In the early years of domain names, the extension was meant to have meaning. For example,
Over the years most restrictions were dropped, and many extensions can be used for anything. That does not mean that there is not power in having a match, with meaningful coherence between the top level domain (TLD) or extension, and the term, the second level domain (SLD).
The arrival of the new global TLDs (new gTLDs) represented opportunities for strong across the dot matches. Names like
Certain legacy extensions, like
Some country code extensions, like
But how does one differentiate a great across the dot match from one that is just okay? Here are a few approaches that I find helpful.
An Evaluation Form
I put together the following evaluation form to summarize ideas from this article. While it may look imposing, it actually is pretty fast to perform and record all of the tests indicated.
Keep in mind that the form is intended for names where the match across the dot is meaningful. Some extensions, such as
While I suggest metrics to help with each rating, you should complete the ratings based on your expert opinion. Take the metrics into account, but not in a way that dominates your thinking.
How Strong Is The Term?
Let’s first look at the term to the left of the dot, the second level domain (SLD). Not yet considering the extension, or the match across the dot, how strong is that SLD term?
There are a few metrics that can help. Generally speaking, a term that is registered in a large number of different extensions, whether by domain investors or potential users, is more likely to have value. You can use dotDB to easily find the number of extensions for the SLD term.
As well as the number of registrations for the exact term, dotDB also gives the number of associated domain names. That means longer names that include this term. Indicate that number on the form, as that is also an indicator of value.
Another check on the strength of the SLD term is sales data. One could do more, but I suggest considering at least sales of the Exact term, as listed on NameBio. From the data fill in how many sales are above $1000, and the highest recorded sale.
How Strong Is The Extension?
Sometimes with strong and trending SLD terms, like ‘eth’, we see great sales even with a generally weak extension. But that is an exception. In general, a name with both a strong SLD and a strong TLD, as well as a great match, is needed for high value.
Let’s look at strength of the extension alone, concentrating on whether names with this extension have sold. There are various sales indicators possible, but I suggest using NameBio to find the total dollar sales volume, and the number of sales above $1k, for the extension over the past two years. I also have a space on the form for the highest-value sale in the extension. I use the two most recent years because the strength of extensions may change significantly over time.
While many sales are not on NameBio, the data can still help differentiate stronger and weaker extensions.
Evaluating Match Across The Dot
Now we are ready to look at the core idea of the match across the dot. Part of this is subjective, say the term, write it down, perhaps ask others outside the domain world, and form an opinion.
A few questions to ask yourself.
There are a few metrics that may help your evaluation. If the term is
Number of web results by themselves offer little definitive indication on domain worth. Sometimes there are tons of results for a term, but it is not particularly valuable as a domain name. Nevertheless, search results are helpful in deciding if a word combination is natural and in widespread use.
Google use intentional search, so the search results are what the Google AI considered relevant to your search, rather than only results with the specific terms. If you include the search expression in quotation marks, Google will only give results that include those exact two terms in that order
Check whether the related name
How Strong Is Business Use Case?
Even a great match across the dot, with a strong SLD term and a solid extension, may still not have a lot of value as a domain name. Value will also depend on how valuable the domain name is to a business or organization.
Many combinations are clever and memorable, but simply don’t have a lot of commercial value.
Consider the sectors and niches that could use the combination, how lucrative and active those applications are, and whether they are likely to pay a reasonable amount for this name. Based on all of that, complete the ‘use case’ rating on the form.
There are metrics that can help. First simply enter the SLD term in OpenCorporates, and record the number of active businesses and organizations with that term. To get just the active ones, make sure you check the exclude inactive box The default setting includes defunct businesses, some from a number of years ago.
Also do a second OpenCorporates search with both the SLD and TLD terms, separated by a space. This will give you many fewer results, but they will use both terms in their name, also-known-as name, or some other business descriptor. Note they do not take order, or placement without intervening words, into consideration.
It takes a bit of time to search, but the strongest measure of use is to see if the SLD has been developed in some of the more common TLDs.
How Strong Is Search?
Expressions formed by matches across the dot are generally valuable as a shorthand for a product, service, concept or something else. Search volume and cost-per-click (CPC) are usually relevant for this kind of domain name.
I find Estibot an easy way to get this data, but there are numerous alternatives in various SEO tools. You get two free searches per day on Estibot.
Estibot shows two search volumes, each with a year history, one for broad, and one for exact search. For example, if my term was hotels searches for beach hotels or luxury hotels or other combinations are all included in broad search. Exact search means searches only on the single term, hotels in our example. Record both broad search and exact search volumes, along with the cost-per-click data for each.
When dealing with new extensions, Estibot sometimes makes the exact search term a combination of SLD+TLD, and other times just the SLD. It will show you in the search section which it used for a particular domain name. I include a check box to record the setting.
Overall Rating
While I find it helpful to look at the SLD, TLD, match, use and search information separately, sometimes breaking things down can mask other considerations necessary for a unified evaluation. Therefore, the final task is to think through the name and give the domain name an overall rating.
While number of views and domain sales seem not strongly correlated, it can be an indicator of the popularity of the word combination. if you have had the name listed for a month or more at a venue that tracks views, that number is probably related to popularity of the term and combination.
Example
It’s not appropriate to share publicly the specific domain name, but I tried out the form and technique on one of my names to illustrate the process. Prior to the analysis, I considered this name a solid across the dot match.
A point on notation: I use k to mean thousand and M to mean million, so $1k means $1000, $2M means $2,000,000, and 4.1M would mean 4.1 million results.
The SLD term is strong according to the metrics, registered in 255 extensions, with more than 33,000 longer domain names that include the term.
The SLD term alone is also strong in sales. NameBio shows 9 sales of the exact term at more than $1000, with the highest sale of the exact term $301,000, and that was not in
The TLD is weak though. Only about $18,000 sales volume over the last two years, and more than half of that in one $10,000 sale. Just 3 sales above $1000 over the past two years. Sure many sales don’t make it to NameBio, but this is a weak record for an extension.
I love the match across the dot. It is an easily remembered expression that sounds right. The numbers largely support that view, with more than 500 million search results on an open
Although the
Before looking at metrics, I felt the use case was very good, but not outstanding. I tried six or seven extensions, and the
The number of businesses and organizations with the term is high according to OpenCorporates, 5116, although when one insists on both the SLD and TLD terms that shrinks to 8. Usually including both terms in an OpenCorporates search will show only a few, if any, results.
I see the domain name as best suited to use by a business or organization as a domain name for a marketing campaign or social media use. While that limits the upper price range, it means there are many potential purchasers.
I am not an SEO expert, but the search numbers seem strong to me. The broad search volume is over 6 million monthly, and the exact search volume more than 90 thousand. Cost-per-click is a solid $2.04 for broad, and $3.04 for exact search. You may also want to record the number of ads shown in the analytics section of Estibot, in this case 3.
The domain gets about 73 visits a month according to my current lander at Sedo. Good, particularly for an unpopular extension, although not outstanding.
Overall I rated the name as just under 7 out of 10. I have held the domain name a few years, and probably will hold it another couple at least. I have not yet had offers on the name.
As mentioned earlier, looking up much detail for one domain name might seem daunting. Once you are used to the various instruments and sites it really is pretty fast – I timed myself and it took about 14 minutes to do the tests and complete the form.
Making good acquisition choices can save you time and money down the road.
Thanks to NameBio, dotDB, OpenCorporates, Estibot and Google as the main tools used for this article.
.com for commercial oriented businesses, .org for organizations, and country codes representing a site based in that country.Over the years most restrictions were dropped, and many extensions can be used for anything. That does not mean that there is not power in having a match, with meaningful coherence between the top level domain (TLD) or extension, and the term, the second level domain (SLD).
The arrival of the new global TLDs (new gTLDs) represented opportunities for strong across the dot matches. Names like
vacation.rentals and web.hosting sold for good amounts because they represent strong matches across the dot.Certain legacy extensions, like
.net, are also suited to across the dot matches. It’s not surprising that baseball.net sold for $15,100 in 2018.Some country code extensions, like
.me, .us, .in and .it, offer a great fit with many terms to create a catchy across the dot expression. For example, meet.me sold in 2011 for $450,000.But how does one differentiate a great across the dot match from one that is just okay? Here are a few approaches that I find helpful.
An Evaluation Form
I put together the following evaluation form to summarize ideas from this article. While it may look imposing, it actually is pretty fast to perform and record all of the tests indicated.
Keep in mind that the form is intended for names where the match across the dot is meaningful. Some extensions, such as
.xyz and .com, are not normally suited to across the dot matches.While I suggest metrics to help with each rating, you should complete the ratings based on your expert opinion. Take the metrics into account, but not in a way that dominates your thinking.
How Strong Is The Term?
Let’s first look at the term to the left of the dot, the second level domain (SLD). Not yet considering the extension, or the match across the dot, how strong is that SLD term?
There are a few metrics that can help. Generally speaking, a term that is registered in a large number of different extensions, whether by domain investors or potential users, is more likely to have value. You can use dotDB to easily find the number of extensions for the SLD term.
As well as the number of registrations for the exact term, dotDB also gives the number of associated domain names. That means longer names that include this term. Indicate that number on the form, as that is also an indicator of value.
Another check on the strength of the SLD term is sales data. One could do more, but I suggest considering at least sales of the Exact term, as listed on NameBio. From the data fill in how many sales are above $1000, and the highest recorded sale.
How Strong Is The Extension?
Sometimes with strong and trending SLD terms, like ‘eth’, we see great sales even with a generally weak extension. But that is an exception. In general, a name with both a strong SLD and a strong TLD, as well as a great match, is needed for high value.
Let’s look at strength of the extension alone, concentrating on whether names with this extension have sold. There are various sales indicators possible, but I suggest using NameBio to find the total dollar sales volume, and the number of sales above $1k, for the extension over the past two years. I also have a space on the form for the highest-value sale in the extension. I use the two most recent years because the strength of extensions may change significantly over time.
While many sales are not on NameBio, the data can still help differentiate stronger and weaker extensions.
Evaluating Match Across The Dot
Now we are ready to look at the core idea of the match across the dot. Part of this is subjective, say the term, write it down, perhaps ask others outside the domain world, and form an opinion.
A few questions to ask yourself.
- Is it correct in a grammatical sense?
- Is it a word combination people would remember?
- Is the meaning clear and significant?
- Is there something catchy or elegant in the combination? Factors like alliteration or a play on words can make an expression even stronger.
There are a few metrics that may help your evaluation. If the term is
example.EXTENSION, first simply do a Google search on example extension, and record the number of results.Number of web results by themselves offer little definitive indication on domain worth. Sometimes there are tons of results for a term, but it is not particularly valuable as a domain name. Nevertheless, search results are helpful in deciding if a word combination is natural and in widespread use.
Google use intentional search, so the search results are what the Google AI considered relevant to your search, rather than only results with the specific terms. If you include the search expression in quotation marks, Google will only give results that include those exact two terms in that order
”example extension”. This will yield a much smaller number of search results, in most cases, but is usually a better indicator of the strength of the across the dot combination.Check whether the related name
ExampleExtension.com is registered, and also whether that combination is registered in additional extensions. You can readily find that out with a DotDB search, now using the combination expression for the search.How Strong Is Business Use Case?
Even a great match across the dot, with a strong SLD term and a solid extension, may still not have a lot of value as a domain name. Value will also depend on how valuable the domain name is to a business or organization.
Many combinations are clever and memorable, but simply don’t have a lot of commercial value.
Consider the sectors and niches that could use the combination, how lucrative and active those applications are, and whether they are likely to pay a reasonable amount for this name. Based on all of that, complete the ‘use case’ rating on the form.
There are metrics that can help. First simply enter the SLD term in OpenCorporates, and record the number of active businesses and organizations with that term. To get just the active ones, make sure you check the exclude inactive box The default setting includes defunct businesses, some from a number of years ago.
Also do a second OpenCorporates search with both the SLD and TLD terms, separated by a space. This will give you many fewer results, but they will use both terms in their name, also-known-as name, or some other business descriptor. Note they do not take order, or placement without intervening words, into consideration.
It takes a bit of time to search, but the strongest measure of use is to see if the SLD has been developed in some of the more common TLDs.
How Strong Is Search?
Expressions formed by matches across the dot are generally valuable as a shorthand for a product, service, concept or something else. Search volume and cost-per-click (CPC) are usually relevant for this kind of domain name.
I find Estibot an easy way to get this data, but there are numerous alternatives in various SEO tools. You get two free searches per day on Estibot.
Estibot shows two search volumes, each with a year history, one for broad, and one for exact search. For example, if my term was hotels searches for beach hotels or luxury hotels or other combinations are all included in broad search. Exact search means searches only on the single term, hotels in our example. Record both broad search and exact search volumes, along with the cost-per-click data for each.
When dealing with new extensions, Estibot sometimes makes the exact search term a combination of SLD+TLD, and other times just the SLD. It will show you in the search section which it used for a particular domain name. I include a check box to record the setting.
Overall Rating
While I find it helpful to look at the SLD, TLD, match, use and search information separately, sometimes breaking things down can mask other considerations necessary for a unified evaluation. Therefore, the final task is to think through the name and give the domain name an overall rating.
While number of views and domain sales seem not strongly correlated, it can be an indicator of the popularity of the word combination. if you have had the name listed for a month or more at a venue that tracks views, that number is probably related to popularity of the term and combination.
Example
It’s not appropriate to share publicly the specific domain name, but I tried out the form and technique on one of my names to illustrate the process. Prior to the analysis, I considered this name a solid across the dot match.
A point on notation: I use k to mean thousand and M to mean million, so $1k means $1000, $2M means $2,000,000, and 4.1M would mean 4.1 million results.
The SLD term is strong according to the metrics, registered in 255 extensions, with more than 33,000 longer domain names that include the term.
The SLD term alone is also strong in sales. NameBio shows 9 sales of the exact term at more than $1000, with the highest sale of the exact term $301,000, and that was not in
.com. Given that the majority of retail sales do not get listed in NameBio, this is a strong record.The TLD is weak though. Only about $18,000 sales volume over the last two years, and more than half of that in one $10,000 sale. Just 3 sales above $1000 over the past two years. Sure many sales don’t make it to NameBio, but this is a weak record for an extension.
I love the match across the dot. It is an easily remembered expression that sounds right. The numbers largely support that view, with more than 500 million search results on an open
SLD TLD combination. When you add the quotation marks, that shrinks Google search results to just 393,000. However, having done a lot of quotation searches on two and three word combinations, that is still a decent number.Although the
.com of the term and extension combination is registered, the combination is not registered in any other extensions, a negative.Before looking at metrics, I felt the use case was very good, but not outstanding. I tried six or seven extensions, and the
.com and .net are developed.The number of businesses and organizations with the term is high according to OpenCorporates, 5116, although when one insists on both the SLD and TLD terms that shrinks to 8. Usually including both terms in an OpenCorporates search will show only a few, if any, results.
I see the domain name as best suited to use by a business or organization as a domain name for a marketing campaign or social media use. While that limits the upper price range, it means there are many potential purchasers.
I am not an SEO expert, but the search numbers seem strong to me. The broad search volume is over 6 million monthly, and the exact search volume more than 90 thousand. Cost-per-click is a solid $2.04 for broad, and $3.04 for exact search. You may also want to record the number of ads shown in the analytics section of Estibot, in this case 3.
The domain gets about 73 visits a month according to my current lander at Sedo. Good, particularly for an unpopular extension, although not outstanding.
Overall I rated the name as just under 7 out of 10. I have held the domain name a few years, and probably will hold it another couple at least. I have not yet had offers on the name.
As mentioned earlier, looking up much detail for one domain name might seem daunting. Once you are used to the various instruments and sites it really is pretty fast – I timed myself and it took about 14 minutes to do the tests and complete the form.
Making good acquisition choices can save you time and money down the road.
Thanks to NameBio, dotDB, OpenCorporates, Estibot and Google as the main tools used for this article.
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