What’s a domain?

I can explain you what is a domain form a technical point of view, from the vulgus point of view, and an analogy with a piece of land

• from a technical point of view, a domain is the website’s name address on the internet, like onez.com, that helps your browser find the website by turning the name into a number (IP address) using DNS.
• from a simpler definition, a domain is the website name address that you type into the browser’s address bar to visit a website, like onez.com and it’s owned like real estate on the internet.
• Analogy with a piece of land – Think of a domain as owning a piece of land on the internet. You can build whatever you want on it: a house, a store, a shopping mall, a village, a town, a city, an entire country, like Portugal, a continent… like the Caribbean Islands or Africa, or even the entire World
  You could also focus on a specific niche, like just the the beaches, the golf courses, the city center, the stores in the city center, or even all the stores in every city center of your favorite cities.
  Everything you create on this land comes in the form of information, where people can virtually visit and interact with it. While it may not engage all the senses, like smell, you can use descriptive language to evoke it. Now Imagine: you are in the beach, your feet are in warm sand, you’re looking at the ocean with big waves, and the ocean breeze wraps around you with a smell of freshness.
  This is a domain—the land where you position your story in the world of the internet, accessible to anyone searching for something through a keyword. (I’m writing about ‘what is a keyword’ in another article and will link it soon.)

Now, let’s give it a different analogy from a business point of view. Owning a domain is like playing Monopoly. Imagine you buy a piece of land and start building houses on it. Every time someone lands on your property, they pay you. The more houses (or valuable content and services) you have, the more money you can earn. In the online world, your domain is that land, and everything you develop on it—like blogs, stores, or tools—attracts visitors, which can turn into revenue… if a business model is applied.

Why are domains valued?

Like said before, domains are like real estate, but more scarce. Domains are so unique that unique words with the most valuable extension (.com) hold high value. Domains serve as the digital address of a website, as well as branding, marketing, and accessibility tools. They create brand recognition, offer SEO advantages, and some are seen as high-value investment assets.

What factors add value to a domain?

The value of a domain depends on the combination of several factors, namely:

• Extension – .com’s are the most valuable… second most valuable are .co.au, with approximately 5% of the value of a .com;
• Number of words – One-word dictionary words hold more value than two-word domains… three-word domains don’t hold much value;
• Brandability – If a set of words can create a memorable brand, it adds value to the domain as a brand;

If you can combine all these characteristics in one domain, then you’ve found a gem for your next big webproject!

… and uniqueness

.com Domains with 4, 3… or even 2 letters are the most unique. If a domain has only letters (no numbers, no dashes), and even better if it forms a readable word…

• Four-letter domains – With no numbers or slashes, brandable and memorable four-letter domains are highly sought after by investors, only 456, 76 existing domains;
• Three-letter domains – Just like the four-letter domains, but much better… absolutely unique, only 17, 576 existing domains!
• Two-letter domains – Extremely exclusive, only 676 existing domains!
• One-letter domains – Only the most exclusive buyers can afford one… only 26 existing domains, like “rocket scientist” who owns x.com

… and why do domain with 3 words lose value as a brand?

Confoundability—imagine a name like CityBusiness, which can easily be confused with BusinessCity. We can consider both versions, but one is always the proper way to refer to it, like LisbonProperty.com.

Now, let’s apply the same logic to a three-word domain. If you have three distinct words, the number of possible sequences (permutations) is: 3! = 3 × 2 × 1 = 6.”

If you’re curious about other domains we have in development, take a look at our web development pipeline projects.