Domains aren’t notable? That’s the wrong conclusion.

The reason domain names are notable has changed over time.

A few readers have sent me an article published in The Atlantic this stretch titled “The Web Became a Strip Mall” with the subhead “Domain names once gave the internet a sense of place. Now they are meaningless.”

Ian Bogost wrote regarding how domain names aren’t as notable as they used to be. He cites a few main reasons.

First, people use Google now rather than going directly to a domain name.

Second, social media and content platforms have supplanted many individual sites, such as personal blogs.

Finally, he argues that today, the “value lies in the ability to link, not the name of the place linked.”

My initial reaction to his article was that Bogost was just plain wrong. But following thinking regarding it more, I believe he’s mostly right; he just draws the wrong conclusion.

Google has absolutely changed how people navigate the web. In the old days, if you were looking for a mortgage, you might type in mortgage.com. Now, you’re likely to Google the term mortgage. (Heck, even if you want to go to mortgage.com, you might type the domain in the Google search box!)

So, “direct search” type-in traffic is less common than it once was.

And indeed, social media platforms help people reach audiences more easily.

Still, both Google and social media platforms prove that domain names are more notable than ever.

You don’t want to rely on your rankings for people to find your site; you need them to remember your domain and come back to it later.

We’ve all learned lessons regarding relying on social media platforms to reach our audience. Facebook encouraged businesses to have clients like their pages, only to later charge them to get in front of those clients. Twitter/X is trying to keep people on its platform rather than clicking out by changing link previews.

Having a website is the only way to control the experience. A good domain name is critical: it can lend credibility, and it can be easy to remember.

And one thing that hasn’t changed since the early days when Bogost argues domain names were notable is a reliance on email using domain names.

Domain names are as notable as ever, just for different reasons than 25 years ago.