Traffic to .com from other extensions

[ThreeD]

When someone owns a domain like Love.it or Justin.TV or any other ccTLD's/gTLD's for that matter - what .com domain will harvest some of the lost traffic due to type-in errors, extension confusion etc?

Love.com? LoveIt.com? or a little to both?
Justin.com? JustinTV.com? or a little of both?

Anyone have any numbers to put up?

 

[ecalc]

Google adwords keyword tool is your friend. Exact match with extension search volume is a fair proxy for type in traffic ratios.

[love.it] = 49,500
[loveit.com] = 480
[love.com] = 12,100
[justin.tv] = 6,120,000
[justintv.com] = 22,200
[justin.com] = 5400

If love.it and justin.tv were not famous, loveit.com and justintv.com would have zero exact match, justin.com would have less than 1000 exact match and love.com wouldn't even sneeze.

 

[ThreeD]

Thanks ecalc,

I was looking at it from a brand building perspective. If I was the owner of Love.It, would it be wise to acquire LoveIt.com, Love.com or both?

The reason I'm asking is because we hear a lot of .com people claiming massive traffic bleed/leakage from a ccTLD to the .com counterpart. I'm wondering where exactly that bleed/leakage goes.

Another example is the recently launched Search.XXX. Where does search.xxx bleed traffic? To search.com or searchxxx.com?

 

[domainhacks-931385]

I was looking at it from a brand building perspective. If I was the owner of Love.It, would it be wise to acquire LoveIt.com, Love.com or both?

The reason I'm asking is because we hear a lot of .com people claiming massive traffic bleed/leakage from a ccTLD to the .com counterpart. I'm wondering where exactly that bleed/leakage goes.

not at all. leakage is easily corrected by a simple search. 99% of the people will realize they are on the wrong site within the first 5 seconds. All the typo squatter will be left with is rogue page impressions that they can use to try and flip the site, not mentioning 99% left within the first 5 seconds.

Leakage is overrated. Stick with your non .com and build the brand up.

 

[ecalc]

I wouldn't be so quick to shrug off traffic leakage. Google data is valuable. Use it. Adwords tells us search box numbers. URL bar numbers are much higher for the same [sld.tld] type-in. Let's say you own and operate brilliant.hack website. If adwords says [brillianthack.com] = 0 and you don't plan to grow, forget about it. Go back to hacky sack. On the other hand, if [brillianthack.com] = 100 searches per month, think long and hard. That's ballpark 1000 (yes, 10X) URL bar type-ins going to the dot com. One school of thought says no problem, just chill for 5 seconds. Furthermore, the trend is your friend because type-in traffic is shrinking as browsers and user habits evolve. BUT, don't underestimate the ability of users to screw up no matter how mistake-proof browsers become. If brillianthack.com resolves, people will get there whether they have to tap, talk or walk.

Let the data drive smart business decisions. Estimate uncaptured leakage now and in the future. Put a value on it and price the remedy. Hand reg? No brainer. Aftermarket buy/UDRP? Oy vey. Plug the leak if cost effective. No one likes to call the plumber, but it beats calling a general contractor.

 

[ThreeD]

Thanks for the info guys.

Domainhacks, oh we will - just trying to figure out what domains we should acquire and what domains are a waste of money

ecalc - you basically said it right there. The chances that someone goes to brillianthack.com instead of brilliant.hack is present (and we're aware of that).

What we're trying to figure out is exactly where most endusers will go if they forget the fact that the brand is a hack.

Situation #1: If they remember the hack that's fine, they'll end up at Brilliant.Hack.

Situation #2: If they don't remember the hack but not the extension, they may end up at BrilliantHack.com.

Situation #3: They'll end up at brilliant.com because they forgot the hack and extension all together.

As you can see there are a variety of possibilities. We're trying to figure out what category most "average Joes" fit into. Based on your last post I would assume brillianthack.com if they can't remember brilliant.hack

Thanks again for the feedback. It's much appreciated.

 

[gpmgroup]

We looked at bleed a couple of years ago for longer names.

The bulk of the the type in's went to the actual site the greenwidgets.info. (~97%)

The names people think they remembered for greenwidgets.info mainly went to widgets.info, then greenwidgets.(Local)ccTLD and then greenwidgets.com. None went to greenwidgets.org or greenwidgets.biz or greenwidgets.net


You can really minimize cross TLD bleed through careful logo design and webpage and advert design.

 

[lincolndsp]

the issue is what wil happen to successful bluewidgets.co when the quality site will become established on bluewidgets.com ??? the truth may be such that will piss off the .hack owner in a big way

 

[gpmgroup]

the issue is what wil happen to successful bluewidgets.co when the quality site will become established on bluewidgets.com ???

I would guess the similarity of .co and .com together with the dominance of .com would be a challenge. Overstock had horrendous figures (61%) from their tests, but that may have been in part due to Overstock.com being a very well known existing brand and a re-branding exercise rather than a new(er) competing brand.



Back in 2008 Nominet who run .uk gave out a press release which stated that they had surveyed 2352 users and they said that 72% of users stated they were more likely to visit the .co.uk rather than the .com in the first instant. (Though comparing ccTLDs and gTLDs rather than just gTLDs or (ccTLDs used as gTLDs) introduces extra issues for some sites/domains, such as people not wanting to pay postage or have support from a foreign country etc.)

 

[domainhacks-931385]

the issue is what wil happen to successful bluewidgets.co when the quality site will become established on bluewidgets.com ??? the truth may be such that will piss off the .hack owner in a big way

If you think 'good'.coms are immune to traffic leakage, think again. One of the biggest pronounceable dot coms has a lot of leakage. People are typing utube.com instead of youtube.com. Utube sued youtube for this huge traffic increase, and eventually had to change their site due to this.

 

[ThreeD]

Thanks for the feedback all, especially gpmgroup for posting very interesting data.

I guess getting the "domainname+(cctld).com" if you're going to develop a .me, .tv or .it is a good move, just to be on the safe side

 

[domainhacks-931385]

Thanks for the feedback all, especially gpmgroup for posting very interesting data.

I guess getting the "domainname+(cctld).com" if you're going to develop a .me, .tv or .it is a good move, just to be on the safe side

It's not necessary at all. Justin.tv paid no attention to acquiring justintv.com. Justintv.com was bought for over 20K by someone other than justin.tv who seems to like throwing their money away.

 

[ecalc]

Justin.tv paid no attention to acquiring justintv.com

... except when they filed a complaint to the National Arbitration Forum on March 28, 2012. Case 1436777 was decided on May 17, 2012 when it was ordered that the <justintv.com> domain name be transferred to the complainant.

 

[domainhacks-931385]

... except when they filed a complaint to the National Arbitration Forum on March 28, 2012. Case 1436777 was decided on May 17, 2012 when it was ordered that the <justintv.com> domain name be transferred to the complainant.

Good find. So that typosquatter paid 32,500 for no domain. LOL

I think they only started paying attention because of news of that sale.

 

[ecalc]

that typosquatter paid 32,500 for no domain. LOL

From the NAF decision:
"The Respondent submits that the 2012 registration date for this disputed domain name should not be the one at which bad faith should be assessed on the grounds that all the various registrants since 1999 (usually camouflaged by privacy services) were really the (respondent's) alter ego …"

Alter ego? No registrant change? Shill auction? Nothing goes right for that guy. What a childhood he had. His parents sent him to a child psychiatrist. That kid didn't help him at all … He grew up but it didn't get any better. On Halloween when he opened the door, trick-or-treaters gave HIM candy … He joined Gamblers Anonymous - they gave him two-to-one he wouldn't make it …

credits: Rodney Dangerfield

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9lzez1WoX8"]Rodney Dangerfield on The Ed Sullivan Show - YouTube[/ame]