Selling domains based on keywords

[AdamMaxum]

I know people say that a website name is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it...

but, wouldn't it make sense to value a domain name (just the domain) based off of keyword research and data?

For example, if you find that the keyword "why does beer" receives over 5 million searches a month, and the domain name is available, shouldn't that be the deciding factor in determining what the domain alone is worth based off of potential to rank highly in the search engines?

I know just because you have the domain name doesn't mean your going to rank and all that, but it would obviously give the owner a huge advantage to rank for that keyword if he added content + seo'd correctly.

 

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[domular]

Reality is a domain is only worth what it adds to your profit that you wouldn't make if you didn't have the domain. So the question is, even if you ranked number 1 for the term on google how do you make money off of people searching for "why does beer"?

 

[Sunny]

domular said it right.

Also there will be very few people searching for the exact term "Why does beer". Most people are searching for terms like "why does beer make you fat", "why does beer taste so bad" .... etc and a ton of long tail variations.

You need to build a massive content website with all those long tail keywords and seo the pages to get the traffic. And even if you get the traffic you won't be able to effectively monetize using the traditional methods.

 

[Rusty]

When doing keyword research on Google's AdTool, you need to use "exact" searches to get the real traffic then check for competition. The less competition the better. Also how can it be monetized and is the market strong enough to resale when need be. Check past prices on similiar domain names at dnsalespriceDOTcom and get a rough estimate of value. Also with estibot.

 

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[fm1234]

Raw search data is not nearly a sufficient metric to determine a value for a domain -- to treat it as such would be to assume that all keywords are worth the same. Many high-volume search terms have next to zero monetary value, and vice versa.

Brandability, loosely defined as memorability, ease of spelling and the "radio test" (ie. if you hear the domain spoken, can you "see" it or do you need it spelled out for you?) can also be big factors. After all, what is they keyword value of the words eBay, Google, Yahoo, or Facebook, separately from the huge brands that have been built behind those names?


Frank

 

[misc]

having keywords as domain name are good only if you intend to build content in it.

It doesn't serve a purpose sitting as a domain name unless the potential buyer has every intention to build content and SEO around it.

If you are building a brand, keywords as domain name is not recommended especially you only have a single domain to run that business. For example, if you are selling beer under a brand called "beergod", beergod.com has to be the domain you must promote to the masses (because you want people to remember something, and a unique brand is what people will remember), while whydoesbeer.com should only serve as an content SEO site that will direct the visitors to beergod. whydoesbeer.com should not be the site you are promoting. It is only a tool to building a business brand.

 

[fm1234]

having keywords as domain name are good only if you intend to build content in it.

It doesn't serve a purpose sitting as a domain name unless the potential buyer has every intention to build content and SEO around it.

While it sounds reasonable, this advice is simply incorrect. There are companies that own huge numbers of generic keyword domains, many of which are simply redirected to other sites. Just among companies to whom I've recently sold domains, Bank of America owns more than 12,000 domains, about half of which are simple generics, most of which are either redireted to core brands or simple landing pages that in turn are collecting leads for the core brands; Bankrate owns more than 600, DRG (a crafts/hobbies company) owns more than 500, Experian owns more than 2,000; HomeAway more than a thousand, Travelocity about 400. Many online marketing and media companies are domain giants -- Tsavo Media owns more than 20,000 domains, and Internet Brands more than 10,000. Again, that's not even a broad sample, just companies with whom I've dealt recently enough to still have their data on file.

A large percentage of these domains are simply owned for their keyword value, which has been documented to boost PPC clickthrough rates by as much as 42% (study info here.) They spend most of their lives parked, or redirected to core sites, and are then brought out for specific ad campaigns that are targeting the domain keywords.

This is not to discount the value of developing domains and SEO; I'm a builder myself -- just to clarify that there are indeed cases where a domain is good for something other than development and SEO.


Frank

 

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[AdamMaxum]

nice post fm. I knew sites usually bought other domains that were either similarly spelled or similar in nature to redirect or use for advertising purposes for their core site, but I didn't realize it went to that extreme. thank you for the detailed insight.