Domain Names Still Important Despite Search Engine Popularity

August 2004

A common belief is that search engines like Google make specific web addresses, that is, Internet domain names, relatively unimportant. “That is not true,” asserts psychologist Susan D. Griffith, Ph.D. “As in other areas of branding, names are everything, and memorable names on the Internet are more important than ever before.”

“A wonderful feature of the Internet is that web addresses are accessible by letters and words. There is no need for an Internet directory, that is, a search engine, when we can remember the name of the place we want to visit on the Internet,” Griffith remarks.

All businesses need targeted, memorable web addresses this century, but most businesses don’t have them, maintains a psychologist who studies effective use of the Internet. “All businesses today are online businesses, whether sales take place via the Internet or not. All businesses today need web addresses just as much as they need telephone numbers, and good, memorable web addresses are more important than ever.”