A key question is: what are the critical steps for a domain name to be discovered and ultimately purchased?
Last week Nikul Sanghvi of Hypernames posted data from his own portfolio that helps to answer questions such as the percentage of sales at Afternic, and, of those, how many are fast transfer network sales at different partners. With his permission I am sharing his content below.
The Name Discovery Flowchart
Before we get to the data, here is a flowchart that Nikul recently produced.
Nikul divides searches into intentional, buyers know the name they want, and what he calls discovery, buyers need a name, but don’t have a specific one in mind.
The buyer that knows the name they want, usually does one of two things:
If the potential buyer does find the name, purchase will largely depend on whether the name is within their price range, or could be within their range with a lease-to-own option, and their trust in the selling process.
Those who do not have a specific domain name in mind, have several options, two of which are covered in the flowchart;
The NamePros Blog covered the topic of intentional and discovery search, although we did not use those terms, this summer in Does Anyone Know They Want This Domain Name?.
Where Do Domain Sales Happen?
Nikul has been a successful seller for a number of years, and keeps careful records. He described the background for the data this way:
The results:
One can often deduce where a network sale happened according to where the name ended up, and/or via information from a service representative. This is what Nikul found,
Now there are a few caveats, in addition to the fact that this is a fairly small number of sales for a statistical analysis. One is that it is possible that the alternative extensions that are a major focus by Nikul, like .co, .io, .xyz and .ai, might produce a different result compared to a portfolio of mainly two-word .com names, for example. Someone asked about pricing, and Nikul responded that, after taking out a few large outlier sales, the typical sales price was about $6000 for these names.
Also, keep in mind that GoDaddy search changed this year, and that Afternic search was terminated, and instead searchers sent to GoDaddy search. The impact of the AI search, by GoDaddy and other providers, is also difficult to assess. And, of course we now have the search changes that are part of Boost.
How Do People Search At Registrars
I always wondered how many people search for a specific name, with extension, versus searching a term alone, at a registrar. Nikul tagged a number of registrar representatives, asking about that, and now we know the situation at two registrars.
Todd Han of Dynadot reported that about 60% of searches include the extension. That data does not include the bulk searches. Someone then asked what percentage were searching with the .com extension, and that is about 30% of the overall searches, or in other words only about half of the searches with an extension given are in .com. It turns out that Dynadot has that data constantly, refreshed when there is a system update. At the time Todd posted, there had been 80,495 searches since the last update, of which 49,828 included the extension, and of those 23,402 were searches with .com as the extension.
The Porkbun official account also responded, with a higher percentage search with extension there, about 80%, and for about 55% of those searches the extension is .com.
Where Name Sells Is Not Necessarily Where Decision To Buy Made
While we track where the name was purchased, we should not assume that other steps were not important in producing that sale. The size and advertising of GoDaddy, coupled to the familiarity through other services they offer businesses, make it likely that many buyers prefer to buy the name through them.
In other words, a sale might look like it is via the network, since the buyer did not purchase at the Dan lander, but really they were convinced to buy the name at that lander, and may have first found it through search there.
The same is true for sales of brandable names that close at GoDaddy or another registrar, or at Sedo or Afternic. The name was discovered on the brandable marketplace and the presentation there was essential for the sale.
Would They Still Find The Name Another Way?
The official NamePros account asked Nikul this:
This is how Nikul responded:
But what were the uncertain factors Nikul mentioned?
He summarized the situation this way:
New Entry in Domain Name Search
I think there is general agreement that right now the search avenues for those seeking domain names are far from optimum. While it is still early for details, Josh Reason has announced a fourth quarter 2024 start for a new service to address that: GTDN.com (Get That Domain Name). I reached out to Josh and he responded:
Final Thoughts
First of all, a sincere thank you to Nikul Sanghvi of Hypernames for the excellent data, insights and commentary, and for generously agreeing to me to include it in this article. Also thanks to both Porkbun and Dynadot for sharing the registrar search data.
While keeping in mind the cautions about sample size and possible bias due to different types of portfolio, these are the conclusions that I take:
Last week Nikul Sanghvi of Hypernames posted data from his own portfolio that helps to answer questions such as the percentage of sales at Afternic, and, of those, how many are fast transfer network sales at different partners. With his permission I am sharing his content below.
The Name Discovery Flowchart
Before we get to the data, here is a flowchart that Nikul recently produced.
Chart by Nikul Sanghvi of Hypernames. This is a simplified look at some possible ways a domain name may be discovered and purchased.
Nikul divides searches into intentional, buyers know the name they want, and what he calls discovery, buyers need a name, but don’t have a specific one in mind.
The buyer that knows the name they want, usually does one of two things:
- They may search that name at their registrar, or at a domain name marketplace, entering the complete domain name with extension
Example.com. - Alternatively, they might type the name into a browser, and ideally go to an operational lander.
If the potential buyer does find the name, purchase will largely depend on whether the name is within their price range, or could be within their range with a lease-to-own option, and their trust in the selling process.
Those who do not have a specific domain name in mind, have several options, two of which are covered in the flowchart;
- The potential purchaser might go to a curated marketplace, like BrandBucket, Atom or BrandPa, among others, and those marketplaces guide purchasers to names via categories and more powerful search capability. In essence the marketplace or staff guide the buyer to a set of possible names.
- Alternatively, the potential buyer might search, without an extension, for a few terms that describe what they are looking for. That search might be at a general domain name marketplace, such as Sedo, or at a registrar, such as GoDaddy or Namecheap.
The NamePros Blog covered the topic of intentional and discovery search, although we did not use those terms, this summer in Does Anyone Know They Want This Domain Name?.
Where Do Domain Sales Happen?
Nikul has been a successful seller for a number of years, and keeps careful records. He described the background for the data this way:
In other words, by having landers with Dan, but the names also listed on Afternic, and with Fast Transfer enabled where possible, the name has the possibility of selling in various ways. Where did the sales actually happen?
Data and chart by Nikul Sanghvi of Hypernames. This is a summary for about 150 sales from last few years where the name had nameservers pointed to Dan, but the names were also listed on Afternic and many through that the Fast Transfer network.
The results:
- 46% of sales via the Afternic network.
- 48% of sales at Dan, where landing pages were.
- 6% from a variety of other sources such as inbound emails, Efty, private negotiations, brokers and at Sedo
One can often deduce where a network sale happened according to where the name ended up, and/or via information from a service representative. This is what Nikul found,
Of the 46% that are network, 30% are via GoDaddy, 7% are Namecheap, and 9% everything else combined. While much is made of the number of partners in the fast transfer networks, in fact most sales just happen at GoDaddy itself and NameCheap to a lesser degree. You can read more about fast transfer networks in A Deeper Look at Domain Name Fast Transfer Sales Networks.
Now there are a few caveats, in addition to the fact that this is a fairly small number of sales for a statistical analysis. One is that it is possible that the alternative extensions that are a major focus by Nikul, like .co, .io, .xyz and .ai, might produce a different result compared to a portfolio of mainly two-word .com names, for example. Someone asked about pricing, and Nikul responded that, after taking out a few large outlier sales, the typical sales price was about $6000 for these names.
Also, keep in mind that GoDaddy search changed this year, and that Afternic search was terminated, and instead searchers sent to GoDaddy search. The impact of the AI search, by GoDaddy and other providers, is also difficult to assess. And, of course we now have the search changes that are part of Boost.
How Do People Search At Registrars
I always wondered how many people search for a specific name, with extension, versus searching a term alone, at a registrar. Nikul tagged a number of registrar representatives, asking about that, and now we know the situation at two registrars.
Todd Han of Dynadot reported that about 60% of searches include the extension. That data does not include the bulk searches. Someone then asked what percentage were searching with the .com extension, and that is about 30% of the overall searches, or in other words only about half of the searches with an extension given are in .com. It turns out that Dynadot has that data constantly, refreshed when there is a system update. At the time Todd posted, there had been 80,495 searches since the last update, of which 49,828 included the extension, and of those 23,402 were searches with .com as the extension.
The Porkbun official account also responded, with a higher percentage search with extension there, about 80%, and for about 55% of those searches the extension is .com.
Where Name Sells Is Not Necessarily Where Decision To Buy Made
While we track where the name was purchased, we should not assume that other steps were not important in producing that sale. The size and advertising of GoDaddy, coupled to the familiarity through other services they offer businesses, make it likely that many buyers prefer to buy the name through them.
In other words, a sale might look like it is via the network, since the buyer did not purchase at the Dan lander, but really they were convinced to buy the name at that lander, and may have first found it through search there.
The same is true for sales of brandable names that close at GoDaddy or another registrar, or at Sedo or Afternic. The name was discovered on the brandable marketplace and the presentation there was essential for the sale.
Would They Still Find The Name Another Way?
The official NamePros account asked Nikul this:
Asked another way, do you really need to be in the fast transfer networks to get the roughly half of sales from that avenue.
This is how Nikul responded:
Just before we look at those two things, I wanted to stress that would mean that you would still have 80% plus of the sales, given the roughly 50% that already take place at the lander.
But what were the uncertain factors Nikul mentioned?
The situation may be slightly different at the high end of the market, as he commented:
We should not overlook trust as a factor.
Price is also a factor in sales conversion.
He summarized the situation this way:
New Entry in Domain Name Search
I think there is general agreement that right now the search avenues for those seeking domain names are far from optimum. While it is still early for details, Josh Reason has announced a fourth quarter 2024 start for a new service to address that: GTDN.com (Get That Domain Name). I reached out to Josh and he responded:
If GTDN becomes an common way for businesses to find domain names, it will be important that sellers make sure they are listing in ways that GTDN accesses.
Final Thoughts
First of all, a sincere thank you to Nikul Sanghvi of Hypernames for the excellent data, insights and commentary, and for generously agreeing to me to include it in this article. Also thanks to both Porkbun and Dynadot for sharing the registrar search data.
While keeping in mind the cautions about sample size and possible bias due to different types of portfolio, these are the conclusions that I take:
- Roughly half of sales come via the lander.
- A lander with strong trust factor can increase conversion.
- Network sales are primarily via GoDaddy and Namecheap, that is probably related to trust in the seller.
- Intentional buyers searching for a specific name will probably check multiple ways, if necessary. For example at a marketplace, at a network registrar, or via a landing page.
- A significant number of people search without the extension. At least some of them are probably willing to consider multiple extensions, although others expect the system to automatically include the .com.
- I was somewhat surprised that only about half of people searching for a specific name are looking for the .com, at least at the registrars reporting search data.
- Overall, within the domain markets, current search leaves much to be desired.
- If it is unlikely that someone will guess a specific name and search for it, then it is essential to use another mechanism such as a brandable marketplace, social promotion, outbound, or services of a broker to make the availability of the name known to likely end users.
