GoDaddy Estimated Values - Are they useful

[Jonathan MacDermid]

Hi All,

Does anyone know if the Godaddy estimated values for websites are in any way accurate?

For example, could you use a % of the Godaddy Estimated Value to promote selling the domains.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I think that @briguy makes a good point. Even if you feel that GoValue has serious limitations, GoDaddy are a widely known brand, and GoValue will therefore get more acceptance than Estibot among the general population for this reason.

For better or worse, I can see a situation where it will become hard to sell domains with low GoValue estimates, and easier to get better prices for those with generous valuations. Their price may become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I think that the GoValue tool is already good enough to be worthwhile, and them having access to the huge database of Afternic sales data is a definite advantage. I think if we are asking for a price that is significantly less than the GoValue valuation it is part of the information base (along with comparable sales data) that in some cases may be helpful in selling the domain name.

In my opinion the most important thing GoValue need to improve is to use data to weight different new gTLD extensions according to how well they work with the domain. Currently in most cases they treat them as equal, or almost so. This should be easy to do. Two words that are frequently found together on the internet or books clearly should be more valuable than two that are not.

 

[OmarVG]

Does anyone know if the Godaddy estimated values for websites are in any way accurate?

Not at all... Don't trust in any "estimated values" from any source, they are Not accurate.
The real value of a domain name is the one the Owner of the domain gives it, you decide for how much money you want to sell your domain, if the buyer don't agree its their problem not yours...

 

[briguy]

Since Godaddy is a brand that is getting known to the general population (tv commercials)
I use their appraisial on my sales page...

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I found a domain I had listed at $300 was shown with an appraisal of $1500. So I put the price up to a bit below that.

While there are many different views to pricing of domain names (or even whether to have a BIN!), I would not automatically make the price always just below GoValue. As indicated in my long post above, automated may be high or low by a lot. Now if both Estibot and GoValue were consistent, and if NameBio showed a similar price on close comparators, then I would use that price.

On NameBio you can readily find the following that should influence pricing in my opinion:

• Has the exact name sold? If so that price in closely related extensions can be helpful. e.g. if it sold in .org and .net for low $$$$ then i would price the .com some factor above that.
• If it is a two word name, look at the mean and median prices on NameBio for domains that start with the first word and end with the second word as guides.
• But most important is to try to find close comparators.
• Also look at whether the niche is going up or down. Like decade old prices on DVD are probably not very helpful, but neither would probably decade old genetic niche prices for current valuation.

Also, ask trusted friends with expertise in domain names to suggest a price range. Price also will depend on how desperate you are for a sale (not all will agree). If renewal is coming up and you are price strapped and you have tried unsuccessfully to sell the domain for three years, then probably accepting a more modest price makes sense imho.

This is obviously not a full list on the huge topic of pricing correctly - Domain Name Academy haw a whole section on it. My main point is look at GoValue but never as your only criteria. Best wishes with your domain names!

 

[Silentptnr]

You just might.

Watch this to better understand the methodology.
www.namepros.com/threads/godaddy-namescon-keynote-is-available-now.1065435/#post-6574122

 

[Bob Hawkes]

i don´t believe that the godaddy price is right, i bought 30 domains which are worth 1-2k per domain. but still hope that they will sell.

Any automated system, or human for that matter, can and often are very wrong. Domain name valuation is not an exact science. They probably do better with things like short letters, short numbers and single word since these are easier to value, but still not at all easy! If interested, I recently analyzed how well GoValue does with NNNNN .com domain names all sold at a single venue. The short answer is for NNNNN.com on average GoValue does really well, but only slightly better than random in predicting which number sequences will go for more or less.

https://agreatnameforyou.blogspot.com/2018/08/nnnnn-domain-names.html

GoValue tend to place most .com in the $1k range, so it definitely does not mean that you can (necessarily) get the GoDaddy price! But you might get more, but more likely less, or not sell at all.

Brandables are of course even harder and probably automated are almost worthless for brandables imho.

One big limitation of GoValue is in new extensions. They treat all (almost all) new extensions equally. For example they estimate the worth of delicious(.)pizza and delicious(.) tax both at $602! Delicious pizza is a great word that could command much more than that in my opinion, but I would not pay (its high) registration fee for the tax extension with that word. Whenever you get GV ngTLD domain estimate always ask yourself whether the name and extension match. If so it may be worth more, but if not it may well be worthless.

It is important to realize the different way GoValue and Estibot "thinks". They don't for obvious reasons give their detailed methodology but it is obvious after looking at thousands of estimates that for GoValue they place most emphasis on prior big sales in any extension. For example, if widgetty sold for $15,000 in .net, they would say it is worth more than $25,000 in com and a very good price, probably in thousands, on other extensions, taking into account the average selling price for the different country code extensions. Estibot take a very different approach, where it seems they mainly value how many different extensions widgetty has already been registered in and how often it is searched and how often and for what price per click the term is used on Google Adsense (and perhaps other online advertisers).

In my opinion you should always check GV on a name you are acquiring both to have it tell you other related domains that sold (but are not on NameBio), but also to give a second opinion, but you should never let the GV or Estibot be your main consideration on worth of a domain name. Another reason to always know it is that increasingly some end users will know about the valuation system and will have looked it up for domains you are selling. Finally, remember that GV estimates go up and down a lot - easily 2x higher or lower a week later. You should sample several times and view it as a range.


ps I have finished but not yet released an analysis of GV accuracy for .co domain names - hope to do final refinements and release tomorrow and will post on NPs.

 

[Silentptnr]

GoDaddy believes they are.

Yes, you could.

 

[bobbarato]

I think it is swell of godaddy to let us use it as much as we want.

Alas, just like I make way more "not real" money playing video games than in real life, this price tool is the same.

There's also a 4L.com that forwards to this godaddy page but I forget what it is...

This is the link for those that are wondering...

https://www.godaddy.com/domain-value-appraisal

 

[Kate]

Until Godaddy actually gives you cash for your domains, even 10% of estimated value, their appraisals are as good as toilet paper
Pricing the domains is not the problem, what we need is buyers not appraisals.

 

[Domain Executive]

Estimation tools give you an order of magnitude such as $XXX, $X.XXX (low/high), $XX.XXX (low/mid/high). They may value the very same names differently and they are generally not good at valuing brandables.

There are always exceptions but, if GoDaddy values a domain less than $1K, which includes dictionary words without typos etc, there is a high probability that the domain is not valuable. If GoDaddy values btw $1K-$1.6K, there is a high probability that the domain is moderate. If GoDaddy values btw $1.7-$3K, there is a high probability that the domain is becoming valuable as valuation approaches $3K. If GoDaddy values higher than $3K, there is a high probability that the domain is valuable. GoDaddy doesn't give valuations beyond $25K but it says more than $25K. I assume people playing with names valuing $3K+ already knows how to value their domains themselves.

Using GoDaddy & Estibot together with similar sales from NameBio & DNPrices may give you better results overall. You can simply take their average by leaving the outliers out if any.

For the ones new to the industry, I recommend using these tools especially to train themselves in order to make better valuations on their own. Valuation highly depends on what's in buyer's mind for that domain after all. Valuation tools are also helpful for sellers negotiating with buyers who don't know the industry. Hope this helps.

 

[Jonathan MacDermid]

GoDaddy believes they are.

Yes, you could.

Thanks for the reply.

I hope GoDaddy are correct because they value my current portfolio at over $16,000 and to I would be happy if I end up with a quarter of that

 

[Jonathan MacDermid]

I think it is swell of godaddy to let us use it as much as we want.

Alas, just like I make way more "not real" money playing video games than in real life, this price tool is the same.

There's also a 4L.com that forwards to this godaddy page but I forget what it is...

Yes I've been reading more and more comments just like this about it. Seems like it can identify which domains may have more than junk value but nobody is putting any value in the actual $ amounts.

Shame really, I thought it supported the fact I had made good investment decisions.

 

[bobbarato]

Just for fun you should see what the sedo.com and estibot.com price estimators give you!

 

[Jonathan MacDermid]

I just did and it is night and day the difference between them.

 

[lock]

I must be rich then. woohoo I better start eating lobsters.

 

[frank-germany]

its extremely good that tool

has no idea about the value of .de domains

but for .com
if it shows is below $1K USD
I would think twice about buying the domain

as the average .com domain is evaluated $1100 to $1400 USD

 

[carob]

I might be misunderstanding what you are asking, but for me even when it is listed for less than GD GoValue the Afternic listed price still shows up on GoValue with a link to add to the GD cart. If someone wants to check it one of mine that this is for is AdvantageHappy.com - if you search that on GoValue it also shows that I have it for sale. This exposure on GoValue may be one of the more useful places of being on the Afternic network in my opinion.

Hi you are right that the Appraisal tool shows a link to the Afternic listed domain.

What I meant was, if you go to Godaddy.com (homepage, not the appraisal page) and search for a domain that has been listed on Afternic, you see it there in the Godaddy results and afaik IF the sale price is lower than the valuation, then the valuation/appraisal is shown too:

https://uk.godaddy.com/dpp/find?checkAvail=1&tmskey=&domainToCheck=AdvantageHappy.com

I'd like to know for a fact that it does not show appraisals when they appraisal is lower than the price the seller has set - others were complaining before about the appraisals pushing down what buyers want to pay.

Cool way to find unreported sales though, under the Comparable domains sold: heading on the appraisal tool.

 

[frank-germany]

In my opinion you should always check GV on a name you are acquiring both to have it tell you other related domains that sold (but are not on NameBio), but also to give a second opinion, but you should never let the GV or Estibot be your main consideration on worth of a domain name. .

that the way use these tools and benefit from them

but your own estimate has to be the one you go for
no matter what they tell you

 

[Bob Hawkes]

in the "boring" video he tells you to visit his booth in order to get a code for portfolio appraisals

is there a way to do so now ?

I believe they did have such a code that they gave out at a conference (NamesCon last year I think?) to registrants, but that was a limited time thing to promote the introduction of GoValue. As far as I know it is not currently available, but if you, or anyone, finds that it is, I would be interested in knowing details. Thanks.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

One thing that I would point out to those who use GoValue estimates when talking to potential purchasers, the estimated values do vary significantly with time. I am not sure whether this is because they are constantly tweeking their algorithm, or if it is because of undue influence of new sales data added to the database. It is not unusual to find a domain name that is $400 one week become $1100 two weeks later, or vice versa. Estibot on the other hand seems (maybe too!) stable unless the actual exact name has a new sales record. I have checked a few names about a year ago and now, and all but one remained exactly the same value (and the other only changed slightly).

I agree with those who say that generally (the estimates) are too high, but there are also cases where they are too low, and as I pointed out from my analysis of NNNNN com sales and GV estimates, on average they were correct. By the way if anyone is doing similar analysis it is critical to check GoValue right after the sales announcements to make sure that the sales themselves don't influence the valuations.

 

[xynames]

I actually like the GoValue tool and use it on every domain after I get a price inquiry. I don’t always follow it but - put it this way - I will almost never sell a domain for less than it comes in on this appraisal. I suppose the tool doesn’t work for garbage domains but for decent to good ones it seems pretty accurate. It’s not as good with assessing great domains - it comes in low on those. It also doesn’t assess any added value the domain might have to a particular end user or based on some trend that it isn’t taking into account.

Saying it is worthless is to deny the comparables that the tool comes up with. At a minimum you may use some of these comparables to support your asking price to the inquirer.

 

[frank-germany]

I agree. It seems to me that Estibot is very low in anything that is brandable and that is two or more words in particular. They also seem unfairly low to some of the major country extensions in the ones I have searched. Do you find the same?

With new extensions they do attempt to differentiate, but I think are too kind with some and too harsh with some.

in the video the speaker says
-as I understand it-

that "other" evaluation tools use keywords
and godaddy uses past sales

german keywords may not make sense to estibot
or english keywords with a .de do not make sense to estibot eventually

but estibot is questionable all over anyway

 

[briguy]

Does anyone know anything more about the sales that GD shows there? Are they all unreported sales on the GD platform? Or do they include other venues- not clear as they do not state venue or date.

Believe it was answered earlier...

when you listen to the "boring" video
they very well explain that their tools is based on past sales

and "other tools" are based on keywords

"they very well explain that their tools is based on past sales

and "other tools" are based on keywords"

 

[BrandCougar]

During the Namescon Youtube video, Paul Nicks mentions that they have acquired several large portfolios.

He also mentions that GD clusters their inventory into 13 different tiers (clusters) for management purposes an also when pricing a portfolio for acquisition.

My question is... does anyone have an insight to what their "Sweet Spot" items are being priced for acquisition purposes?

"Sweet Spot" items being the $1k to $5k valued names. As Paul mentioned, 55-58% of their aftermarket sales occur in this price band. Reference: 12:28 timestamp into the video.

I am curious what multiple they are paying during acquisition for the "sweet spot" price point items. (ie- what sort of "wholesale" pricing is being offered for domains priced in the "Sweet Spot")

Having a sense of "wholesale" pricing would help put context to their GoValue tool from a reseller (domainer) perspective.

Any insight?