# Question about a domain name? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 2, 2014, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200 "2014-10-02T18:07:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![spectoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@spectoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spectoris)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200/1 "2014-10-02T18:07:06Z")
I was wondering if it really matters if a domain name nowadays is too long. I am about to build a website for my dad, who is an Addiction Medicine doctor. His business is called Recovery Options LTD. The problem is that [recoveryoptions.com](http://recoveryoptions.com) is taken, is considered a premium website, and someone is just sitting on it (probably a squatter) who wants $7,508.00 for it. Well, that really sucks and we are not going to pay that much. So, I think [recoveryoptionsltd.com](http://recoveryoptionsltd.com) is available but I am just not sure I like the look of it and it does not seem very simple to me. But my question is, is [recoveryoptionsofchampaign.com](http://recoveryoptionsofchampaign.com) too long for a domain name or does it not matter as much anymore. I am just really conflicted, but I want to get this site going. From everything I read, you want to stick with a .com. That is the reason I have not explored any other extensions. Although, .org and .net are also taken. Does anybody have any suggestions on what I should do. This process is somewhat new to me. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200/2 "2014-10-02T18:36:23Z")
Not too long. Go for it! You might also consider [rochampaign.com](http://rochampaign.com) and [recoveryoptionsillinois.com](http://recoveryoptionsillinois.com) and all sorts of others. But no, that is definitely not too long. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200/3 "2014-10-02T18:42:59Z")
I had the same problem. My company was “Flaming River,” but someone already had it, so I had to change it to “Flaming River Art,” leading to “[flamingriverart.com](http://flamingriverart.com).” The only time it’s awkward is when someone verbally asks for my web address. Oh, and someday, when I have time, I’ll actually have a “flamingriverart” website. ---
**Author:** ![Stealth\_Potato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Stealth\_Potato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Potato)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200/4 "2014-10-02T18:44:28Z")
I’d say it’s getting up there in length – certainly, you wouldn’t want to go longer. But if I were you, I would go ahead and register “recoveryoptionsltd” immediately, since that is actually the full name of his business. You can always register more if you think of a shorter or catchier one that happens to be available. Also, if you want my advice, use [Gandi](http://www.gandi.net/) as your registrar (and not, for example, GoDaddy). GoDaddy is a crapfest. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200/5 "2014-10-02T19:11:49Z")
Mostly people find websites through Google and other search sites now, rather than typing in the URL themselves. So for the most part, the long length of a domain name doesn’t matter. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200/6 "2014-10-02T19:13:13Z")
Camelcasing the name in all promotional presentation helps - e.g. [www.JacksonPublicLibraryFoundation.org](http://www.JacksonPublicLibraryFoundation.org). Go for [www.RecoveryOptionsLTD.com](http://www.RecoveryOptionsLTD.com). ---
**Author:** ![spectoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@spectoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spectoris)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200/7 "2014-10-02T19:19:08Z")
Thanks everyone for the reply. The advice really helps. ---
**Author:** ![spectoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@spectoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spectoris)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200/8 "2014-10-02T19:30:10Z")
Also, about where to register the domain. We actually use [bluehost.com](http://bluehost.com) My Dad’s also has another business for DUI counseling. We are actually closing it down but the business does have a site that is hosted by [bluehost.com](http://bluehost.com). We are just going to add another domain to the account. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200/9 "2014-10-02T19:58:20Z")
Whatever you do, get your own domains name directly from a domain name registrar. And sign up for it using a real, reachable email address that you plan on having for a long time. Do not let your Web host get your domain name for you and do NOT use a throwaway email address for it. I’ve spent hours on the phone trying to wrangle domain names back from various stupid web hosts, and counseling clients who can’t get their lost domains back because they haven’t used that email address in years. Don’t set yourself up for doom. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200/10 "2014-10-02T20:03:30Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I’ve spent hours on the phone trying to wrangle domain names back from various stupid web hosts, and counseling clients who can’t get their lost domains back because they haven’t used that email address in years. Don’t set yourself up for doom. +1 of this. I registered a domain back in the day on a lark, that I still technically own until 2016, but can’t do anything with because I no longer have access to that email address. (I suppose with wrangling I could get it back, but it’s not really worth it to me at this point). ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200/11 "2014-10-02T20:29:09Z")
This one is available: [recovery-options-ltd.com](http://recovery-options-ltd.com) ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200/12 "2014-10-02T20:35:23Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Whatever you do, get your own domains name directly from a domain name registrar. And sign up for it using a real, reachable email address that you plan on having for a long time. > > Do not let your Web host get your domain name for you and do NOT use a throwaway email address for it. +1000, especially on the underlying notion of using a quality web registrar AND THEN a separate host. Do NOT let GoDaddy, NetSol or any lower-tier all-in-one provider do it all for you. You Will Be Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200/13 "2014-10-02T21:32:50Z")
I prefer the Hyphens of Duckster. Still, in your case I’d choose another, non-confusable, url entirely. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200/14 "2014-10-02T23:57:55Z")
If you don’t want to have the exact corporate name (or maybe you will want to have that, but not use it), why not look for a shorter name that describes the business? I might go for a combination of that w/ the geo aspect of the long name you chose. What I mean is, I don’t even know what a “recovery option” is. You say it’s addiction medicine. OK. The first thing I thought of was financial. Thought maybe it was a debt collector or unclaimed property database or something. Now I know it’s addiction medicine. Why not Recoverydoctorchampaign or Addictionrecoverychampaign, Addictionrecoveryoptions, Champaignaddictionhelp. I’m more into getting brand names than keyword names at this point in time, but your brand name is taken. I have a lot of clients who use geo/KW domains that have done well. Some are kind of long. like: DUILawyerTimbuktuCOuntydotcom, instead of GoldSilverandSMithAttorneysatlawdotcom (or they might just with with GGSLawdotcom) -Maybe even ROChampaigndotcom -Haven’t checked if any of these are actual sites, just examples. And why not DrDoctorsNamedotcom ? I wouldn’t use hyphens. I have 1 hyphenated domain, but it was 10+ years ago when I made it. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2014, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200/15 "2014-10-03T00:02:43Z")
> [@Stealth\_Potato](#): > > I’d say it’s getting up there in length – certainly, you wouldn’t want to go longer. But if I were you, I would go ahead and register “recoveryoptionsltd” immediately, since that is actually the full name of his business. You can always register more if you think of a shorter or catchier one that happens to be available. I agree with this. I have my business names registered even if I don’t use them. I have SomethingAnotherthingIncdotcom registered, but I use SomethingKeyworddotcom for my site. The registration price of a domain is so low, I wouldn’t think twice about securing “extras” for any legitimate business. I have 100s sitting around myself. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2014, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200/16 "2014-10-03T00:27:15Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Whatever you do, get your own domains name directly from a domain name registrar. And sign up for it using a real, reachable email address that you plan on having for a long time. Who are the best domain name registrars? ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2014, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200/17 "2014-10-03T01:17:03Z")
My own are **[NameAlerts](http://namealerts.com/)**. Fairly basic, since that’s all they do; but doing it well. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2014, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200/18 "2014-10-03T02:02:43Z")
> [@Pai325](#): > > Who are the best domain name registrars? Personally/professionally I have always used GoDaddy, for about 10 years or more now. Hundreds of domain names. I have never had one single problem with them as a registrar. I used to use weird-ass fly-by-night registrars and they weren’t a hassle, they just felt skeevy. Network Solutions is just fine too, I just never used them because they were always hella expensive. GoDaddy as a host is so-so if you want to host your tiny pamphlet-like site there for a couple bucks a month. They don’t seem any better or worse than any other company. I even have a couple clients using their secure certificates (once again, price). GoDaddy’s virtual servers are absolute shit. Like they physically are poor machines. Running my own server with them was a nightmare and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. But I’ve got no problem with them as a registrar. And I think their support and sales is very good. You just gotta be able to click though all the “add-ons” as you check out. I am in the web design & hosting business since 1999, FWIW. ---
**Author:** ![Ornery\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@Ornery\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ornery_Bob)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2014, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200/19 "2014-10-03T03:32:48Z")
I’ll throw in a couple of cents for your consideration… Some basic marketing ideas would be… how do you expect people to find the website and what do you expect to have happen once they do? If you expect your traffic to come from search engines, then I would say that these days, the domain name is essentially irrelevant. I still follow the old school guidelines of sticking to com net and org top levels and avoiding excessive hyphens, but that’s about as far as I go with worrying about domains because Google is going to crawl your site and decide for itself what it’s about and where to rank it based on your content, not your domain name. If you’re going to be driving traffic with ads, the same thing holds true as you can build an ad to point anywhere regardless of the ad copy. It’s easy to see how in many cases, the way that a domain name “looks” is irrelevant because people are clicking on a search engine result link or an ad and the domain names in those links are essentially invisible to the people clicking them. How a domain name sounds, on the other hand can make a difference if you’re trying to point callers to a website. The spoken phrase “recovery options ltd dot com” is easy to say and easy to understand over the phone. Another consideration is branding. Is the company name really the important message? Is there a results oriented name that better describes what you do or who you are? In marketing, we say, don’t sell the shoes, sell the happiness they bring. How is your site going to benefit the people who go there? The domain name could reflect that. Or is there an existing brand to build on? Or maybe doctorspectoris dot com is the way to go because what makes your dad’s practice most important is him, or his guidance of others. Take your best shot and live with it. I look after about 60 domains, on many different web hosting services, but I have all of the domain names registered with the Daddy. Easy peasy and I have confidence they’ll be around tomorrow. So +1 to ZipperJJ. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2014, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-a-domain-name/700200/20 "2014-10-03T04:19:47Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Personally/professionally I have always used GoDaddy, for about 10 years or more now. Hundreds of domain names. I have never had one single problem with them as a registrar. > > I used to use weird-ass fly-by-night registrars and they weren’t a hassle, they just felt skeevy. > > Network Solutions is just fine too, I just never used them because they were always hella expensive. > > GoDaddy as a host is so-so if you want to host your tiny pamphlet-like site there for a couple bucks a month. They don’t seem any better or worse than any other company. I even have a couple clients using their secure certificates (once again, price). > > GoDaddy’s virtual servers are absolute shit. Like they physically are poor machines. Running my own server with them was a nightmare and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. > > But I’ve got no problem with them as a registrar. And I think their support and sales is very good. You just gotta be able to click though all the “add-ons” as you check out. > > I am in the web design & hosting business since 1999, FWIW. I never had a technical problem with GoDaddy either, but their ethics are absolute shit. They supported Internet censorship, barely backing down when confronted by thousands of websites, their founder goes around shooting elephants for fun, and they make a bunch of trashy sexual ads to market their services. They also randomly shut down sites for various reasons, often without warning. Basically, support them if you want the world to become a shittier place. > **[GoDaddy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Daddy#Controversies)** > > GoDaddy Inc. is an American publicly traded Internet domain registry, domain registrar and web hosting company headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2023,\[update\] GoDaddy is the world's fifth largest web host by market share, with over 62 million registered domains. The company has around 21 million customers: 5  and over 6,900 employees worldwide.: 13  > GoDaddy was founded in 1997 in Phoenix, Arizona, by entrepreneur Bob Parsons. Prior to founding GoDaddy, Parsons ...