What if any are the benefits of short domain names?

[GrassRootsSEO]

What if any SEO/marketing benefit would there be to buy and use a short domain to redirect to posts on my site similar to bit.ly - for example if my site was "my website name" I could get mwn.so - is it really worth it at $25 a year...

[Nobody1560986989723]

I wouldn't think of having a short domain from an SEO perspective, but from a Marketing/Branding perspective. If you are building a brand, then the more times that people see that brand, be it a logo, a web address, a link, then the more memorable you become.

It takes people a good number of times seeing your name or your brand before they remember you without trying so anything you can do to increase that without being pushy is a good thing.

I think Google have goog.gl and SEOmoz have moz.cm (I think) and it is just an additional brand recognition thing.

So for $25 a year, if you use it regularly and it helps to reinforce your brand, it's a small price to pay in my opinion.

[Khem_Raj7]

Short names are easy to remember

quite possible if someone visited you from any source but then forget about that source, so he would not need search for you again. It also gives you a unique identity.

Though short names have nothing to do with branding. Only purpose of short names is that people can memorize the url of your site, like.

• hp.com    (how bout having a domain name www.hewlettpackard.com)
• ge.com
• g.cn          owned by Google China
• x.com       owned by ebay

though these name doesn't add any brand value, but it is really easy to remember these names in those regions/ states / countries, where people don't speak your native language.

[automation.engineer]

I agree with the branding vs. SEO discussion on this topic--it's a mix really. People like efficiency, and when it comes to typing web site addresses, it's no exception. Our company name is 'SMC Corporation of America' but when it came to domains, we went with SMCUSA.com. SMC.com would have been better, but was already taken by SMC Network Equipment.

You may also want to consider other domains, such as .net, .biz, .us, etc. While it seems Google prefers .com names, it may provide you with more options and you can use a name for branding purposes.