Yesterday I had an urgent call from a good client who needed advice on a domain name that was being offered to them. This domain name was reportedly ranking highly with Google as it was made up from a combination of generic product and location terms, such as interior-design-london.co.uk.
The first thing to consider is that in a by gone era exact match domain names positively impacted search results, whereas now the Google Algorithm is much more mature, and the impact is negligible if not negative. My message today is if you want quality results then have a quality website from all key aspects; content, user value and technically.
The vendors of these “unmissable” domains will normally say that there is someone else or a client interested but they are offering it to you for some reason – who would ever commission such a company when they’ll offer the domain to your competition; that just does not stack up.
As with any purchase you need a degree of due diligence, the empirical evidence of relevant visitors to a domain name is a must; you are in a similar way when buying a business, buying the customer list. Remember a website that is ranking well one month may not do so well the next as rules change. Furthermore, if the website has been closed for a while and it’s just the domain name that’s available, Google will start to clear it from the results as it has no pages to index and also the third-party backlinks will diminish over time. Effectively there is a half-life of a domain name when it has no associated website as it’s SERPS value diminishes over time.
Basic due diligence. Two things you can easily do independently is check the WHOIS records and look up some performance data on metric sites such as https://seranking.com/competitor-traffic-research.html.
https://www.whois.net/ will give you some basic data, importantly it will give you the date of registration, then if you’re being offered a domain that was registered recently, you know it’s a scam as it would have had little time to gather a presence. The performance data can be hard to interpret but should give you an indication.
My recommendation is to follow your inner compass on such matters and not be brow beaten into taking an unmissable offer because you’re concerned that you’re missing out; trust me most are miss’able.
Additionally, if the domain is offered at say £700, also consider what value you could buy your business with that money such as paid advertising clicks or professional social media content and engagement.
For my clients I’m always available to assist with any such decision making and welcome your calls.
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Simon Thomas has 40 years’ experience in business practices
and builds & programs bespoke websites and apps that sell, market and
automate processes.
“My kick is seeing the business wheels spin more efficiently once we’ve done the geeky process stuff”.
01279 871 694