What makes a good domain name?

A domain name is the first thing people see of your site, and often the only thing they remember. It goes on business cards, in podcasts and in conversations, so it has to survive being heard, typed and recalled. Some names do that effortlessly. Others fight you every time.

Here's what separates them.

Short beats long

Every extra letter is another chance to mistype or forget. Names under about ten characters (before the ending) are easiest; past fifteen they start to feel like a sentence. That doesn't mean a long name can't work, but it has to earn its length by being very clear.

Real words beat invented ones

A name made of everyday words is easy to spell after hearing it once: coffee.com, sparechange.co.nz, learn.online. Invented names can become great brands, but they cost more to establish, because nobody knows how to spell them until they've seen them a few times.

One or two words is the sweet spot. Three can work if they read naturally. Past that, people start dropping words.

The ending matters, but not the way you think

.com is still the most valued ending in the world, and country endings like .co.nz and .nz carry real trust for a local audience. But a newer ending isn't automatically a cheap one. What matters is how it works with the name in front of it:

learn.online reads as "learn online". The ending finishes the phrase.
photo.studio is about exactly what the ending says.
pla.net spells "planet" across the dot.

A made-up name on a newer ending gets no such help. We wrote more about this in .com, .online or .co.nz: does the ending matter?

What takes value off

Hyphens. best-cheap-shoes.com is hard to say out loud ("best dash cheap dash...") and easy to confuse with the version without hyphens.
Numbers mixed into words. Is it "4" or "four"? People will guess wrong.
Hard-to-say letter runs. If you can't say it, people can't recommend it.
Sitting on a subdomain. shop.example.com belongs to example.com, and feels like it.
Words that mean money. Not a penalty: names with words people search and spend on (shop, travel, insurance, coffee) are worth a little more.

How URL Cards grades a domain

Every card on URL Cards has a domain grade, from S (premium) to D, worked out from the name alone. Three parts make up the score:

The ending, judged with the name (30%)
Length (30%)
Words: how many, and how everyday they are (40%)

Then the penalties and bonuses above adjust it. The domain counts for 35% of a card's overall rating, more than anything else, because we think a good name is one of the best assets a site can have.

The grade is a judgement, not a price. It doesn't know a domain's age, its history, how often it's searched, or trademarks. But it's a fair first look, and you can see every reason on the card's Domain appraisal panel.