As you’ve probably read before, only the potential domain buyer really knows what domains mean to them. Sellers, too, possess some inkling of an idea what they’re willing to sell aftermarket domains for. For all others unsure what ‘professional’ indicators are used to determine true domain value in dollars, we’re pleased to bring today’s domain valuation standards abreast in case you’ve mulled over buying domain names at the hottest hubs. Remember, my friends; domain names only have what value individual marketing pros plan to extract from them.
Search Volume
The most obvious indicator revolves around the number of consumer searches, both annually and monthly, for whatever keyword the domain represents. By utilizing several keyword queries through the Google Keyword Research tool, one can locate high search volumes of key phrases used daily, discover the competition, and from there determine the worth of current domains held. Since search figures are updated often, Google’s KWT becomes the NYSE of keywords, per se. Many pros lightly base their figures off Google and Bing, yet aren’t ready to fully base domain valuation off the unknown searches of tomorrow since consumer interest fluctuates with other markets.
Popularity
Over the last several years, premium domains sold – on average – around the $15k clip. Pretty impressive, considering many names weren’t popularly searched terms. What, then, becomes the operative definition of ‘popularity’ when leveraging this metric in your domain valuations? Number of registered TLD’s, of course, since having the .COM and .ORG of single-worded domains means the .NET instantly becomes hot, and so forth. Remember, if all TLD’s are available for keywords, the niche probably began its downward spiral several years ago or has heavy market saturation for synonyms of the keywords. Again, this dynamic is loosely based off what each buyer wants premium domains for.
Cost Per Click (CPC)
Marketing efforts chomp considerable dollars – even before an official business launch commences. Add the rising costs of keywords, and premium domain names suddenly aren’t so appealing. No worries, my friends; the average CPC of domains sold over the last year is roughly $1.79. Sounds expensive, indeed; what drives up costs, of course, are individuals bidding for keywords which aren’t exact domain matches. For example, you’ll eventually rank well for dog.com (provided your content is related to the dog). While waiting for organic gods to bless you, ‘canine’, ‘puppy’ and other dog-related words are getting heavy traffic in Adwords. Expect premium domain valuation costs to grow with the CPC rates of domains being sought.
Other ‘Arbitrary’ Factors
Many smaller factors, like domain length, age and backlinks, are often used to gauge how quickly new businesses could setup shop atop the domain. Domain length would be the most arbitrary of the three since some keywords in our English language have longer lengths which cannot be helped. Of all domain valuation standards used, perhaps one’s best tool is common sense bargaining; what you believe to be worth $5000 may only have $400 worth of use, especially if traffic stats lack girth. With newer ccTLD’s and ‘category’ extensions rolling out soon, .COM’s will drop considerably in value.
About the author
Roger Klawinski is a freelance writer and seasoned domainer from Indiana who enjoys following domain and search trends. You can follow him on Google+.