Using Overture

[G_C]

I've heard a lot about the importance of Overture results in evaluating the potential worth of a domain name. Recently, I decided to give this tool a go and tested some of the domains that I own.

Problem is, I am not sure if I'm searching correctly. Let's say, for instance, that I want to use the tool to evaluate the worth of virtualcheap.com. What do I enter in the search bar - virtualcheap or virtual cheap? Obviously, in cases of two-word domains, Overture will probably not come up with as many results, so can you please advise on this?

Secondly, let's say that I search Overture for "virtual cheap." It comes up with a number of results, such as:

Count Search Term
176 cheap virtual web hosting
37 cheap virtual office
27 cheap virtual hosting

Sometimes (although not in this case) Overture also produces a result which it presents as white letters on a black field. This result is normally identical to the specific enquiry that I input in the field. So, for the purposes of looking at the total number of searches done for my key words, do I only look at the number in the black box? Or do I add up the three results posted above? Please help!

Thanks in advance,
George

 

[RegFee]

I've heard a lot about the importance of Overture results in evaluating the potential worth of a domain name. Recently, I decided to give this tool a go and tested some of the domains that I own.

Problem is, I am not sure if I'm searching correctly. Let's say, for instance, that I want to use the tool to evaluate the worth of virtualcheap.com. What do I enter in the search bar - virtualcheap or virtual cheap? Obviously, in cases of two-word domains, Overture will probably not come up with as many results, so can you please advise on this?

You can actually use all three forms to determine a name's potential value. All the tool does is show you how many times people searched Yahoo for those keywords last month. If 500,000 people searched for it, then obviously the name should have some value. The searches with extension come into play if you want to see if a name might get some type-in traffic. The yahoo toolbar installed in a lot of people's browsers looks similar to the address bar. People might accidently type the domain they are looking to go to into the yahoo bar instead of the url bar. If a domain with the extension, ie virtualcheap.com, had overture score of 500, then that would be a very good indicator of traffic. Of course, someone who owned the name could've set up something that searched for the name over and over again and tainted the results, so always be careful with overture domains and make sure there are other reasons the name could be getting traffic.

Secondly, let's say that I search Overture for "virtual cheap." It comes up with a number of results, such as:

Count Search Term
176 cheap virtual web hosting
37 cheap virtual office
27 cheap virtual hosting

Sometimes (although not in this case) Overture also produces a result which it presents as white letters on a black field. This result is normally identical to the specific enquiry that I input in the field. So, for the purposes of looking at the total number of searches done for my key words, do I only look at the number in the black box? Or do I add up the three results posted above?

You are right, the highlighted results are those that match your query exactly. If you are wondering how many people are searching for "virtual cheap" in yahoo, then only the highlighted result it applicable. But with keywords like "virtual cheap", it's good to know the other results to get a feel for what kind of ways the domain can be used for.

Here's an article I wrote on overture with extension:

Overture.com is a search engine owned by Yahoo!. Advertisers can bid on certain keywords in order to have their ads displayed when users search for particular terms. Overture set up a Keyword Suggestion Tool for advertisers to determine which keywords are worth bidding on. This tool determines how many times certain words were searched for during the previous month.

So WHY is this tool so important to domainers? Well, Yahoo! has a toolbar which a lot of people have installed in their browsers. What happens is, sometimes people make a mistake and type domain names into the Yahoo! search bar, instead of thier browser's address bar. This shows up on the Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool as a search for that domain name. So if, for example, 50 people mistakingly search for a domain name in a month, then imagine how many people are actually typing it into their browser.


There are a couple of things that can throw the numbers off, though, so make sure you do your research before backordering any of these names, since you may just end up winning one that turns out to be a dud.


When a name is nearing it's expiration date, a lot of people may search for it with the Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool, which will just raise its OWE, or Overture W/ Extension score. Also, if someone is being malicious, it could be possible for them to run a script that searched for the name they are trying to sell you a bunch of times last month, making it appear to have a high OWE.


Also keep in mind that just because a name has OWE, it may not get any extra traffic at all. At the same time, it could get a TON! I recently registered a name that had an OWE of 25. I checked the next month's results, and the OWE went up to over 350! The name is getting a steady flow of visitors and is getting excellent CTR. So trust me, OWE can be very important!


My final piece of advice is if you are considering buy a name off of someone soley because of its OWE, ask the person if you can do a traffic test on the name, or track the OWE score with an Overture History Tool such as OvtHistory.com. If after a month or two, the name still has OWE, then go ahead and buy the name.

Read version with hyperlinks:
http://www.regfee.info/articles/domain-name-articles/overture-with-extension-explained.html

Hope this info helps.

Take care,
Jorge

 

[G_C]

Thank you so much for your help! Your reply has really clarified a lot of things. However, I would just like to be perfectly clear on one thing - when using Overture to appraise a domain name, do I only input the name of the domain, or the keywords that I *think* can be used to find the domain?

E.g, let's say I'm considering registering a gambling site and it would be called... say, netcasino.com (yes, I know it's registered already). Should I search only for "net casino" on Overture, or would it searching for, say "net gambling" also produce relevant results, since gambling is likely to be one of the keywords for the casino site?

 

[RegFee]

Thank you so much for your help! Your reply has really clarified a lot of things. However, I would just like to be perfectly clear on one thing - when using Overture to appraise a domain name, do I only input the name of the domain, or the keywords that I *think* can be used to find the domain?

E.g, let's say I'm considering registering a gambling site and it would be called... say, netcasino.com (yes, I know it's registered already). Should I search only for "net casino" on Overture, or would it searching for, say "net gambling" also produce relevant results, since gambling is likely to be one of the keywords for the casino site?

Searching for keywords that are related to the domain would help you determine keywords for advertising, since as you said gambling would be one of the keywords of the site. But as far domain value goes, it doesn't have that much of an impact on value. I'm not saying discount it completely, just don't make your decision just with that information.

Just because a bunch of people look for "laser printers", doesn't mean machinethatprintspagesreallyfast.com is worth anything, even though "laser printers" would most likely be a keyword on the site.

Hope that makes sense, let me know if you need clarification. Sometimes my analogies/metaphors get a little crazy.

 

[G_C]

Nope, it all seems perfectly clear so far. Thank you so much for your help!

 

[RegFee]

no problem...thanks for the rep!

-Jorge

 

[theSun]

Just enter the entire domain in the overture query box when you search.
e.g. lalala.com

and you will see the results.

 

[zachary0611]

Are there any domain names with overture that aren't already registered?

 

[RegFee]

Yep, just search around the forum for different keywords like "available overture names" or "overture tool", etc and you'll learn how to find some.