Best stat to look for in a domain?

[Ringr]

Hey Guys,

I am curious for your opinions on this. When you're thinking about snapping a domain or buying one, which of the following is most important to you when determining to get the domain or not?

• Google PageRank
• Alexa Traffic Rank
• Number of Alexa Links it has
• Times it appears in Google/MSN/Lycos
• It is DMOZ or Yahoo listed
• Overture

Which of those stats means most to you, or do you feel is the most important when you're making a choice to buy a domain or not?

Just curious
-Andy

 

[dgridley]

Alexa can be manipulated so easily.. I would disregard Alexa rankings, period.

 

[mole]

Can you give more options? What about Overture?

 

[Ringr]

@Mole: Edited, odd thing was, I did put in Overture when I made the list, but I must have accidently replaced it with something else :s

Continue on

 

[IAmAllanShore]

An imaginary "brandability" factor that is computed by a formula unique to this cracker

-Allan

 

[AdoptableDomains]

None of the above.

Most of those rely on past use of the domain (except overture which is an indication of general keyword usage, but also in the near past). I buy names to market to end users for development which will increase value with age, not for past traffic or reputation which will go down with age. It depends if your long term intent in the market is monetize type-in traffic, self development, or resale to end users.

My decision is based on instinct and asking myself the question: If I were in the business of developing the name as an end user, would I buy and use the name, or are there better choices?

A factor I look at is current usage of the same name in other TLD's. I do a whois.sc search on the name, and note if all TLD's are taken. If taken, are any developed, or are they all parked? If some are developed, end user demand is proven. If all parked, apparently no buyers are willing to pay aftermarket prices, and I may have trouble selling as well, and have will compete against other resellers instead of end users who presumably would not compete.

 

[plugged]

I go by the actual domain name. If it sounds good or has a high brandability value, I try to pick it up.

 

[1rrr1]

i think you need to get a range between all of them

 

[Ringr]

Sorry for the bump here.

When looking for domains with high traffic, which of the stats is most important (or indicates the domain might have a lot of traffic)?

I need a bit of help with this.

 

[mole]

Google Search results eg if it has 10,000,000,000 occurances, grab that name!

 

[Jammer]

I go by the actual domain name. If it sounds good or has a high brandability value, I try to pick it up.

I basically use this method solely...if the name has anything else going for it,then it's a plus....but for me....the name itself comes first....

 

[dgridley]

I agree there.. I have to have a "feel" for the name first.. everything else is "gravy"...

I basically use this method solely...if the name has anything else going for it,then it's a plus....but for me....the name itself comes first....

 

[Tippy]

i think you need to get a range between all of them

I agree, not taking all info into consideration would be like doing a survey and only asking one person...

 

[andriegel]

what about this scenario:

Let's say you have a domain name: "threelongwords.com"
Well, threelongwords.com is available. You see that it gets a Wordtracker score of 60 a day, and there are 200K matches on google with quotes.

Is this a no-brainer buy? ( at reg fee)

 

[1rrr1]

you really need to get a mix of these datas before deciding....

 

[nRnF]

None of the above.
.....
My decision is based on instinct and asking myself the question:
If I were in the business of developing the name as an end user, would I buy and use the name, or are there better choices?

I couldnt say it better