Website Advisor

by Mike Mills

Understanding the internet fundamentals will help you in appraising a domain name.

Criteria for evaluation

Top level domain names (TLDs) are very important. This sets the memorability of the domain, good TLDs express a more professional and experienced business. COM, NET, and ORG are currently the most credible and best known TLDs. As time passes the familiarity and credibility of newer TLDs will probably increase.
The TLD of DOT com is valued higher.

Some factors that affect the value of the domain name are:

• Total number of characters. The lesser the more valuable and easier it is to remember and type.
• Hyphens generally detract from the value of a domain because they can be easily forgotten.
• Digits in a domain name, as in cars4sale.com, decrease the value of a domain.

Criteria for appraising by the Market Factors

The number of words in a domain affects its value.
Names with fewer words can be more memorable, and therefore more valuable.

Search engines can help us determine how much content exists on the Internet with the keywords of a domain. The Internet frequency of these words is a good way of determining the current buyers market for individual terms and the level of industry-specific activity. This element is very time sensitive, the popularity of a given term may fluctuate often as the market changes and new areas grow.

The index of the search value of a domains keywords is used to determine it’s value in a sellers and advertising market.

Google can help rate the value of a domain by determining the search frequency of the words in the domain in comparison to other search lists. This can be used to indicate what is hot in the industry at any given time.

Proper names can affect the value by estimating the demand for particular terms used in the domain.

Web sites are complicated, no matter how big or small, so how do we really know their true status on the web?
For a start, consider the homepage as there are at least 7 inspection points to check for search engine suitability.

How can we be sure that a site’s investment is maximising returns?
Site inspection by a qualified and experienced developer will surf, test and look behind the scenes of web sites. Areas such as:

• Design and code
• Search engine ranking
• Linking strategies
• Traditional off-line marketing strategies
• E-Mail campaigns
• Paid advertising

We will attempt to demyth some of the older internet strategies, that are still in use, and provide clear direction on the future of web marketing.

Real value will come from knowing the status of your web site and understanding current on-line technologies.

Google tops the brand list, according to BrandZ’s top 100 brand ranking for 2008. For the second year in a row with an estimated value at $85,057 million, Google leads other heavyweights, such as GE, Microsoft, China Mobile, IBM, and Apple.

Source: WebGuild