GoDaddy #1 in Google for “Domain Appraisal”

From my perspective, domain name appraisals are in high demand. I also believe GoDaddy is a relatively trusted company when it comes to the general public. Even if someone has not worked with GoDaddy before or knows very little about the publicly traded company, they likely know that GoDaddy is the largest domain name company in the world and there is a level of trust that comes with that recognition.

GoDaddy launched its domain appraisal tool last year called GoValue. The tool uses machine learning to give an automated domain name appraisal. It has a vast database of domain name sales, and anyone can use the tool to get an appraisal for their domain name at no cost.

Despite the fact that this new appraisal tool is a relatively recent entrant into the market, GoDaddy is already ranking quite well in Google. In fact, the tool ranks #1 for me in the following related searches:

  • domain appraisal
  • domain name appraisal
  • what is my domain name worth
  • domain value
  • domain name value

I am sure the tool ranks very highly for longer-tail searches like “free domain name appraisal” or “free domain appraisals” as well. This is almost certainly bringing a considerable amount of traffic to GoDaddy’s website from people seeking an opinion on the valuation of their domain name.

This means GoDaddy is playing an even bigger role in domain name sales than before. Buyers looking to acquire domain names may seek an appraisal to see if the list or asking price of a domain name is in line with its value. Sellers may also seek an appraisal to see if they should sell a domain name for the amount offered by a prospective buyer. Having this second opinion option may or may not be good depending on what the tool thinks a particular domain name is worth.

In my opinion, domain name pricing is more of an art than a science. Yes, I rely on what I see in the market to buy and sell domain names, but I also use my intuition when it comes to values. The GoValue tool can give a good idea about whether a domain name has value or not, but I don’t think any automated domain appraisal tool can offer accurate appraisals, especially for higher value domain names.

Whether you like it or not, GoDaddy’s appraisal tool may play an outsized role on the entire domain name aftermarket, and domain investors should probably get an idea of what the tool is saying for their domain names.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

13 COMMENTS

  1. Interesting observation, Elliot.
    I wonder if/how this prominence in SERPs will influence sellers or savvy buyers in negotiations?

    Eg – Just checked a name at Estibot: $28k
    That same name at GoDaddy: $4k

    So what do I do if I price my domain at the higher end of that scale but a buyer says they checked and believe it should be closer to $4k?

    In this case the Estibot valuation is 7x higher than GoDaddy. ThatÂ’s 600% higher.*
    Go figure, but youÂ’d better be a hostage situation level negotiator.

    Bottom line is, price output from a valuation tools have never been and should never be taken as gospel. As you say, more art than science.
    The fact that there exists differing tools with their own differing metrics/factors/criteria this will remain the case, perhaps more than ever.

    * I only checked one of my names that I know Estibot values fairly high. YMMV

    • I find that estibot is drastically less than GD appraisal site.

      I like to check them to see if they know something that I was missing.

      My selling price is always higher than estibot and GD.

  2. It’s a good service. I hand registered CoyGuy.com a couple of days ago, after looking it up on GoValue, and I thought it was a fair number.

    coyguy.com
    Estimated Value: $1,128

    Why this is valuable
    Comparable domains sold:
    xyguy.com
    $1,100
    paguy.com
    $1,595
    kenguy.com
    $495

  3. From what I’ve observed, every 4 word combination (English words) .com has value on GoValue. Almost every 5 word combination .com has value on GoValue. Try it yourself by coming up with random words. BagToadOrangeFoot.com – $297, BagToadOrangeFootGame.com – $202, BagToadOrangeFootGameDog.com – $107(6 random words!). When every unregistered domain has value and then registrations go upppppp!!!

    • I don’t own any 4 or 5 word domains. And, just a couple 3 word domains which I doubt will ever sell. Even at a low price.

  4. GoValue is better than Estibot, but it still undervalues .Com domains by a wide margin! Retail and wholesale.

    I would trust AccurateAppraisals.com more, even though their appraisals are a bit on the high side.
    But their appraisals are more accurate and are not automated.

  5. Thank you Google and GoDaddy for the dumbing down of the domain industry. Estibot valuates Traveler.com at $90k. Godaddy; above $25k. You can take a look at Traveler.com and figure out what I sold it for this year. When the price is made public, they will certainly update their output. Originally Estibot valuated Whisky.com $27k which sold for $3.1 million in 2014. Low and behold it now shows $3.2 million. Brilliant

    Valuating domain names especially generic .com is like putting a price on fine art. Let the buyers dictate.

    • Crypto company- Nice! I have a good idea of price and it is way above 90k.

      Smart crypto companies are getting .com- They still have to run a main business and you can’t really do that with a .io or .network i guess it is fine for the ICO but not for the main underline business.

      Hopefully they threw in some tokens. 🙂

    • Great point Michael,

      From our perspective, domain name appraisals are quite frankly a joke.Our opinion is the whole appraisal sites goal is to low ball valuations, as to promote lower prices for buyers.Its ultimately called CONTROL !
      JAS
      Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger) (Former Rockefeller IBEC Marketing Intelligence Analyst/Strategist) (Licensed CBOE Commodity Hedge Strategist)
      (Domain Master )http://www.UseBiz.com

  6. I don’t know anything about the GoDaddy tool, have not looked at it or used it. However, when it comes to Estibot lately I have this to say:

    “But sir, the Estibot appraisal for crypto.com is $48,000 and I have offered you $50,000.”

    https://ibb.co/eOEgsx

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