Domain names are vital in the fight for the first page on search engines! Search isn’t everything, but consider that 89% of customers begin the buying process at a search engine, it can not be ignored! Domain names are key to branding AND cost savings to those expensive PPC ad campaigns and greatly help with organic rankings!
How is your website(s) ranking for important keywords to your products or services? If you don’t know, you are missing out!
Search engines rank “websites” based on many factors, but one key factor is / are the keyword(s) in your domain name and the content relating to it, matching the users searched keyword(s). Incoming links play a factor as well.
There are countless studies that show organic website rankings get the majority of clicks from searchers. How much? 90% of the clicks! It is vital for your business to rank organically in the search engines and domain names are the engine! It doesn’t hurt to run a PPC ad campaign to support your organic results but that is another article!
Position 1 on Google for an example will get about 33% of the clicks. Position 2, about 18% and position 3 about 11%. (same source as above)
Again, I deeply think that your domain name is a key factor in how well your website will rank. Yes, there is more to it than just the domain, but again, the right domain name is vital IMO! The better you exactly match the search term with your domain name, the better that domain name will rank!
Sticker shock! The matching domain name for important keyword(s) are for sale, but it’s too expensive? That happens a lot. Some domains are priced really high, but many may appear to be “expensive” but really are not!
Here is an exact reply I sent to a real business owner the other day, who replied “Dear God” to the offering price for a generic domain name being offered for sale by a client.
“Consider this, as sticker shock can come into play when not deeply considering the true value of a generic domain name and the power they hold.
Positions 1-3 get nearly all the clicks in Google for the related matching term. TheAdirondackWoodFloorCo ranks no place in sight. This is not good.
18,100 exact searches for “wood floor” are done every single month at Google. That is a lot of missed potential customers for your business.
To attract those 18,100 real life searchers to your business each month, you may consider taking the easy way and paying for online advertising through Google. That is great because we all want more customers and to make as much money as we can. The problem, Google will charge you $3.34 PER CLICK! You will not get all the clicks, but 10% is a realistic number.
10% of the 18,100 per month search volume is 1,801 x $3.34 = $6,015 per month. Doing this ad campaign for 1 year results into a Google ads bill of about $72,184.00
The above is for one keyword, wood floor, the exact match to the domain name! WoodFloor(.)com can and will allow the site to rank well for the exact term with a little effort and relevant content. The domain can also rank well for the plural term wood floors (12,100 monthly searches) and many more. Advertising via Google ads will increase your monthly bill with each and every keyword you would like to rank for, yet the domain name will not.
As I said, $12,500 is a great deal for WoodFloor(.)com, unless you would rather pay the $72K annually (dear god) for the one keyword to Google. You get the domain on a one time fee of the $12,500 and annual renewal costs of about $10/year through your registrar. You own the domain!
WoodFloor(.)com is non-restrictive. You can have a worldwide presence and people will know what you offer just by seeing the domain. Short and sweet, memorable and to the point! Professional!
The above is just one example of why premium, exact match keyword domain names are valuable and are a valuable asset to companies who own them.”
I am very passionate about domain names and the above is one reason why!
I love domain names for branding, because buying a great domain name is like buying a great brand, not just building one from scratch.
They are powerful! Just seeing a great domain name like Candy.com, the consumer knows exactly what you offer! Consumers naturally search for the term already (reduced advertising). Candy.com is a brand, a successful one! One that cost a little, unknown candy company $3,000,000 dollars, but is now well known around the world, besides only locally to Melville! Trusted! Ranks very well in search engines. Has a much better success rate at scoring meetings with vendors and more. Please do read this story about how the domain has helped them! Did I mention that they recouped the $3 Million investment in about 2 years?
Domain names are important and if you are not using them in branding, advertising and organically in search engines…. you have a problem and need to correct it now!
The stats about organic search traffic may not consider the trend in recent years of placing paid ads above organic results. Consequently a site which ranks #3 organically may get far less search traffic than it would have ten years ago. On the other hand, if someone is searching for something and the domain in the paid ad is the exact phrase as the search phrase, I believe the odds of a click-through are much higher compared to an inferior-quality domain.
Good comments – will refer back to this post next time I’m negotiating the sale of a keyword category domain name.
People just love to buy domain name which has keywords on them. Even many domain investor spend thousands of dollars to get a domain name because they know that domain name worth is much higher and can get a website owner millions every years in profit. I guess having a keyword is much more important in google search ranking as it clearly gives idea what the website is all about.
Completely agree! I know that one of my most successful .com’s brings me 90% of my business from targeted keyword phrases. You had excellent tips!
Wow, I never really thought of making a comparison between PPC and exact-match/type-in domain names. Great way to justify a domain price
Excellent article. Thanks!
Great analysis Jamie. I’d like to link your article. I’ve put related comparisons to what a business would pay just for 1 years of ad space in an industry magazine. Figure 1200 a month for 1/2 page, times 12 equals on average 14,400 maybe less discount for the annual purchase, still 12k and limited readership, can’t get in front of people at work or on the go. A solid domain name is exponentially a better choice for ad dollars.
Hey, ProtoFuse here. Thanks for linking to our blog post. We’re glad you found our content helpful!