We Made a Video About Bad Domain Names 17 Years Ago. People Are Still Making the Same Mistakes.

Choosing a domain name feels simple until you realize how many businesses have quietly made embarrassing — or even reputation-killing — mistakes by not thinking it through. Your URL is on your business card, your truck, your invoices, and every piece of marketing you put out. It deserves more than five minutes of thought.

Here’s what to consider before you lock one in.

Read it without the capital letters first

This is the most common mistake, and it’s brutal when it happens. Domain names don’t have spaces, so what looks perfectly clear when you type it with capitals can read as something completely different in all lowercase. Before you register anything, write it out in all lowercase and read it cold — ideally have someone else read it too, without telling them what it’s supposed to say.

We made a video on exactly this problem 17 years ago — Top 10 Worst Website Names — and it’s become one of our most-watched pieces of content for a reason. It’s a lightly comedic take on a genuinely serious issue: real businesses, real domain names, and cringe-worthy results that nobody caught before launch. We filmed it nearly two decades ago and somehow it’s more relevant now than ever — because the internet has only gotten more crowded and the stakes of getting your name wrong have only gotten higher. Watch it before you register anything.

Keep it short enough to actually type

If someone has to look at your business card to type your URL correctly, it’s too long. A good rule of thumb: if you can’t say it out loud in one breath and have someone write it down correctly, trim it. Aim for 15 characters or fewer if possible. Every extra word is a chance for a typo, a misremembering, or someone giving up and Googling you instead.

That’s not always a disaster — but you want people going directly to your site, not landing on a competitor’s ad in the search results first.

Make sure it’s easy to spell

Avoid words people commonly misspell. Avoid creative spellings that seem clever in a logo but confuse everyone in practice — “Kustomz,” “Xpresz,” “Biz” in place of “Business.” When you tell someone your website out loud, they need to be able to spell it correctly on the first try. If you find yourself saying “it’s spelled with a K, not a C” every time — that’s a problem you’ll be managing forever.

Also avoid hyphens. They’re confusing to say out loud (“is it a hyphen or a dash?”), easy to forget when typing, and they signal to search engines that a domain might be lower quality.

Make sure it’s memorable

Memorable doesn’t mean clever. It means someone can hear your URL once and recall it a week later when they actually need you. Short, concrete, and specific beats long, vague, and generic every time. “BrooklynPlumbingPros.com” is more memorable than “FastAffordableReliablePlumbingServicesNY.com” — and it looks less desperate.

A good test: say your domain to someone, wait 24 hours, and ask them if they can recall it. If they can’t, it needs work.

Include your trade or location if you can

For a local service business, having your trade and/or city in the domain name is a genuine SEO advantage. It signals to Google immediately what you do and where you do it. Something like “TexasRoofingCo.com” or “ChicagoElectricPro.com” tells the algorithm — and your customers — exactly what they need to know before they even click.

If your name is already taken with the city you want, try a neighboring area, a slightly different construction, or a .co extension before you settle for something generic.

Avoid numbers and special characters

Numbers create instant ambiguity — is it the numeral “4” or the word “four”? Is it “1st” or “first”? Every time you share your URL verbally, you have to clarify. Same goes for ampersands, underscores, or any character that requires explanation. Keep it clean: letters only.

Check it across social media handles too

Before you register, search the name on Instagram, Facebook, and Google. Ideally your domain name, your business name, and your social handles all match — or are close enough that there’s no confusion. If someone else already owns “@YourBusinessName” on Instagram with a big following, you’re going to have a brand confusion problem that gets harder to solve the longer you wait.

Own the .com if at all possible

.com is still the default assumption when someone types a URL from memory. .net, .co, and .io have their place — but if someone hears your URL and types it from memory, they’re adding .com automatically. If you own a .net and someone else owns the .com of your name, you’re sending traffic to a competitor every time someone makes the natural assumption.

If the .com you want is taken, it’s usually worth modifying the name slightly to get the .com rather than settling for an alternate extension.

Do a quick trademark check

Before you build a brand around a domain, run a basic search on the USPTO website (USPTO.gov) to make sure you’re not inadvertently using a name that’s already trademarked in your industry. It’s not a legal guarantee, but it catches obvious conflicts before you’ve invested in business cards, signage, and a full website build.

The bottom line

Your domain name is one of those decisions that feels small at the time and becomes very hard to change later. Once it’s on your truck, your cards, and your Google listing — it’s yours. Spend an hour on it. Read it out loud, read it in lowercase, share it with a few people, and sleep on it. The mistakes that end up in videos like our Top 10 Worst Website Names — a lighthearted look at this very real problem that we made 17 years ago and people are still sharing today — were all avoidable with five extra minutes of thought.

Need help choosing a domain or building your site? Talk to Bag of Apples →