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Domain Theory: Searches to Results Ratio

Subscribe to Elliot's BlogWhen people are selling domain names, I frequently see them quoting the Wordtracker daily searches for the domain’s keyword phrase as well as the number of pages there are in Google that have that keyword or keyword phrase. It’s often thought that the higher the number of daily searches and the higher number of Google results, the more valuable that keyword domain name is. This is just theory here, but I think the ratio of daily searches to # of Google results is a better indicator of value for someone that wants to develop the domain name.
The more daily searches a keyword phrase (“painting contractor” for example), the more value a name like PaintingContractor.com is.   If people are searching for that term, not only are some of them probably typing   PaintingContractor.com into their browser bar, but the greater chance this domain name will be relevant to more people.   A generic domain name is valuable because there are people who want to find that generic term. Some will type the term into their browser (with a .com) while many others will search Google for that term, and hopefully your site will come up in the top 5 or 10 results to attract the attention of the searcher.
I would argue that the old way of thinking – the more Google results for the phrase the better – is actually not really that great for the value of the domain name. Sure, the more results there are usually means that more people are interested in that topic – and that more people are writing about it and covering it on their websites. With more interest in the topic, the value should be higher.   However, to a developer, the more interest in the topic usually also means the more difficult it will be to rank in Google. The lower a website ranks, the less traffic it will receive, making it more difficult to generate revenue.
That said, I believe the ratio of daily searches to Google results is important to consider.   “Painting Contractor” has a WordTracker count of 367, and there are 896,000 Google results for “painting contractor,” which would be strong compared to “Flooring Contractor” which boasts a WordTracker count of 19 and has 309,000 Google results. The more searches with less results in Google means a website will likely have an easier time ranking at the top of the results, meaning more traffic.
I don’t think this will become a commonly quoted ratio due to the actual size of the result (.000405), but I do think people should at least consider this when researching a domain name. It’s great that people are searching for a particular keyword or keyword phrase, but if the SE competition will relegate your developed domain name to the second page of Google or lower, it’s probably worth less than a similar domain name in a less competitive category (assuming PPC values are similar).
This post will be reevaluated once the weekend haze wears off.   I spent the weekend at a friend’s wedding, which is where I thought about this 🙂   More time needs to be spent analyzing this theory, but I think I am onto something.

Top Notch Domains, LLC Acquires FrenchRiviera.com

Subscribe to Elliot's BlogFrenchRiviera.com and Secaucus.com Join Lowell.com and Burbank.com as Top Notch Destinations on the Web
Top Notch Domains, LLC adds world famous French Riviera resort domain name to its diverse portfolio and launches Secaucus, New Jersey website.
Nashua, NH (PRWEB) September 12, 2008 — Top Notch Domains, LLC is pleased to announce the acquisition of FrenchRiviera.com. The company will soon launch a vacation and tourist guide targeting visitors to the French Riviera, one of the most famous resort areas in the world. The company is not disclosing the amount of the transaction.
In addition to this news, the company also announces the launch of Secaucus.com, a guide to the city of Secaucus, New Jersey. Both of these announcements are aligned with the company’s strategy of developing informational websites on high value domain names.
“The French Riviera is one of the most glamorous destinations in the world, and I am excited to have the opportunity to develop FrenchRiviera.com into a world class travel website,” said Top Notch Domains, LLC President Elliot Silver. “FrenchRiviera.com is the first international geodomain the company has acquired, and I look forward to developing it. If you are visiting St. Tropez, Monte Carlo, South of France, or anywhere else on the French Riviera, FrenchRiviera.com will help you plan your trip – from hotels, to beaches, to night clubs and more.”
In addition to Secaucus.com and FrenchRiviera.com, the company also owns and operates Burbank.com, a guide to Burbank, California, Lowell.com, a guide to Lowell, Massachusetts, and TropicalBirds.com, a website with information and resources on tropical birds found throughout the world.
The company expects a full launch of FrenchRiviera.com in Q4 2008.
About Top Notch Domains, LLC
Top Notch Domains, LLC is a privately held domain investment company specializing in the acquisition of high value domain names. The company’s President, Elliot Silver, is the founder of ElliotsBlog.com, an award winning domain investment and strategy blog.

Buy Domains Enhances Website

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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogI just noticed that it appears that BuyDomains.com has enhanced it’s website, greatly improving the search functionality. I am now able to do searches much, much faster than before. It looks like there are also better searching tools as well which is helpful.
One bug I noticed is when I did an advanced search using a specific keyword. On the results page, I tried to change it from 25 records per page to 55 records per page, and when the new page refreshed, my search was gone and it started with the name “AaaAaaAaaAaaAaaAaaA.com.” I think this must be a bug, but it’s one of those things that happens with an upgrade.
I really like the featured results section at the top as well, although the results weren’t in line with my search terms – or even related.
At first glance, it looks like this was a great upgrade, and I look forward to digging deeper and hopefully finding some nice names.

Crispin Porter & Bogusky "Gets It" for Volkswagen

Subscribe to Elliot's BlogUsually when I see a newly-created, branded domain name in a commercial using a non-.com extension, I find that the .com was purchased after the commercial went live, frequently by domain speculators hoping to cash in on user errors. Although the lost traffic is arguably light, it’s still enough to warrent purchasing the .com of the domain name for around $7 and forwarding any traffic to the intended website.
I saw a commercial tonight for Volkswagen, and it encouraged viewers to visit the website, RoutanBoom.org. I was curious to see if they purchased the .com as well, since this was obviously a uniquely created domain name specifically for this campaign.   The good news for Volkswagen is that their advertising agency, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, seem to “get it” when it comes to domain names, and they purchased the .com and .net on behalf of VW.
Thumbs up to CP+B on this smart domain purchase, and also for the new VW campaign, which is receiving positive reviews.

Social Networking to Sell Domain Names

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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogOn the treadmill last night, I was thinking about how to get around administrative assistants and other obstacles in the way of directly communicating with a decision maker. Most of the time at mid to large companies, the decision maker has an admin who reviews all emails and phone calls before passing them through. If something appears to be spammy, there’s a good chance the message will be deleted before the decision maker sees it.
In the day of Linkedin and Facebook, more and more people (including decision makers) are signing up for accounts on these networks. Since it isn’t always business that is discussed on these networks, I would assume that many connect their personal email addresses to the account. With the help of a mutual friend – or maybe even a cold call, you can get in touch directly with the decision maker. Although it will still be difficult to get in touch with a decision maker at a large company, it’s possible to do this to those at small to medium size companies.
The difficult thing is determining who the decision maker is. Social networking sites actually play a role in determining who to contact, as most allow the decision maker to list his credentials right on the site. If you get in touch with the wrong person, there’s also a good chance that this person will tell you who the right person is.
Instead of sending a blind email, social networking communications could help you get in touch with the decision makers you need to reach. The caveat is that I just thought of this and haven’t tried it yet.

Grow Your Mini Sites

Subscribe to Elliot's BlogI’ve been busy today working on the just launched Secaucus.com, which I had created by Rick and his guys at aeiou.com.   Secaucus is a city in New Jersey, located about 4 miles from Manhattan.   It was voted the 11th best city to live in New Jersey in 2008 by New Jersey Monthly magazine.
While the mini-site Rick and his team created looks great, I wanted to add more content to the site.   IMO, content is what drives traffic to a site, and the more content you create, the more traffic the site will receive. As a result, I expect to earn more Adsense revenue and hopefully get advertisers to want to buy links and advertising space.
Since Secaucus.com is the smallest of my geo websites, I wanted to build a mini site with good information but required little upkeep and maintenance.   I just started adding commonly searched for information, such as lawyers in Secaucus, Secaucus gas prices, and Secaucus banks.   I will continue to add pages with the hope of building traffic and generating revenue.
My aeiou.com mini site template got me off to a great start, and I am going to take off running with it.

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