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Picking a domain name: do I trust my gut feeling or the data on this one?
Posted by on December 13, 2025 at 2:09 pmOk, here is a hypothetical scenario*:
Let's say I own an air conditioning company. We have a solution to a problem called "acoustic leakage". This is a term installers in the industry use frequently. This is the type of problem that when at an air conditioning conference, there will always be one attendee who will ask about the conference about the "acoustic leakage" problem. This is the type of problem where, at the bar after the event, installers will say most of their air conditioning ducting installations are trouble-free except for, you guessed it, the "acoustic leakage" problem.
My firm offers a solution to the "acoustic leakage" problem. So, it might make sense to setup up a domain name called acousticleakage dot com. However, ChatGPT says the search volume for this term is way too low. Instead, ChatGPT recommends I marry a high-volume search term to this one. So, it's making recommendations like "airconditioningacoustics dot com" and "ductingacoustics dot com".
My gut feeling is screaming that acousticleakage dot com should be used. However, I am totally aware that in 6 months time I could be cursing my gut feeling. My gut feeling is also saying that using airconditioniningacoustics dot com is crazy because actual installers and solution providers don't use this term in real life.
But what term would you use?
(\I don't work in the air conditioning industry, but this problem very closely represents a very similar issue in my own industry, which is IT )*
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1 Reply
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My advice is do the keyword research and go with the volume. Just because it’s phrased in conversation doesn’t mean it translates to search. IMO.
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If I was advising the co, I’d first suggest to just make a page on their website targeting that offering instead of a separate site altogether.
If for whatever reason the separate site made more sense (like a separate biz under the same company), then I’d pick the domain based on how brandable/memorable it is, not based on the search volume. I’d only choose an EMD if it overlapped 100% with the branding goals
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Why don’t you check the search volume of the keyword? Use google ad planner and google trends to compare both.
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Your domain can be steaminglizardfeces .com and it won’t matter as long as you aim the page titles, slugs and headings at your buyers intent.
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Acoustic leakage sounds like you piss yourself when the bass drops
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Domain name isn’t too important for search.
It doesn’t matter even if search volume is low.
Important is company name or domain name can differential you from the competition and let customer recognise your brand easily.I will search a lot before finalising my domain name.
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Over a decade in SEO. Couple of things:
1. Kw volume is rarely accurate. If semrush isn’t able to determine search volume there little value to the chat data.
2. Is the product targeted at business owners or homeowners? If homeowners, they might not know the term. If business owners yes the domain makes sense.
3. Consider your DBA as well as the domain. If you change the DBA you can update your Google Business name and improve local search performance too.
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Homeowners will never search this term. They’ll search “why is my ac so loud” or “how to fix ductwork making rumbling noises”.
Don’t get lost in the weeds. If it’s geared towards homeowners/non-IT folks I’d just add a page to your website that talks all about it using all the phrases people would use to search it.
If it’s geared towards IT folks and you have a solution to that specific term that is not locally limited – sure you won’t get high search volume on that term, but those that do search it are looking for exactly what you sell. You don’t need to sell 10k of them per month. Likely selling a few would be phenomenal so traffic of a few dozen or few hundred per month is adequate.
And who says you can’t do both? 🤷♂️
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Use as less. Letters as possible, come up with shorter form no. Longer than 5 letters
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Domains are like 12€ per year get both
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