How Important Are Monthly Searches ?
I was playing chess with my good friends Michael Castello and Toronto Domainer the other night, at a smokey cigar club in Ventura County. Michael is the most astute chess player I have ever met. Somehow, it seems that he is able to see five moves ahead. Michael clearly has the same keen ability away from the chess board. He was registering category killer domains before most people had ever heard of a domain name. Today Michael holds one of the preeminent domain name portfolios in the world.
Toronto Domainer is also an exceedingly formidable chess player. He is able to quickly establish a defensive formation which is seemingly impenetrable, while his knights and bishops wreak havoc on his opponent’s pieces. Toronto Domainer was able to utilize his innate skill in strategy and planning to help procure a buyer and assist in the negotiations of Michael’s $3.1 million dollar sale of Whisky.com.
I just recently started playing chess again, after a long hiatus. My current style of play more closely resembles a force led by the Minister for the Arts, employing a doctrine which is somewhat abstract and expressionistic.
So after a few belicoso cigars and a number of chess matches, we were discussing a set of domain names which I own. The domain names, FixedLoans.com and AdjustableLoans.com, are extremely brandable, very commonly used terms, with low monthly search figures. Michael and I thought that the set could potentially garner six figures while Toronto Domainer felt that the set would bring in less, in great part, due to the low monthly search numbers and the low number of sponsored ads competing for keywords. Our discussion and differences of opinion brings up the decades old debate; how much of a domain’s value determined by the brandability and how much by popularity of the search term?
Clearly, there is no right or wrong answer here. Search term popularity is almost always a good thing. I say “Almost” because being a highly searched term would not make for a great domain name if the term were “George Clooney” or “Microsoft,” unless, of course, you are George Clooney or Microsoft. In my opinion, meaningful, brandable, domain names can often have real value if they are easy to remember and hard to forget, regardless of search term popularity.
So, I set off on a mission this evening. I compiled a list of 20 domain names from DNJournal’s top 100 sales for 2014. DNJournal.com is the holy grail of domain name investing. In addition to their great articles, they put together a weekly sales column which outlines the reported domain sales activity for the previous week. The information is gathered from a variety of sources. DNJournal is, in my opinion, the best barometer of market trends and is a must read for serious domain name investors and executives in the digital space.
I selected domain names of greater than three characters from the bottom of the sales chart. The sales prices ranged from $60,000 to $80,000. I used the AdWords keyword planner to obtain the average monthly search figures and suggested bids for each domain name. The results were very interesting. Of the 20 domain names:
3 domains had over 100,000 average monthly searches.
5 domain names had less than 1,000 monthly searches
5 domains had a suggested bid of greater than $1.00
7 domain names had a suggested bid of less than $0.10
16 names were parked or inaccessible prior to sale.
2 names were nicely developed, prior to sale, 2 were poorly developed.
9 domain names are parked or inaccessible since having been purchased.
10 domain names were developed since having been purchased, one is being redirected.
I realize that this study is less than scientific and that these comps are rather simple. Even then, it does give some indication that a meaningful percentage of high dollar domain name sales relate to domains with less than stellar monthly search and suggested bid numbers. It also indicates that many undeveloped domain names fetch top dollar.
Meaningful domain names can be a great asset to advertisers who wish to retain a larger percentage of their viewership. Let’s say you operate the Bank of Upper Volta and use the domain name BankOfUpperVolta.com. You decide to invest millions of dollars on a print and television advertising campaign, to inform people about your very low rates on fixed loans. At the end of the commercial, would it be prudent to direct potential customers to: BankOfUpperVolta.com/FixedLoans? Wouldn’t it be worthwhile to invest a little bit more to acquire a meaningful, brandable domain name, such as FixedLoans.com? There are a large number of financial institutions offering fixed loans but there is only one FixedLoans.com.
There is really no good reason why any large corporation should feature a domain name with a “/” on a television commercial or print advertisement. That’s one reason why I strongly believe that certain brandable domain names can have great value, irrespective of monthly searches or suggested bids. If retaining the customers, which you have invested so much money to attract, requires an additional investment of $10,000, $100,000 or even $1,000,000 wouldn’t it seem a prudent investment? What good would it be to garner their interest, if at the end of the commercial, they find themselves lost on the information highway, unable to find you?
Where do you stand on this topic? Your comments and opinions are greatly valued and appreciated.
todd says
I wouldn’t consider these type of names to be extremely brandable. Honestly in my eyes they aren’t brandable at all.
Can we see the list of 20 domains that you based your opinion on? Without the list of names the stats are unfortunately meaningless.
Claude Dauman says
Todd:
Thank you for your comment. Here are the domain names used:
Fighters.com
Arwin.com
Bushel.com
Suzies.com
Zaker.com
Kalamata.com
GoldPay.com
Apps.de
BrandNames.com
Moki.com
Jamrock.com
Satoshi.com
MITV.com
Like.it
RideScout.com
Maimaiche.com
Blow.com
SafetyTraining.com
TruckDrivingJobs.com
todd says
The majority of these names are brandable except for the obvious ones in truckdrivingjobs, safety training, brand names and apps. These 4 the value would definitely be determined mostly by search volume.
The rest of the names will have very little search volume so the value would be determined on brandability. Names like RideScout and Jamrock may have sold for 60 or 80 thousand but these names sold for that much because the buyer needed the name not because that name was worth that much money.
I do agree that brandable names can and are worth very good money regardless of how much someone searches for it.
Claude Dauman says
Thanks for the follow-up.
Interestingly, the U.S. search volume indicated for BrandNames and SafetyTraining were not as high as I would have expected. Both returned at under 4,000 per month.
Kassey says
Great topic! I see a trend of companies using meaningful phrases (even long one as long as they are easy to remember) in advertising, instead of always directing consumers to their corporate site which requires additional work to find the right page. If the domain name makes it very easy for consumers to associate with a product/service, then the monthly search becomes irrelevant. For example, once I heard it, I can never forget the site eatmywords.com (very powerful name, I may say).
Claude Dauman says
Kassey:
Thank you for your comment.
EatMyWords.com is a great domain name. It features a great website too 🙂
NameYouNeed says
You work for that company? That’s what it sounds like. Never like the the name honestly which is funny considering they are a naming firm.
Kassey says
Great. I see a trend of companies using meaningful phrases (even long one as long as they are easy to remember) in advertising, instead of always directing consumers to their corporate site which requires additional work to find the right page. If the domain name makes it very easy for consumers to associate with a product/service, then the monthly search becomes irrelevant. For example, once I heard it, I can never forget the site eatmywords.com (very powerful name, I may say).
Boluji says
Nice article; there is a real sense in your submission. From my own point of views your domains are very good despite the limit of the search quality. Those domains are keyword brandables and rae very good. Cheers.
Claude Dauman says
Boluji:
Thank you for your comment and for your nice words.
Boluji says
Nice article, those domains are brandable /keyword they are good provided they are developed to get known.
Ian Ingram says
It’s nice to see a large corporation use a memorable domain every now and then. We sold IfIHadANickel.com (very little search volume) to Sunoco and they used it in a fun and unique way.
Imo, sometimes it may make sense for a company to continue to advertise a page on their website (“/”) that is not their home page. Granted, if the company is using the BankOfUpperVolta.com domain, I would recommend something more memorable…
However, if the company already owns a great domain, like loans.com (Bank of America), it may make sense for them to advertise loans.com/texas versus acquiring an inferior domain to advertise in Texas. A memorable/brandable domain also may not translate any better for their Texas customers as to what they do and what they offer.
Some additional reasons for not using a new domain may be justified by price and availability of a better domain.
As your article suggests, relying on search volume as the sole value indicator is not a good idea. Highly searched doesn’t necessarily mean high value or a great brand for that matter…
Memorable domains always have value (the extension plays a big part in memorability).
In both cases, reported sales prices can be all over the board.
That’s my five cents… Enjoyed the article, Claude. 😉
Claude Dauman says
Ian:
Thank you for sharing your five cents.
Loans.com is a great example of a company understanding the power of domain names.
With regard to your example, perhaps, with today’s technology, they could simply advertise Loans.com and redirect IP’s from Texas to a special landing page?
Ian Ingram says
No problem.
They definitely could. 🙂
My thought was that loans.com may be so generic that those in a certain geographic area may be more inclined to visit the site if it clearly pertained to them, their area, or the specific type of loan they were searching for (/texas, /dallas, /auto, etc.).
I would prefer they purchase a new domain of course… 😉 But the main point, which I rushed a bit, was that a powerful generic brand like loans.com might be better off advertising loans.com/personal-loans or loans.com/texas rather than trying to purchase PersonalLoans.com (likely 1 million+) or TexasLoans.com, CaliforniaLoans.com, a brandable, etc., if they were available.
Also, the ‘notify me of follow up comments’ doesn’t seem to be working. Could be my spam filter…
Claude Dauman says
Thank you for elaborating Ian. You make some excellent points.
I’m personally not a fan of domain/directory. I’s a big believer in the KISS principle. The shorter and simpler, the better, imho.
Frank says
>In my opinion, meaningful, brandable, domain names can often have real value if they are easy to remember and hard to forget, regardless of search term popularity.
People buy domains for different reasons.
If you are a seller, you may not be aware of their reasons.
Search results are just one of those reasons. If the reason is searchengine friendlyness then they may go for search results.
If you want branding, a short name maybe more attractive.
Most of the many hundred domains, I have sold in the last decade have never had any reasonable traffic or parking income neither a developed webpage.
Frank
Raymond Hackney says
I like the look of your website Frank.
todd says
Looks to be one of those sites from Troy Rushton’s NameInvestors.com
Here is an example of it I think it costs about 10 bucks a month.
http://showcasemanager.com
Claude Dauman says
Frank:
Thank you for your comment.
You are very right, as a seller, we may not be aware of the buyer’s reasons or intended usage.
I concur with Raymond, I like the look of your website too.
Frank says
indeed it’s SAS
NameInvestors.com
Angela S. says
Claude,
Great article and excellent insights here. I believe that a brandable domain can out perform a domain with mass search volume depending on how it is used.
For instance, during the Super Bowl and many other major sporting events like the Olympics, we will see a large number of major corporations use brandable domains, and hashtags to get their message across to their audience.
Quick one of the top of my head– “ImLovinIt.” When McDonald’s came up with that slogan in 2003, my guess is that it wouldn’t have had large search volume. May not have even been a registered domain name. *Someone can correct me if I’m wrong there.
But now they use the slogan in most of all their advertising, and the name redirects to McDonald’s website. Not McDonalds.com/ImLovinIt, but ImLovinIt.com.
Claude Dauman says
Angela:
Thank you for your comment.
McDonalds’ “ImLovinIt.com” is an excellent example of intelligent use of a brandable domain name and has been very effective for them.
NameYouNeed says
The thing is it’s a lot easier to see the value of domain with search volume from an SEO perspective.
Raymond Hackney says
Good point.
Claude Dauman says
Thank you for your comment.
I agree, In most cases. I think that it’s harder to see the value in many long tail domain names, with good search volume, than it once was.
Toronto Domainer says
Great Article Claude,
Overture, sponsored ads, domain name age, and a few other factors impact a domain names value in my honest opinion. From using various free tools online over the last decade, I’ve formulated my own method in determining a domain names value for End Users. At the end of the day, my valuation is just an opinion. In regards to Chess, I must say; you’re a quick learner. Its always a pleasure meeting up with you to talk about domain names and play chess 🙂 Thank you kindly for mentioning me in your article, it’s well written. Look forward to our next engagement.
Claude Dauman says
Thank you for the nice words Toronto Domainer! Its always a pleasure meeting up with you to talk about domain names and play chess too 🙂