What Makes a Domain Valuable? (Free Appraisals!)
There is literally an unlimited amount of domains in existence so how can one tell the different between one that is valuable and one that is worthless? The short answer is scarcity and the amount that the buyer wants that particular domain.
The long answer for the value of domain is that it is determined by a number of factors:
Google Keyword searches - The amount of times that people search for a certain keyword that is within a domain can be a great determiner of its value. An domain such as DomainName.com has around 300,000 searches a month and is therefore a very good investment. These searches are so valuable for companies because each of those searches has a good chance of getting a customer to the domain's website it shares a keyword with. These keyword searches normally have to be bought from Google Adwords by the companies so owning a domain with a lot of keyword searches can save them a lot of money.
Length - The length of a domain is one of the number one ways to immediately determine a domains value. Just looking at a domain, one can tell its worth based on whether it has 2, 3,4, or 5 letters. Each number of letters has its own resellers value, market value and end user value. Short number domains like 1111.com sell for tens of thousands and have been gainly value aggressively. Length can refer to number of letters or numbers but it can also refer to number of words. A domain worth investing in should have only one or two words within it.
Registration Age - Age can be a good indicator of an domain's value as older domains have more money invested to keep them renewed each year. It costs a certain amount to keep a domain each year so if someone is going to pay $20 a year for 20 years to keep a domain, then, they probably have a good reason for keeping that domain. Every premium domain is aged but not every aged domain is premium.
Extension - Nowadays, there are hundreds if not thousands of different domain extensions ranging from the classic .com,.org,.net all the way to .de,.xyz,.io and others. Most premium domains that are worth investing in are .com but a few good ones are .org or .net (like coffee.org sold for $100,000). For the rest of the hundreds of extensions, they are only usually worth something if they are one or two letters (but even then they won't sell for more than a couple thousand).
History - A domain's history can help to determine its value because domains that have previously had successful websites on them increase the domains value exponentially just for the sake of branding. In addition to that, a previous website means that there will probably be a lot of natural traffic coming to that website which makes owning that domain very profitable no matter whether you are cash parking it or trying to make a website out of it. Previous websites also bring backlinks, links to the site from other sites, for the site which makes long term traffic possible. Website history can go both ways though. If you own a domain that used to be a porn site, the domain's value decreases if you are trying to sell the domain to people who want to make a normal website out of it.
Even if you use these tools to help value your domain, you still will probably be wrong about it even though you will be close. At the end of the day, a domain is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
Yet, qeip understands the necessity for valuations, that is why we offer free personalized domain appraisals which can be requested by submitting the form below: