What Does A Domain Name Appraisal Service Look At?
Posted on: 30 October 2018
Selling or buying an internet domain name can be a very involved process, and you'll likely want to be able to arrive at a clear value for a domain before you get too far into it. One way that buyers and sellers can come to terms on prices is to bring in a domain appraisal services provider. It's also beneficial if you consider a domain to be an asset and are wondering about possibly listing it for sale.
You may wonder, however, what goes into the appraisal you'll receive? These four aspects of a domain usually carry the most weight in the valuation that is established.
The Quality of the TLD
The age of original internet domain name land rush is behind us, and that means that values on domains have risen in recent years. This is especially the case when talking about prime properties, .COM top-level domains. You'll also see a lot of value in the second tier of TLDs, such as .NET and .ORG names. If the .NET version of a name isn't taken, usually that diminishes the value of the .COM.
Domain Quality
Not surprisingly, domains that make sense tend to have the highest value. You can expect any domain that's a common word in English, for example, to be valuable, especially if it's also one that's highly in demand as a search engine keyword. Ones that can be fashioned into new words are also useful, with a classic example being Hulu.com. It might not mean anything, but it's short, memorable and easily pronounced.
An additional aspect of domain quality is the accuracy of the spellings. Slightly cute spellings, such as a domain that has a "4" where the word "for" would normally be used, tend to have lower valuations. Easily confused words, such as their versus there, can also reduce the valuation of a domain.
Age
The age of a domain is considered to be how long it has been continually registered. Buyers tend to care about this because deregistration of a domain can have an impact on trust factors in search engine rankings.
Inbound Links
Another search-related factor that a domain name appraisal services firm will take into account is the number of inbound links a website receives. This matters because it reduces the effort that the new owner will have to invest in getting traffic and search engine bots to come to the site.
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