyhairsalon.com, or more likely having to settle for an available .com—emilyhairsalon-seattle.com.”

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