There are so many different websites out there, and quite a few have rather unconventional names and still do rather well for themselves.

So, how important would you say a domain name is in the overall scheme of things?

Do you consider it one of the most important factors, and just an overvalued one?

I personally consider it rather important, but unessential if you can find other ways of attracting good traffic.

Thoughts everyone?

I think you should at least put as much time into naming your site, esp. for a business as you would in naming your child. You don't want to have a ton of people mispronouncing it, or spelling it wrong, and you don't *usually* want to be made fun of with the name either.

Have you ever tried to remember, Google's IP address? If you do memorize it, do you use it to go to their site?

I guess I'm just bein a smarta**, but what I'm getting at is that domains are very important.

you want something easy to remember, otherwise you may as well just give the customer your IP address to remember.

For example:

thisisadomainnamethatisfartoolongtoorememberandwil lprobablyloseyoualotofbusiness.com

While:
buymycrap.com is a lot easier than the above, or even 156.366.31.75

My experience with this (as limited as it may be), is having a very relative keyword in your domain name is essential for turning up in the search engines. I think it helps people to remember your site's name too.

However, branded names that are off the wall are fun to work with and once you start ranking well for something, word of mouth and media networking will get you going quite handsomely.

An example of a site name that's totally off topic to it's content is TheOnion.com.

Onions really do not have anything in common with the site's categories of:
(as google indexes the site)
Sports
Video
Entertainment Politics
Local
Celebrity Launches Own-Breasts ...
More results from theonion.com »

The site is successful and has a huge readership. So, it goes to show, you just may be able to make a silk purse from a sow's ear!

A domain can make or break your company.

If you can get type-in traffic, that is a big help. Easy to remember domains make easy sales.

He made a very good point there, lol. I don't think it is 'the' most important thing, though. It should be given thought and use a keyword or two, but it's not going to break a company if you have to go with thisismynameplural or this-is-my-name vs thisismyname. It might be slightly harder to remember, but it's still totally doable. If you have a great domain name and a crappy business, though, then it won't really matter, so don't get 'too' hung up on it.

Of course I understand the importance of a domain name, but that is far from the only thing to take into consideration when it comes to your success.

Naturally, you want to pick the best name you can. We all want a name that's short and memorable, but let's face it...plenty of people DO NOT have that, and still find a way to carve a niche for themselves.

I just don't think that a name(within reason) has to necessarily spell doom for a website.

buymycrap.com... I like it. I would make sure that it is short easy to remember and somehow relates to what you are trying to accomplish with it. Weird names get attention but if your site doesn't have the content to keep them coming the greatest name in the world won't save your site. Selecting a great name is a great start but you can't stop there.

My husband has a t-shirt from his favorite game shop (you can rent projection screens to play on a huge screen or have a gaming party on one of multiple platforms) that says "happiness resides at (ip address here) across the chest and the logo across the back. Sad to say many of their customers probably do have the IP memorized. But geeks will be geeks.

I do think a good domain makes up at least 1/3 of you image and draw. People are drawn to good domains and catchy names. Doesn't mean they will buy or visit often, but you'll get them in the door at least (so to speak).

It means much for bots.

A domain name is important, but only so far. So long as the domain name a) relates to whatever the website is about and b) is not to long and relatively easy to remember then you are set.