What is more important..high search volume, high CPC, .net/.com taken

[jlady]

When doing research what do you think are better buying signals?

Lets say you have 3 possible domain choices (unrelated) that have good buying signals in 1 of each of the 3 areas below - each domain available has only one of the following attributes....which one would you buy...assume the domains are all .com.

What is more important.....

High search volume
High CPC
.net and.org are taken (no or very low search volume, no cpc)

Of course all signals on one domain would be the best buy but that is in a perfect world!!

 

[forge]

I'd say what is least important is CPC, at least to an end user. Rarely do end users care or even know about CPC or search volume. If you're selling to domainers it's entirely different, of course.

Fact that .net and/or .org are taken does let you know that others are interested in the name/term.

 

[venturefile.com]

I disagree with CPC being the least important.. If the end user is advertising for his keyword then he knows exactly how much the CPC is because they are paying it

 

[NameYourself]

It all depends...

High Exact Search is the most important factor in my opinion for a number of reasons, first being the term is meaningful to people, in that exact order.. it makes sense as a word or phrase and people search for it that way. This arguably may still have some SEO value on certain search engines, but mattered much more so years ago. Another benefit is from experience click-through rates are often higher from both organic and ppc ads when the site's domain is a 100% exact match with what someone typed in to search.

Taken in other TLDs is also very significant, but if it only has this attribute and no search, then you are probably looking at a brand (careful) or one that can become brandable. The fact that it is taken in other TLDs indicates other people and companies like that exact same string too, but the bigger question is why. With zero search score it may or may not be very generic in nature.

High CPC is an often under-realized attribute. High competition which was not mentioned can also be useful. It means there is a market for the products your keywords are targeting and that many companies are competing to advertise in that market. You shouldn't register a domain based only on this attribute though. It needs to be paired with one or more of the above for it to mean much of anything.

Good luck!