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- Jun 23, 2007
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As domainers, we often push the value of domains to clients, both for branding and SEO purposes.
I can't comment on the branding since I've never ventured in that direction, but of late, I've been taking development very seriously, so I can pass a few judgments on the SEO value of quality domains.
Among the first domains I developed was the domain Rappers.org. I didn't have much development skills, but I thought - what the hell - and jumped right in. Put up a few posts, nothing expansive. Did minimum link building (a few comments of blogs, nothing much).
And here's the traffic graph: http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/285/rappers.png
Within about two weeks of development, the site was getting serious visitors. Within three weeks, it was on the first page of google for a term with 7 million results.
And that too from an inexperienced developer. Its another story that I haven't been able to monetize the traffic, but nevertheless, a domain going from 0 to 100 visitors a day in the space of a few weeks is commendable.
This is where the value of domain lies. Aged domains that match a keyword precisely are just perfect for development, attracting traffic like flies. I can today honestly say that when I sell a client a domain with the promise of SEO benefits, I can verify it with facts gathered from personal experience.
It sometimes amazes me that people in online marketing don't understand the value of domains. I've found it ridiculously hard to rank newly regged domains (Google has a new domain penalty of sorts), while aged domains get in the SERPs like its nobody's business.
So here's what I've gathered from this: aged domains that match the keyword you want to rank for are great for getting on the first page in Google. If you have to put in some money for some development project, get a domain that has a few years on it at least.
And when you sell somebody a domain, you can be sure that the SEO benefits that you claim in your sales pitch are actually real.
I can't comment on the branding since I've never ventured in that direction, but of late, I've been taking development very seriously, so I can pass a few judgments on the SEO value of quality domains.
Among the first domains I developed was the domain Rappers.org. I didn't have much development skills, but I thought - what the hell - and jumped right in. Put up a few posts, nothing expansive. Did minimum link building (a few comments of blogs, nothing much).
And here's the traffic graph: http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/285/rappers.png
Within about two weeks of development, the site was getting serious visitors. Within three weeks, it was on the first page of google for a term with 7 million results.
And that too from an inexperienced developer. Its another story that I haven't been able to monetize the traffic, but nevertheless, a domain going from 0 to 100 visitors a day in the space of a few weeks is commendable.
This is where the value of domain lies. Aged domains that match a keyword precisely are just perfect for development, attracting traffic like flies. I can today honestly say that when I sell a client a domain with the promise of SEO benefits, I can verify it with facts gathered from personal experience.
It sometimes amazes me that people in online marketing don't understand the value of domains. I've found it ridiculously hard to rank newly regged domains (Google has a new domain penalty of sorts), while aged domains get in the SERPs like its nobody's business.
So here's what I've gathered from this: aged domains that match the keyword you want to rank for are great for getting on the first page in Google. If you have to put in some money for some development project, get a domain that has a few years on it at least.
And when you sell somebody a domain, you can be sure that the SEO benefits that you claim in your sales pitch are actually real.