Keyword Domains:
I decided to write this article to give new domainers the
basics on keyword domains.
I have wrote this with a total beginner in mind and assume no prior knowledge.
A lot of new domainers make the mistake of registering what
they think will be good keyword domains without knowing if
they are, the end result can be a portfolio of domains with
little or no value.
What are keyword domains and why are they valuable:
keyword domains are not just random, they are or should be
related to actual searches done on the search engines, buying
(or registering) keyword domains gives an immediate advantage
to a website owner.
Example:
Lets say that Fred Smith plans to open a website selling
yellow widgets, if he registers the domain name
"SmithsWidgets.com" it will not give him any advantages in
the search engines, having widget in there will help a little
but nothing major, if he checks what searches are being done
every month relating to his product, then he may see that
"Yellow Widget" gets 40,000 searches per month if he
registers YellowWidgets.com (or buys it from a domainer) then
he will rate very well for that search phrase without much
effort or SEO.
But there are also other factors to consider, it may be that
"buy yellow widgets" gets only 20.000 searches per month, on
the surface it doesn't appear to be as good as "yellow widgets"
but people searching for "yellow widget" may be just looking
for information on yellow widgets, they may be doing a project
and want a photo of one, there are many reasons why they are
searching on yellow widgets, were as the people searching for
"buy yellow widgets" are more likely to be buyers, these are
the ones he is looking for, so although it only gets 20,000
searches per month, his returns will be much better from this
domain.
Of course if both domains are available then he would do well
to get them both, but if only one then the later would be a
better buy.
So, hopefully you now have some understanding of the purpose
of keyword domains, as for what quantity searches are worth
buying, there is no rule of thumb, it of course depends on
the product and profit margin, if you have a keyword domain
for a product or service that is expensive and as a very good
profit margin it may be that 5,000 searches a month is good,
on the other hand if you have one for say "chocolate bar"
then 50,000 per month may be too low.
Another factor is the viability for internet sales, some
products sell better than others over the internet.
Finding or checking keyword domains:
OK, now to the nitty gritty, lets say you see a keyword
domain for sale and you want to get an idea of its value, or
you are looking to register some keyword domains in a
particular niche.
There are several services and softwares that will give you
keyword search information, opening a wordtracker account is
probably the most accurate, personally i find the google
keyword tool is as good as any.
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Open the google keyword tool in your browser, first you will
see "Results are tailored to English, United States Edit" if
you click the edit you can fine tune your search by selecting
language and country etc.
Next you will see "Enter one keyword or phrase per line:
" this is where you enter your keyword of phrase
finally you have a captcha and the search button.
for this example we will use a domain i recently purchased
"AnimatedGifs"
in the keyword box enter "animated gifs"
you will see that first result "animated gifs" gets 246,000 for November and a average of 201,000 per month.
Now this is very important, to the right you will see a small
drop down menu, it is currently showing "broad" click it and
select "exact"
you will now see that the same figures have dropped
considerable, now November and the average both show 49,500
this is the true figure, its the one you should work on.
so, from the point of view of checking a keyword domain that
you may be thinking of buying, you now have more of an idea
of its value, you could dig further and find average click
through for that particular market and average buy rates, PPC rates and
profit, giving you a very accurate figure.
From the point of view of searching for possible keyword
domains in a particular niche you now have a list of searches
done on that subject, also see at the bottom "Additional
keywords to consider"
You can now select key phrases with good results and check to
see if the domain is available
For example in "other keywords to consider" you will see that
"animated backgrounds" gets an average of 40,500 searches a
month when i checked to see if the domain
"AnimatedBackgrounds" was available, it was gone in .com available as a premium domain at $599 in .net, $499 in .org but it WAS available in .info (not now as i registered it
)
That about covers the basics.
A quick word on monetization:
The domain AnimatedBackgrounds.info I will put a site on it
with some free tutorials showing how to make animated
backgrounds and gifs, then i will put google adsense on there along
with affiliates links to animated gif sites and gif software.
this will then, with a little promo return me a monthly income
that at worst will cover renewals and expenses, but with
search results of those seen i would expect $100-$300 per
year in affiliates commissions and google adsense.
More on monetization soon
beginners guide to keyword domains.
beginners guide to keyword domains.
