What is more important for the domain name length or readability?

The length of the domain name is important, but it is no more important than readability, experts say. Yes, short domains help to improve SEO-indicators, but in the conditions of growing popularity of social networks this can hardly be considered the most important criterion.

Experts note that domain names are becoming longer with time, like domain zones. A vivid example is the domains corresponding to the names of cities (.amsterdam, .hamburg, etc.). Compared to shorter domain zones for other cities (.nyc for New York and .bcn for Barcelona), long TLDs are more popular and in high demand.

Why?

Nowadays the domain length is not so important as it used to be. This is partly due to the peculiarities of user behavior: people do not often enter site addresses manually. In 2012, most users came to the Internet from computers and laptops, and 69% of Internet users regularly entered domain names in the address bar. By 2016, smartphones have become very popular, and the number of users who are accustomed to entering site addresses has almost halved. In addition, 95% of participants in the global survey noted that they condemn the ranking of sites by search engines on the length of the domain.

Therefore, experts argue that the readability and recognizability of domains is much more important than their length. For example, the domain windmill.amsterdam will appeal to users more than wml.ams, because for a longer domain you can easily guess the purpose of the site.

Of course, you can not say that the length of the domain is not important at all. For example, if the domain name does not fit on the screen of the smartphone, it will not be easy to read (therefore the domain length should not exceed 30-40 characters).

Thus, when choosing a domain for your site, do not rush to drop "too long" options. Think first of all about readability. How will the domain look on the screen of the smartphone? Do I need to add a couple of hyphens, or will this make the domain unreadable? Such questions will certainly help to choose a good domain name for a modern website.