What Criteria Do You Use When Selecting GEO Domains?

[dgridley]

What criteria do you use when selecting GEO domains? Region? Population? Local attractions?

Do you buy with a particular market in mind or are your purchases largely speculative?

 

[localexperts]

top 25 or I must live within a 2 hour drive of that location.

 

[dgridley]

Top 25? What do you mean by that?

 

[gazzip]

What criteria do you use when selecting GEO domains? Region? Population? Local attractions?

Do you buy with a particular market in mind or are your purchases largely speculative?

Great question, I'm surprised there has'nt been more replies.

Although I have done very little development so far I do have a development plan that springs to mind for most when I buy them but my ideas are far bigger than my budget or capabilities when it comes to development (...still hoping for a really good sale so I can afford to hire a good developer ) - LEVEL 2

For me the first thing I look at is the potential market, usually from reading related news articles. I prefer to buy GEO tourism domains that speak for themselves, ones that tell you just exactly what you need to do with them and exactly what the user will be expecting to find when they visit.

In general, keyword strong and descriptive ones that will do well in the search engines if/when developed, one worders are waaaay out of my budget so I try to stick to two word .coms but have also bought a few 3 worders and a couple of 4 worders (only if that's how many words it needs)....(domain removed :blink: )

I look for some sort of affiliate or advertising potential (often hotels/flights/ferries etc) and ones that will not need alot of attention once built...something that is not too big or too daunting to develop/update, ie: Britain.com would/could take many years to develop but Cornwall.com could probably be done in 6 months....but I'd still pay $100 for them

It would be amazing to own a one word GEO domain that received tons of type in traffic but that's a whole different class of domain....and domainer . :bingo:


Check out http://www.lahaina.com/ which has just been launched (not mine)



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[dgridley]

Great reply, gazzip.. yes, surprised more haven't weighed in..

Do you go only for .com or would .info also pique your interest?

Rep added by the way..

 

[gazzip]

I would say 98% .com but I do have a couple of .infos, a couple of .eu and a couple of .nets that I would love to get around to developing one day.

....problem is they don't make anything at all when they're parked

I dropped QatarHotels.info a while back, great for developing but not if it's going to take me years to do so .



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[aliweb]

I am pretty new in this category. Normally I see previous related sale and then buy similar to that. For example if londonhotel.com was sold for big amount then I would look for birminghamhotel.com or leedshotel.com both 2nd and 3rd largest UK city respectively.
Yesterday I went for largest US cities by population and managed to register one word sacramento(.)cc which is the capital of California. Although it's not in the same league as .com but when you consider that all other extensions have been taken then it's not a bad reg either.

 

[dgridley]

I'm mixed on getting this sort of GEO keyword in a CCTLD because people won't search for it with that ext.

Better to get .com, .net, .info, .biz, and (possibly) .tv in GEOs :IMHO: .

I am pretty new in this category. Normally I see previous related sale and then buy similar to that. For example if londonhotel.com was sold for big amount then I would look for birminghamhotel.com or leedshotel.com both 2nd and 3rd largest UK city respectively.
Yesterday I went for largest US cities by population and managed to register one word sacramento(.)cc which is the capital of California. Although it's not in the same league as .com but when you consider that all other extensions have been taken then it's not a bad reg either.

 

[nutzdaddy]

I stick to the uk, places within 2 hours drive or large cities.

smaller towns I have oneword mobis all local, then for large cities I have

VISIT*******.COM/NET/INFO/TV

visit sums up what people are looking for and .com/.net/.info/.tv all fit on the extension front. imo

looking to start developing these within 6 months, once other non domaining business is out the way.

 

[gazzip]

Bump for a really good question that not many people have answered



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[netfleet]

I think there's still heaps of potential in cc-TLD Geos'. After all, there's a perfect match between the geographical identifier of the extension and the domain itself.

In fact, unless the city/place is a real 'international venue' like London, Paris or Sydney, the relevant cc-TLD is more valuable than .com (except for US geos of course). There's no way I would swap our best pure geo - www.hobart.com.au for hobart.com for example.

I like geo's with tourist appeal. They lend themselves better to searches & type-ins better than just simple major business or residential areas.

Eg we have batemansbay.com.au which receives much more traffic than parramatta.com.au despite having a tiny fraction of the population and businesses.

The other thing to consider is real estate. Manually check (or script it if poss) one of the big real estate sites and add in number of listings for each area as one of the criteria to measure. A thriving real estate market implies there should be plenty of willing advertisers.

Local language should also be a consideration when selecting GEO's too if you plan to develop. A regional French town with a .fr extension would be better developed in French where possible.

 

[steveteva]

I think there's still heaps of potential in cc-TLD Geos'. After all, there's a perfect match between the geographical identifier of the extension and the domain itself.

In fact, unless the city/place is a real 'international venue' like London, Paris or Sydney, the relevant cc-TLD is more valuable than .com (except for US geos of course). There's no way I would swap our best pure geo - www.hobart.com.au for hobart.com for example.

I like geo's with tourist appeal. They lend themselves better to searches & type-ins better than just simple major business or residential areas.

Eg we have batemansbay.com.au which receives much more traffic than parramatta.com.au despite having a tiny fraction of the population and businesses.

The other thing to consider is real estate. Manually check (or script it if poss) one of the big real estate sites and add in number of listings for each area as one of the criteria to measure. A thriving real estate market implies there should be plenty of willing advertisers.

Local language should also be a consideration when selecting GEO's too if you plan to develop. A regional French town with a .fr extension would be better developed in French where possible.

Totally agree with you Geo is about Real Estate and Travel other are less desirable.

 

[CoolCode]

Hotels in the region, how famous it is with tourists is a key as well for me

 

[bamaboy]

Talking about GEO, i always hunt for some domain names with related to tourist places, and cities and geographical area near to myself.