Domains - Six Elements of a Great Generic Domain Name
July 29, 2008
How come that certain domain names sell for over a million dollars while others get no interest what so ever. Two domain names may appear to be almost the same and might even have a couple of different characters, like Beds.com and Bedsx.com, but you’ve got it - The first one is a winner and the second a no hoper.
There are six primary elements that make a keyword domain name great and valuable and worthy, and you’ll want to evaluate these factors before you buy. They apply to names you register fresh, names you purchase privately, and names you bid on at auction. A little research upfront can save a lot of grief down the road when it comes time to sell or develop.
1. Keyword volume: This is an estimate of how many searches the word or phrase has, which is an indication of it?s popularity. For example, according to Google, the phrase “Hawaii Singles” has 2400 searches a month. If you were bidding on HawaiiSingles.com, you would also want to check Keyword Discovery and/or WordTracker for additional data. You’ll never get more than an indication since each tool measures differently. However, it’s a safe bet if people are searching for a phrase there will be some natural traffic and SEO potential, and if there’s no volume, there will be little or none.
2. Commonality: Uniqueness is not the only success factor in a great domain and if you think for a moment, domains are really all of one category. The best words to chose for a domain name are words that are always on the tip of our tongue and everybody else’s. Word order and plurals are also important factors to take into consideration when choosing a domain name, for example - bank, banked, banks. SportCars.com for example won’t be worth as much as SportsCars.com. Basically it ranks as a losing domain if you compare it to RunningShoes.com. If you try a couple of domain checks on Google you will find that ShoesRunning.com isn’t even there.
3. True type-in traffic: This information can be difficult to get, but it never hurts to ask, especially when the sale is private and you aren’t under stressful time constraints. You specifically want to know how much type-in traffic the name gets, not including visitors who are referred from search engines and links, both of which are unreliable in the long term.
4. Length: Another important factor is domain name length. Short domains are better as they are so much easier to remember and spell and will convert into a lot more traffic. Branding a domain with these points in mind will push up the domain name value significantly which is a bonus if you are thinking of selling in the future.
5. Prior use: People that invest in domains that are available on drop services or from expired lists may have been fooled into doing so as you really can be unaware of the history of a domain until you are already the owner. You may have even been fooled by a high Google ranking or PR but that can drop down right under your nose if it has previously been used for spamming and you wouldn’t even be able to get the best sounding domain back on it’s feet again. The only way out would be to register a new similar name like flightsblog.com and take that route to get it back to the top again.
6. End user development potential: Domain names have a certain flexibility that will develop them into major money winning sites and after having read this guide, it is down to you to make the decision on whether the domain words will help you hit the jackpot. Read more to find out more domain investing tips that will put you just way ahead of the rest.
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