Many different factors play into domain name value. Over the years, many domain names have sold for insanely high prices. Usually these domains are short, one dictionary word dot com domains like fund.com and voice.com. In other cases they relate to hot industries like NFTs.com. Of course, there are also millions of registered domain names which are practically worthless. Long, unintelligible domain names with multiple hyphens and obscure TLDs are not likely to garner much interest on domain marketplaces. This post will give you some insight into what is hot and what is not for domain name value.
Popular Dictionary Words Can Drive Domain Name Value
One thing that many of the most expensive domain names have in common is that they are comprised of short, one “dictionary” word domains. Dictionary word simply means a commonly used word you can find in any standard dictionary like dog.com, doctor.com and so on. The more common and marketable the word, the more valuable the domain. Separate from the name intuitively describing what a website is about, there is a scarcity factor at play here. There are only so many dictionary words out there and these are mostly already taken for the popular domain TLDs like .com, .net and .org.
Referring Domains Can Add to A Domain’s Value
I am essentially talking about “backlinks” here. When one website publishes a link to another website, search engines reward with the linked website with a little bit of “SEO juice”. This boost may improve its search engine rankings. This generates value for that domain name as content on that website is more likely to rank highly. This in turn benefits the website with increased traffic. The nuances of backlink SEO benefits are beyond the scope of this article but it is easy to see a domain name that is linked to thousands of times from across the internet has a lot more value than a domain name no one has ever linked to.
The Shorter the Better
When it comes to the length of a domain name, “short and sweet” is a good rule of thumb. Shorter names are typically valued more highly than longer domain names. This is in large part due to shorter domain names being easier to remember and easier for a user to type into their browser. It is also a bit easier to create a “brandable” domain name using shorter and more memorable names (more on that later).
TLDs Heavily Influence Domain Name Value
One of the biggest factors determining a domain’s value is the TLD. TLD stands for top-level domain and is commonly thought of as the suffix that comes at the end of a domain name. By far the most popular is the .com TLD. Typically, the more common and recognizable TLDs will be valued more highly than more obscure TLDs like for instance “.fish”. Relative to the early days of the internet, new TLDs are popping up quite frequently. However, the tried and true .com, .net and .org TLDs are still the most in demand and likewise have the most scarcity in terms of common words and phrases.
Brandable Domain Names
Brandable domain names are usually unique, creative, and not an exact match descriptive word. The name often suggests the focus area for a given company. For instance optimizely.com offers products to “optimize” digital marketing. Other brandable domain names may just be catchy, made up words that don’t directly describe the focus area like zapier.com. In many cases, the company name and the domain name are one and the same. In fact, many startups will derive their name based on what brandable domain names are available.
Person Names Can Lead to High Domain Name Value
Common people names can also drive a domain name valuation. The vanity of having a [email protected] type of email address is quite attractive to some. The more common the name the more demand and therefore the higher value. I wistfully think of having registered smith.com back in the early days of the internet.
Accidentally Expired Domains
The last domain name value factor can be summed up as “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. When a domain name’s registration expires its either because the domain owner no longer wanted it or they simply forgot to renew it. Once the domain reaches a certain point of its expiration lifecycle, it becomes a “free for all” where anyone can register the domain name. It isn’t uncommon for a website owner to realize too late that the domain for their website is now owned by someone else. In those cases the domain name is quite valuable to the original owner while not being particularly valuable to anyone else. Putting legal and moral issues aside, it isn’t unheard of for the new domain owner to make a tidy profit from selling the domain name back to the original owner.