: Are there any downsides to starting a domain name with a digit? In response to my domain name suggestion on meta, Kris said: Something about having a domain name begin with a digit just

@Murray432

Domain names containing numbers are cheaper for a reason.Numbers will confuse people with the spelling. Suppose you registered Example3.com visitors might mix it with ExampleThree.com then it will redirect to ExampleThree.com only (if this site is available in internet). For getting a good domain name in terms of accessibility you need to follow some factors given below

1.Domain name must be short.

2.Try to avoid too many '_' symbol in your domain name.

3.Get the domain name that related to your business or product or organization.

4.If you want to get the domain extension .com and that is not available means try to register the new domain with the other extension like .org, .info, .edu, etc.

After a choosing a good domain name check the availability of the name. If available means register it with a good domain registrar.

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@Phylliss660

Does it affect site ranks on search engines?


No, unless your target keywords are digits like 2, 8 or 100. But who use that keywords anyway?


Do you think people will be less likely to visit it?


Short answer is no, unless the URL is packed with random digits. That being said, depending on what kind languages your web site is for, some languages have very intriguing properties. In Chinese, 8 is a very good number, equals prosperity, and 51 means I want, that is why in artlung's list there are 58.com, 51job.com. In Chinese, those are very good name. BTW 630 means something even in other langues, does not it?


Is this just a programmer response, since most variable names can't start with a digit?


Negative, as far as I know.

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@Gretchen104

The notion that you can't start a domain name with a number is a holdover from previous internet best practices.

In the early days of the web, it was unacceptable to begin a domain name with a number. In many cases, it would be mistaken for the start of an IP address (e.g., 127.0.0.1).

Now, all hardware and software products worth purchasing are completely capable of handling domain names that begin with a number.

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@Radia820

RFC 952 says that hostnames should not have leading digits, but this is a document from 1985 and was superseded by RFC 1123 (section 2.1). The earlier rule against leading digits may be part of the reason some people prefer not to use them.

To address your questions though:


I doubt search engines would treat it differently, except as a bug condition
Not many people would choose to avoid a site based purely on the initial character
Any hesitation I've had has been as a result of the fact that an initial digit could also be starting an IP address (not anything to do with variables)

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@Dunderdale272

As of this moment, of the top 500 global sites according to Alexa internet, only 11 start with a digit. 2.2% only. So a digit-started domain name can get traffic.

Here's the list (please note: I have not looked at these sites to see if they are safe for work):


2ch.net
4399.com
58.com
2345.com
360.cn
1stcngame.com
39.net
51job.com
1133.cc
7k7k.com
1stwebgame.com


For some reason this question reminds me of E-Mail Addresses It Would Be Really Annoying to Give out over the Phone, which is very funny.

But seriously, any domain name can be successful. Look at woot.com and ebay.com and craigslist.org: ridiculous names; great, successful sites.

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@Murphy175

Big downside: Having to spell it to people vocally it's very ambiguous. This goes for having a number anywhere in the URL.

So many times I've heard radio advertisements for websites where they have to spell it out:

To take advantage of this great offer, just go to travelwithkidz.com.au - that's kids with a Z - very annoying for everyone involved.

Take for example, 2example.com

Tech Support: Go to 2example.com - that's the number two, not the letters two, so two the digit example.com

Grandma: It's not working

Tech Support: can you read back to me what you've got?

Grandma (slowly): tee-doubleyou-oh-tee-hach-eee-dee-eye-gee-eye-tee-eee-ex-aye-mmm-pee-ell-eee-dee-oh-tee-see-oh-emm (twothedigitdotcom)

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@Rivera981

Well, the people at 37signals or 7dana might disagree with that. If it makes sense to use a number at the start of the domain, use it. If not ... don't. I'd surely hate to type out one-hundred-and-one-dalmations, when 101dalmations would do just fine :)

I think the key here is to avoid nonsensical domains altogether, i.e. something like '303wee' when in fact you are selling designer handbags.

I don't think its going to effect your ranking any more or any less than any other bad name that did not start with a number. A bad name is just a bad name regardless.

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