Key takeaways:

• 63% of consumers have chosen not to trust or purchase from a business based on its domain name.
• Men appear slightly more sensitive to domains: 66% have decided not to trust or purchase based on domain.
• Younger consumers (73%) are substantially more likely to avoid a brand because of its domain name.
• Domain impacts trust and purchase behavior for a majority of all consumer demographics surveyed.

Objective: Domain names play a key role in building credibility online and a range of factors, including length, spelling, and domain extension as well as the presence of unexpected characters (hyphens or numbers) can impact consumer trust. To give brands a clear measure of the impact of domains, we asked a simple question: have consumers ever chosen not to purchase from a business because of its domain?

Question:

Have you ever decided not to trust or purchase from a business because of its domain name or website URL?

• Yes
• No
• Not sure/don’t recall

Audience:

A representative panel of American consumers aged 18 – 64.

Overall Results

• 63% of consumers have chosen not to trust or purchase from a business based on its domain name

Have you ever decided not to trust or purchase from a business because of its domain name or website URL?

Gender Breakdown

• Men appear slightly more sensitive to domains: 66% have decided not to trust or purchase based on domain.
• For women, 60% haven’t made a purchase due to domain.

Men

Have you ever decided not to trust or purchase from a business because of its domain name or website URL?

Women

Have you ever decided not to trust or purchase from a business because of its domain name or website URL?

Age Breakdown

• Younger consumers are substantially more likely to avoid a brand because of its domain name — 73% have purchased from a business because of its domain name.
• 55 – 64s are less sensitive to domain, but more than half (55%) have had domain name impact trust and purchase behaviour.

18 – 34

Have you ever decided not to trust or purchase from a business because of its domain name or website URL?

35 – 54

Have you ever decided not to trust or purchase from a business because of its domain name or website URL?

55 – 64

Have you ever decided not to trust or purchase from a business because of its domain name or website URL?

Conclusion

For a majority of consumers across all demographics, domain name impacts trust — and can stop a customer from an online purchase. While every brand needs to consider how their domain name builds trust and credibility online, we also found that younger consumers are more sensitive to trust. Brands can dig deep into how domain extensions and powerful single-English-words might impact audience perception online when brainstorming, validating, and investing in names and domains.

If you’re interested in digging deeper into our findings, or asking your own questions on domain choice and branding topics, contact thom@atomradar.com to learn more.

Further Reading

• Must-Read Insights on Domain Names Backed by Deep Audience Research
• The Revenue Loss Impact of a Bad Domain: 84% of Serial Entrepreneurs say Weak Domains Cost 15% of Annual Revenue, Every Year
• How Weak Domains Harm Brands: Founders and Serial Entrepreneurs on the Real-World Impact of a Bad Domain Name

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About The Author

Thom Davies

Thom is lead researcher at AtomRadar and content strategist for Atom.com.

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