With over sixty million domains out there already registered, it can be daunting to try to find the right domain — one that will drive quality traffic to your Website or parked domain. But how can you ensure you’re making the right decision when you purchase registered and expired domains? Do your research and you’ll feel confident in your purchase.

*Trackers/Direct Methods *Predictors/Indirect Methods *Traffic Source The educated buyer always comes out ahead so read the following to unlock the mysteries of domain traffic and learn how to determine scientifically if a domain is really worth the price.

.Trackers/Direct Methods… Ideally, you could skip all of the guesswork and find out how much traffic a domain receives directly from the domain owner. The easiest way to do this is simply to ask the seller. However, the seller may make a mistake (or simply be dishonest), so it’s always a good idea to double-check the numbers using one or more of the following methods.

Trackers/Direct Methods Ideally, you could skip all of the guesswork and find out how much traffic a domain receives directly from the domain owner. The easiest way to do this is simply to ask the sellers about it. However, the seller may make mistakes (or simply be dishonest), so it’s always a good idea to double-check the numbers using one or more of the following methods.

Parked Domains…If a domain name is parked, the parking program may make traffic statistics available automatically through the domain’s sales listing page. For example, at the time this article was written, the traffic attracted by the parked domain, and a replica watches could be viewed on the domain’s sale page.

Parked Domains…If a domain name is parked, the parking program may make traffic statistics available automatically through the domain’s sales listing page. For example, at the time this article was written, the traffic attracted by the parked domain, and a uk website could be viewed on the domain’s sale page.

.Predictors/Indirect Methods…What should you do if a domain is not parked and the owner will not or cannot provide you with visitor statistics? Fortunately, a few handy tricks can be used to help you get a rough indication of whether or not a domain receives any traffic.

Predictors/Indirect Methods…What should you do if a domain is not parked and the seller is unable or unwilling to provide you with visitor statistics? Fortunately, a few handy tricks can be used to help you get a rough indication of whether or not a domain receives any traffic.

.Alexa.com…Alexa ranks web sites based on the number of visitors they receive. For example, at the time this article was written, Yahoo.com ranked first, while blue.com ranked at 212,093 and camera.com at 717,298. These rankings are based on data derived from Alexa’s toolbar users. Translating these numbers into unique views, skechy.com received over 10,000 unique views in the month of Sept. while all4uk.com received over 70,000 uniques. (Statistics source: Sedo.com).

Many high-traffic domain names will receive an Alexa ranking just from their type-in traffic. In general, an Alexa ranking under 1,000,000 for an undeveloped site is a good indicator that the domain receives decent traffic (e.g. several thousand monthly uniques). Rankings over a million are less reliable, but usually any sort of Alexa ranking means the domain receives at least some traffic. As with all of these methods, Alexa should be used as a guideline only: sometimes even domains for which Alexa returns “No Data” (too low to rank) will still receive traffic. Ranking.com offers a tool that’s similar to Alexa’s.

Many high-traffic domain names will receive an Alexa ranking just from their type-in traffic. In general, an Alexa ranking under 1,000,000 for an undeveloped site is a good indicator that the domain receives decent traffic (e.g. several thousand monthly uniques). Rankings over a million are less reliable, but usually any sort of Alexa ranking means the domain receives at least some traffic. As with all of these methods, Alexa should be used as a guideline only: sometimes even domains for which Alexa returns ‘No Data’ (too low to rank) will still receive traffic. Ranking.com offers a tool that’s similar to Alexa’s.

So of course, a domain name that contains a highly-searched keyword is more likely to receive traffic. However, the Overture Tool’s usefulness goes beyond that: if you use the exact domain name (with extension) as the keyword, Overture results can be used as a predictor for whether or not a domain name receives traffic. For example, “Yahoo.com” was searched over 11 million times in September, according to Overture. Our comparison sites fared as follows: “Blue.com” was searched 794 times, while “Camera.com” was searched 258 times.

Research has shown that Overture searches do sometimes have a rough correlation with traffic (especially type-in traffic), but as with other methods, there are many exceptions to the rule.

Traffic Source…If you are wanting to better understand something, go to the source. This aphorism applies to domain traffic just as well as it does to other information. Thus, in addition to using the above methods to guesstimate the quantity of traffic a given domain receives, you may want to use these techniques to try to determine the source of that traffic.

Link Popularity…A web site or formerly-developed domain name may receive traffic from old incoming links and directory listings. There are many online tools for checking link popularity; Marketleap.com offers one of the best tools.

Link Popularity…A web site or formerly-developed domain name may receive traffic from old incoming links and directory listings. There are many online tools for checking link popularity; Marketleap.com offers one of the best tools.

The important thing to look for here is not the quantity of links, but their quality. A single link from a major web site may be worth thousands of links from smaller sites. The longevity of link traffic varies widely: a link from a news article may generate a storm of steady traffic that lasts only a week, while a directory listing may continue to generate steady traffic for years. Another similar tool worth checking out is URLtrends.com.

Search Engine Listings…Search engine listings are a major source of traffic for many sites. You can guesstimate how much search engine-derived traffic a web site receives by looking at its “search engine saturation”. This is an indicator of how often the domain appears in the various search engine indexes. Again, Marketleap.com offers an excellent tool for evaluating search engine saturation.

Just keep in mind that it’s also important to look at how high the site is listed and how often the keyword is searched. And don’t forget that search engine listings change frequently, so if this is the primary source of traffic, expect fluctuations!

Without access to the logs, it can be difficult to determine if a domain is receiving paid traffic, but a savvy domain buyer will look for a few key pieces of evidence: do the domain statistics align with the Alexa ranking and the number of incoming links? For example, a domain that receives a couple hundred views a day, and has no Alexa ranking and very few incoming links from low-traffic sites may likely receive paid traffic. But don’t discount such domains out of hand: they may be receiving typo traffic (see below for more information) or may be a seasonal domain (such as one related to the World Series).

Expired Traffic…If a domain was formerly developed, some users may continue to visit because of old links and references, or simply because they remember the domain name. This traffic may continue for years, but naturally, it decreases with time.

If it’s not possible to speak with the current owner about the past development of the site, a few simple searches can help. In particular, use the hints above to examine the types of sites that link to the domain. With that information, you may be able to get some idea of the type of traffic that’s visiting the domain in search of old content. After the content is removed, many of the links will be updated or removed and this traffic will eventually dwindle or expire.

Typos -n- Variations…Don’t ignore traffic that’s diverted to the domain name as a result of typos from other high traffic sites. Check out the traffic that flows to similar or mistyped domains using the tools above. Also consider traffic generated from variations of names, such as an abbreviated form of your domain name, or an acronym. If these domains experience high volumes of visitors, there is a possibility that this will translate to high traffic levels for similar sites.

.Typos -n- Variations…Don’t ignore traffic that’s diverted to the domain name as a result of typos from other high traffic sites. Check out the traffic that flows to similar or mistyped domains using the tools above. Also consider traffic generated from variations of names, such as an abbreviated form of your domain name, or an acronym. If these domains experience high volumes of visitors, there is just as much of a possibility that this will translate to high traffic levels for similar sites.

Find the Right Domain…Traffic is crucial for any revenue generating business on the Web. Finding the right domain with targeted traffic can take your business — and profits — to new heights. If you haven’t quite had the time to build that web site, simply park your domains, let your parking company place relevant advertisements on the domains’ pages, and sit back and monetize the traffic. Use the tools listed above to determine domain traffic and never make a wrong buying decision again.

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