Singular vs. Plural

rharper83 · Jul 27, 2012

Hi guys,

I'm a fairly new-ish domainer, and having a bit of trouble trying to get my head round the difference in value between a singular and plural for a product based domain name.

I know for example, the plural and singular will make a massive difference in some cases - people wouldn't search as often for "glove" as they would for "gloves", likewise "trouser" and "trousers". I get that, so would expect the plural of the domain to be much more valuable.

It is however, with something like "hockey stick" and "hockey sticks" that I'm a bit confused. Obviously, if you are looking in a shop, you'd be looking at "hockey sticks", but looking to buy a "hockey stick".

Therefore, if they were both the same 'price' from a seller, which one would you go for? The singular or the plural? (Let's just assume for arguments sake that you don't have the money for both

)

Thanks,
Rich

tifosi · Jul 27, 2012

In general plural for products singular for information. e.g. footballs.co.uk for a site selling footballs, football.co.uk for a site about football.

For your example it's a bit vague. Hockeysticks for the products hockey for the info. Hockeystick is a bit neither here nor there... It's all about semantics.

Bailey · Jul 27, 2012

Look at the exacts from googles analytical tool is usually the best way to go. I must admit to only starting to use it myself and I've been in domains for 13 odd years. (just using my gut-feel)

When in doubt - figures similar - your really going to want them both

rharper83 · Jul 30, 2012

Thanks for the reply guys.

@tifosi - you've kind of said what I was thinking - going with what makes sense in each case. Football would make sense as a singular, but not for a product based site; whereas it would for an information based one.

@bailey - ah, very good idea - thank you.

The real example that I was referring to was the case of tennisracket vs tennisrackets. Google shows that "tennis racket" has approx 2,200 vs 6,400 for "tennis rackets", so the plural makes sense at both a semantic level and a statistical level too.

Thanks for your comments guys!