Type-in domain names and parking - How to evaluate?

[kaz2]

Hi all

I am a newbie to domaining. When I started out I rushed in to register names I thought "sounded" good. I have now learnt, after further research, that in order to sell your domain names there must, in most cases, be some inherent keyword value. My understanding is that type-ins with the .com extension and high overture count are valuable and much sought after. The problem is, locating an exact type-in with a .com extension is like looking for a needle in a haystack!!

Mu question is this (using made up data):- if you have located an overture search term like "check cheap hotels" and it has a count of say, 1,000 month but no type-in search term of "checkcheaphotels.com" at all would it still be worth registering as the domain name "checkcheaphotels.com"? Do the search engines combine keyword phrases and match them to equivalent URL's?

Please advise as I suspect that this is an area much misunderstood by newbies such as myself - are type-ins restricted exclusively to the exact search term with a .com extension or can you obtain search traffic if your domain name matches the exact search phrase with a high overture count (ie would "checkcheaphotels.com" obtain type-in traffic from the phrase ""check cheap hotels"?).

Thanks!

 

[gingeman]

In order to track down a name with traffic you should look for a phrase where there is overture including the extension- i.e. "checkcheaphotels.com", then to be sure that this overture isn't just from one or two people, check the phrase has a higher overture without the extension - 'checkcheaphotels'. When you have both you should have some type-in traffic. It is very difficult indeed to find fresh registrations like this, as so many are looking. Maybe try buying a name that has expired to begin with. You will almost certainly need to pay for some domaining tools to conduct this research.
Regards

 

[kaz2]

Hi gingeman

Thanks for the vluable info! What if you have a keyword phrase with very high overture (say 15,000) but no overture score with the .com extension (eg "check cheap hotels" as a phrase but no overture score for "checkcheaphotels.COM"). Would you still consider it worthwhile to register the domain name "checkcheaphotels.com"?

If you did so, would you expect some type-in traffic just from the keywords alone or is there some SEO to be done? If there is SEO work to be done, would the website get a higher ranking as the domain name is an exact match to the overture keyword phrase?

Thanks, kaz2.

 

[gingeman]

In this instance I would say the domain would generally have little value without doing considerable seo work. It would obviously count in favour to have the exact expression, but the ranking would be mainly dictated by the seo in this case. This is obviously a very wide generalisation so please do not take it as 'always' the case.
Personally, I wouldn't usually consider it worthwhile to register the domain in this scenarion, although obviously exceptions occur.

 

[kaz2]

Hi gingeman

Thanks for that reply; it makes alot of sense - so what you are saying is that for a domain name to be valuable it needs the .com extension with some overture traffic searching for the domain name PLUS .com extension.

Are there any circumstances where this will not apply as I notice from DNJournal that many high value sales don't seem to have overture searchs?

Your reply is much appreciated!

Regards, kaz2