Length of subdomain?

[Pornomutt]

Hello everyone! I love AWG. It's just like living in a small community, everyone is so friendly and willing to help out.

Anyhow, I'm looking for some advice on a character limit for a subdomain. I have one in mind that consists of 26 characters. When I look at it, it looks too long, so I figured I better get the experts opinion before putting it in stone.

[jizzbin]

Welcome to AWG Pornomutt.

As far as I know, a subdomain can be up to 64 characters by standard internet convention. I don't know of any technical penalties that occur by making a long subdomain name. There are visitor penalties however in that most people will not be able to properly remember a long subdomain if they decide to type it in. This is a small problem however as most people will probably get to your site via a link or through a bookmark.

Beyond that, it is up to you.

[PornStash]

Pornomutt,

Welcome to AWG. Glad to have you aboard.

There's really no hard and fast rule as far as how long is too long (in a domain name of course ). I'm not sure if TB has a max or not, and if so, I've never hit it. I assume you're asking in regards to SE's though, or perhaps surfer type ins, correct?

26 char does seem to be a bit long. Why not get it, and post it so we can see what you're asking about? You can always delete it later if you do not want it.

In a standard domain name, I'd say 26 is way too long - hard to remember and will never be typed in. I doubt most TB sites are typed in though.

PornStash

[NaughtyGirl]

I personlly do not think its to long! But you might not be able to traffic trade, being that the link wont fit in some scripts! But it you do hard link trades, then you should be just fine!

[scopemaster]

Actually, there are very definate rules for TLD and subdomain naming conventions. In fact they have been in place since 1987. These rules are contained in RFC 1034 and RFC 1035.

In short, full domain names cannot exceed 255 characters in length. Subdomains cannot exceed 63 characters, can only include alpha-numeric characters and dashes.

Now as far as the human factor of web surfers remembering the subdomain and typing it into the address bar, the longer the subdomain label, the larger the chance of them forgetting it, or mispelling it increases. Generally speaking, the shorter you can make a subdomain name the better. Especially if the subdomain is named using words or terms in the common language of your target audience.

For example:

new-cars.ford.com would be a better subdomain choice than brand-spanking-new-cars.ford.com.

[PornStash]

Scope,

You're right and I stand corrected when I said there is no hard and fast rule. After a bit of research I discovered.

Here's a related link that may be of interest:
Does the Length of a Domain Registration Affect Your Rank?

PornStash

[Pornomutt]

Thanx everybody for the help.

Does everyone think it is important for a thumblog subdomain to be easily remembered?

If I was looking for thumblogs, I would probably go to a sexblog directory and just click through links from there. I am not the pro here, but I would think that a long domain name for a thumblog doesn't really matter. If the site was a portal, then I would want an easy to remember domain name.

Am I correct in anyway with that statement?

[scopemaster]

Stash,

Thanks for the link. It makes for some excellent reading.

There is an excellent passage in that link that I think all new webmasters really need to read and take as gospel:

Expired domain name buyers are prevalent nowadays. If your domain name expires, there's a good chance that someone watching will register your domain name within seconds after it expires. If, for whatever reason, you don't renew your domain name, someone watching a 'watch list' of expiring domain names will try to capitalize on the online business that you've built over the years. They know that there is potential website traffic they can have simply by renewing your old domain name. By renewing your domain name for several years, your domain name won't expire for a while, and it won't be opened up to expired domain name buyers.

One of my clients did not keep up with his domain renewals like I told him too. As a result, last year he lost a domain that he had built up for over seven years. A domain squatter (which I personally consider to be scum of the earth) converted into an adsense page and refuses to sell the domain back to my client.

[NaughtyGirl]

Most people will not remember, you will get 1% maybe to remember, if that!
Depending on your blog will be my answer!

If you have and affiliate and your building for money then I say no it dont matter! Cause your basically building splogs!

Now if your making a personal blog deticated for something that you strongly have an act for then I say yes it does matter! Because you will be updating it daily or every chance you get!

[daedal]

I tend to go to the same sites lots of the time, because when I think of something I think of a domain. Long domains/sub domains are the ones I tend to forget, and I think many people are the same.

The shorter the better, unless it actually makes sense. for example makemoney.thumblogger.com isn't that hard to remember. But iwantomakelotsofmoney.thumblogger.com is harder to remember.

Another main factor is, if your traffic is going to be generated purely from directories then it makes no difference, but that does mean you risk losing a lot of passing trade because people don't generally like long names.

I visit a few blogs on a daily basis, I start typing them before using bookmarks, so for me personally even if its for a blog an shorter name still matters (especially because I can never be bothered scrolling through my bookmarks for a site, unless I really really need to visit it)