Website Domain Extension Opinions
2

Question

Website Domain Extension Opinions

Terratek (Geotechnical)

(OP)

27 Oct 15 03:34

I am working on a website for a business that provides primarily engineering services (geotech, civil, structural and MEP) for light commercial, worship and residential projects. The company will also be capable of providing architecture through partnering with one of its own principals who is a PE and a registered architect, although the main focus will be engineering (for now, at least). Considering most of the engineering disciplines will already be represented, I don't think the company will get much business from other engineering firms, although I wouldn't rule it out.

The domain extension of .com following the company name is already taken. But there are so many domain extensions available that is not a problem. I am trying to decide if .engineer or .design (both are valid domain extensions) would be the best way to go. So the website would be www.XXXX.design or www.XXXX.engineeer. Emails would be name@XXXX.design or name@XXXX.engineer.

"Design" pretty much encompasses the whole thing except for geotech and "engineer" pretty much encompasses the whole thing except architecture. I'm also afraid "design" might imply unlicensed, which that is not the case.

Just looking for opinions on which might be the best to use and why.

MacGyverS2000 (Electrical) · Answer 1 · 2015-10-27 13:03:38

If I'm looking for "blah", what do you think I'm more likely to type into my address bar, blah.com or blah.design/blah.engineer ?

I doubt anyone here would suggest anything other than blah.com

Sub-domains are for when you already have a solid lock on the .com

Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

zdas04 (Mechanical) · Answer 2 · 2015-10-27 13:29:33

While extensions longer than 3 characters are allowed, some programs have outsmarted themselves and truncate the extension to 3 characters. I would look at .pro or .biz if I was you.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist

TehMightyEngineer (Structural) · Answer 3 · 2015-10-27 14:39:18

XXXXX.eng would be interesting and standout but I agree with Dan that you might lose a few emails to people typing XXXXX.com

Professional and Structural Engineer (ME, NH)
American Concrete Industries
www.americanconcrete.com

IRstuff (Aerospace) · Answer 4 · 2015-10-27 14:41:46

Seems to me that we're on the cusp of not needing to care about that anymore. I've often typed, blah.com for some company, only to find that it was indeed taken by someone else, and I wound up having to Google the correct URL. As more companies create a web presence, the need to Google someone will increase, possibly to the point where typing a URL by hand will become retro. There are sites I use all the time where I have to log in, and my password minder has the URLs, so for half of them, I don't even remember the "blah" part of the URL, much less whether it's .com or .net or whatever.

TTFN
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Terratek (Geotechnical) · Answer 5 · 2015-10-27 16:00:42

As I stated, the '.com' extension is not an option as it is already taken.

Being in the AEC industry, I don't expect the website to be a huge factor in the business - more of a prerequisite to appear legitimate. I have considered the thing about emails and it does concern me. But if someone types .com, then there will still be a problem if it is .biz or .pro. Although the .pro extension lends interest. The new list of available extensions is only a year or two old and I think the near future will see a proliferation of new extension use. I agree with IRstuff that the concern of the dominant .com extension will disappear just like the relevance of having a company name start with letter "A" just to get at the front of the yellow page listings.

I suppose I could do XXXXeng.com or something similar, but I think that is prone to similar issues as using an alternative domain extension.

zdas04 (Mechanical) · Answer 6 · 2015-10-27 16:12:35

I have 45 clients in my database. The first 3 years they were all people I knew while working for a salary. The last 9 years every single new client (about 35 clients) has either found me through a Google search that found my web page or someone liking a post I made at eng-tips.com and following the link in my signature to my web page, liking what they saw and contacting me. Without my web page I don't think I would still be in business. What I'm trying to say is that in my business my web site is a major factor in the company's success.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist

drawoh (Mechanical) · Answer 7 · 2015-10-27 16:29:04

Terratek,

I would be careful with new domains. A lot of them are dominated by scam artists, and are blocked by security filters. Why can you not just tweak the name of your company to create a unique domain under .com? Try sticking the word "engineering" at the end of your domain.

--
JHG

Terratek (Geotechnical) · Answer 8 · 2015-10-27 16:45:46

Okay, say the company name can be augmented in the URL to accomadate a .com extension. The company name is this long: XXXXXXXXX. So if I tag engineering on to the end, it will be quite long. for a URL and especially an email. Would it be better to add eng, or engineering,

(XXXXXXXXXengineering.com / XXXXXXXXXeng.com) or maybe something else? I have read that putting hyphens and having a url that is too long are not good.

I appreciate all the feedback.

zdas04 (Mechanical) · Answer 9 · 2015-10-27 16:52:06

Mine is Muleshoe-eng.com and few people type it (they find it in links). It is kind of unwieldy for e-mail addresses, but that hasn't been major.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist

TehMightyEngineer (Structural) · Answer 10 · 2015-10-28 19:24:58

If you do go long in the URL then keep it engineering. While it's more characters it is easier to say over the phone. The previous company I worked for had emails of first.last@XEPC.us where "XEPC" stood for XXXXXXX engineering professional company. This was great that we had a short URL but constantly having to spell it out phonetically over the phone was a huge pain. I often wished I could just say XXXXXXXengineeringprofessionalcompany.com rather than the shorter URL we had.

Professional and Structural Engineer (ME, NH)
American Concrete Industries
www.americanconcrete.com

Terratek (Geotechnical) · Answer 11 · 2015-10-28 19:33:15

Well, you guys have been very helpful. At first I was irritated that nobody would compare the two provided options, but I'm especially thankful to Drawoh for mentioning spam blocking of the new domain extensions. I did some google research and this appears to be true for many IT administrators. I need to make sure my emails get received.

And TME, very good point about the ease of speaking the domain name, albeit longer to type. I do believe I've settled on www.XXXXXXXXXengineering.com.

beej67 (Civil/Environmental) · Answer 12 · 2015-11-02 15:44:45

XXX-cityname.com

Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East - http://www.campbellcivil.com

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Website Domain Extension Opinions
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