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Domaining in the future

koomel

Regular Member
I have had a long held belief that any domain that has keyword rich names will always be superior to any other.
The following links give an insight as to what the future brings:

http://www.anothem.net/archives/2010/03/13/are-domains-becoming-obsolete/

http://www.branded3.com/blogs/billion-dollar-javascript/

The point domainers should grasp is that the search engine and Google will become king and the address bar will become obsolete. If your domain name starts with the searchers keywords you will be on the right track. The important thing to remember is that an EXACT MATCH will not be so important.
An example of this trend is to type a search queary such as travel insurance with Google. By the time you have typed in TRAV google presents you with travel insurance in its drop menu, as this is what you are searching for you click on it and start looking at travel insurance sites.

If you have a domain specifically catering for travel insurance a domian name that will bring the required search results would be www.trav.com.au

People will increasingly use search engines as the preferred method for searching for sites.

Mobile phone users and manufacturers (the internets future) do not want address bars as it takes up to much real estate.

Partial match domain names will offer oportunities for domainers who can grasp this future trend

After 18 years as an internet user I have only just realised what the F11 key does.
 

Chris.C

Top Contributor
There are many things that the internet and tech companies will make redundant over time... but that doesn't mean you throw your hands up today and say "what's the point" if there is a CHANCE that in the future this will all be for naught.

That's just business...

: )

No one would capitalise on any opportunity if one of the conditions of viability was that it had to be successful in perpetuity.

The fact is nothing lasts for ever, and all people and businesses are forced to adapt and pivot as the world changes, but what's important to remember is that the world changes FAR slower than you fear, and that you should always be looking to take advantage of opportunities today.

So is it possible that at some point the future domain names might play less of a role than they do today, maybe...

But what seems even more certain is that the internet will play a larger role, and as such investing in assets like domains is a VERY prudent move for those that plan to have much of their business conducted via this medium.

The true irony is that you say domains are not valuable because the likes of Google will become more prominent, when in reports I write to business these days I often cite that the fact that businesses are becoming more dependent on Google makes owning high quality and brandable domains names MORE important as a hedging strategy against Google, because at least you will own an asset that can be marketed on alternative mediums like tv, radio and print that will be memorable and useful even if you are being outcompeted in the SERPs.

ie any business with a single point of fail runs a huge risk. Google is becoming this for a number of businesses. I don't know about you but I don't like keeping all my eggs in one basket.

Then of course it's important to realise that the world changes slowly and its more important in the short and medium run to follow what your customers are doing than what the tech companies are doing.

Just because you spend thousands of dollars on some funky new whiz bang app doesn't mean all your customers are going to download, understand it and use it because maybe they aren't tech savvy.

This is no better exemplified than by a real world business who I consult to that has a portfolio of domains related to their industry and a 5 figure monthly adword budget, so they GET that the internet is important to the future of their business, yet at the same time they still spend even more marketing dollars on Yellow Pages, mailing out brochures, and running ads in magazines all of which are mediums you would have argued 10 - 15 years ago where going to die very soon, but the fact remains that they still get a very good ROI out of these mediums, it's just that these mediums aren't growing for them anymore.

So the point is don't respond to the future before it has arrived.

The truth is no one knows what the future will bring and how fast it will bring it, in spite of us being able to make some reasonable guesses, and I agree anyone expecting the internet to be the same in 10 years as it is today is playing a very risky game, but that doesn't mean that domains will stop being hugely valuable to businesses at least in the short to medium term.
 

koomel

Regular Member
So the point is don't respond to the future before it has arrived.

I guess this statement is the difference between being reactive as opposed to proactive.
Anticipating future trends is a wise business trait.

The current trend in domaining is based in most cases on the perceived value of [exact match] results. Thinking beyond the square and you will realise that there are great oportunities if this citeria is extended to quality partial match phrases.
Keyword rich domain names have value, combined them with quality, relavent content, and you have a valuable site that Google (the valuer) will rate.
 

Shane

Top Contributor
I'm surprised more people haven't responded to this thread.

So are you saying that because Google autocompletes your 'trav' search to 'travel', that the domain trav.com.au is going to rank well?

I don't think that will be the case, as the autocomplete function still shows the search results for the completed search phrase, not just for whatever you have typed in so far.

If I'm understanding your post properly, I think your theory is waaaay out there...
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
I have had a long held belief that any domain that has keyword rich names will always be superior to any other.
The following links give an insight as to what the future brings:

http://www.anothem.net/archives/2010/03/13/are-domains-becoming-obsolete/

http://www.branded3.com/blogs/billion-dollar-javascript/

The point domainers should grasp is that the search engine and Google will become king and the address bar will become obsolete. If your domain name starts with the searchers keywords you will be on the right track. The important thing to remember is that an EXACT MATCH will not be so important.
An example of this trend is to type a search queary such as travel insurance with Google. By the time you have typed in TRAV google presents you with travel insurance in its drop menu, as this is what you are searching for you click on it and start looking at travel insurance sites.

If you have a domain specifically catering for travel insurance a domian name that will bring the required search results would be www.trav.com.au

People will increasingly use search engines as the preferred method for searching for sites.

Mobile phone users and manufacturers (the internets future) do not want address bars as it takes up to much real estate.

Partial match domain names will offer oportunities for domainers who can grasp this future trend

After 18 years as an internet user I have only just realised what the F11 key does.

I think you should replace "will" with "I hope" because that is all the above is, I'm guessing you've registered a whole lot of names like "trav.com.au". Good luck.
 

koomel

Regular Member
If I'm understanding your post properly, I think your theory is waaaay out there...

I have seen SEO do the full circle from being the must have thing to rank your site to the stage now where SEO is virtually obsolete. Clients have realised that if you provide a website with relevent content that is in demand by searchers, (the people who pay google's rent), without black hatting or any other devious means to fool the search engines (is that what SEO was all about), your website will rank. Really simple don't you think.
Like it or not Google rules the Internet and you have to play by their rules, they make it very clear what they are trying to achieve, meet searchers expectations and reap the advertising rewards they generate.
My concept is nothing short of aquiring domain names that people can relate to, is relevent and popular. This meets Googles requirements and if my domain name is included in the options that Google presents to searchers while typing in a query I must be at a advantage against my competitors. Google wants to convert query's to cash as quickly as possible, and I want to be part of that mix..
Its not rocket science and Google agrees.
 

xwdomains

Top Contributor
If I'm understanding your post properly, I think your theory is waaaay out there...

I have seen SEO do the full circle from being the must have thing to rank your site to the stage now where SEO is virtually obsolete. Clients have realised that if you provide a website with relevent content that is in demand by searchers, (the people who pay google's rent), without black hatting or any other devious means to fool the search engines (is that what SEO was all about), your website will rank. Really simple don't you think.
Like it or not Google rules the Internet and you have to play by their rules, they make it very clear what they are trying to achieve, meet searchers expectations and reap the advertising rewards they generate.
My concept is nothing short of aquiring domain names that people can relate to, is relevent and popular. This meets Googles requirements and if my domain name is included in the options that Google presents to searchers while typing in a query I must be at a advantage against my competitors. Google wants to convert query's to cash as quickly as possible, and I want to be part of that mix..
Its not rocket science and Google agrees.

When Google drops down it's not just showing suggestions that's what others are currently typing into search. Have searched before etc it has nothing to do with the start of the word or phrase.

http://searchengineland.com/how-google-instant-autocomplete-suggestions-work-62592

S.E.O is far from obsolete you just have to change and adapt within Googles current algorithm.

Basically if you have good content good keyword/s-phrases quality back links and a good keyword domain you'll rank.

If Trav.com.au and travelinsurance.com.au both had the same S.E.O and upkeep travel insurance would outrank trav every time I doubt trav would even make it to the 2nd or 3 rd page depending on the competition

what a lot of newbs miss is there is plenty of low hanging fruit keyword domains with decent search volume no use having a search domain that has 6 million competitors all trying to rank for the same keyword.

I generally aim for keyword domains 100k competitors or under in the .com space, these are much easier to rank for.
 

Shane

Top Contributor
I have seen SEO do the full circle from being the must have thing to rank your site to the stage now where SEO is virtually obsolete. Clients have realised that if you provide a website with relevent content that is in demand by searchers, (the people who pay google's rent), without black hatting or any other devious means to fool the search engines (is that what SEO was all about), your website will rank. Really simple don't you think.

It depends what you think SEO is. If you think it's all about spamming links and crappy content, then yeah that is obsolete.

But SEO by its very name is simply optimising your website for the search engines. If that means providing plenty of relevant content that people want, then that's SEO isn't it?

My concept is nothing short of aquiring domain names that people can relate to, is relevent and popular.

Do you really think that Trav.com.au is a domain that people "can relate to, is relevant and popular"?

Come on mate...

This meets Googles requirements and if my domain name is included in the options that Google presents to searchers while typing in a query I must be at a advantage against my competitors. Google wants to convert query's to cash as quickly as possible, and I want to be part of that mix..
Its not rocket science and Google agrees.

You are kidding yourself if you think that Google is going to provide you with some sort of ranking boost for trav.com.au when someone is searching for travel.

To me it sounds like you have missed the EMD boat and you have gone and registered a bunch of these silly partial match domains. Now you're trying to convince us that this is the future of domaining...

Sorry mate but I don't think anyone here is buying it.
 

goldnugget

Top Contributor
I would have thought that buying partial emd's based on the percieved way google presents searches would be an element of SEO.......no?
 

Chris.C

Top Contributor
Sorry I completely misinterpreted you first post and ran off on a tangent (that's what you get for skim reading)...

I thought you were talking about domains themselves becoming obsolete.

And I'll tell you one thing, domains will become obsolete before Google ever perceives trav.com.au to be more relevant to "travel insurance" than travelinsurance.com.au...

:rolleyes:

...but of course your entitled to your opinion, and all it will cost you is the tiny sum of $10/year to prove us all wrong.

But of course that $10/year turns into $120/year because you will need to buy:

tra.com.au
trav.com.au
trave.com.au
travel.com.au
traveli.com.au
travelin.com.au
travelins.com.au
travelinsu.com.au
travelinsur.com.au
travelinsura.com.au
travelinsuran.com.au
travelinsuranc.com.au

and if you are going to buy all of the above it's probably worth investing another $120/year for the .net's as well because they'll be worth a mint if they are in the insurance industry:

tra.net.au
trav.net.au
trave.net.au
travel.net.au
traveli.net.au
travelin.net.au
travelins.net.au
travelinsu.net.au
travelinsur.net.au
travelinsura.net.au
travelinsuran.net.au
travelinsuranc.net.au

and you'll probably be able to flip a few partials with hyphens off on the NF AMA for a tidy profit as well so they might be worth buying too:

travel-i.com.au
travel-in.com.au
travel-ins.com.au
travel-insu.com.au
travel-insur.com.au
travel-insura.com.au
travel-insuran.com.au
travel-insuranc.com.au

The possibilities are endless... you might be the next Frank Shilling!

:D

Best of luck.

To me it sounds like you have missed the EMD boat and you have gone and registered a bunch of these silly partial match domains. Now you're trying to convince us that this is the future of domaining... Sorry mate but I don't think anyone here is buying it.
Agreed.
 

goldnugget

Top Contributor
In addition to this, google is still predominately category/content based rather than EMD alone. So with trav....you would have to refer to 'travel' as 'trav' throughout the site which would make it obselete for the purpose of 'travel' info (which is what the user is looking for). It wouldnt look pretty and I doubt google would allow the relevence aspect to be taken by partials.
 

koomel

Regular Member
I'm surprised more people haven't responded to this thread.

So are you saying that because Google autocompletes your 'trav' search to 'travel', that the domain trav.com.au is going to rank well?

I don't think that will be the case, as the autocomplete function still shows the search results for the completed search phrase, not just for whatever you have typed in so far.

If I'm understanding your post properly, I think your theory is waaaay out there...

Travau.com.au is an option.
TravelInsuranceAu.com.au is a much better option as it is relevent and perceived to mean Travel Insurance Australia.

All I am saying here is if the desired name is not available adding au is possbly the next best option.
 

Shane

Top Contributor
Travau.com.au is an option.

If you really think that's an option, you need to stop registering domains right now! :)

Here's what you should be doing:

  • Spend a lot more time reading these forums and listening to people who make real money online
  • Watch the expiry and aftermarket auctions every day to learn more about domain value

All we're tying to do is save you from wasting a heap of money.
 

goldnugget

Top Contributor
I think it would work if targeting industries that auctually use Au to describe the Australian equivelent in their course of trade.

This is a bit hard to explain without giving some away that I have on my books for future aquisition (which do have Au in them, but only a few and industry specific) and hope to discuss in more detail down the track, but I def. wouldnt look at tacking an Au onto established well known specific domain brands like cars or similar because it will open you up to a heap of grief.

Edit added:

Also with google searches I have found that google knows where (what country, state) I am in, so if I type in Insurance, the bulk of the searches that come up are AU registered (not necesarily .com.au) first. So if I type in Travel Insurance, the bulk of them are local anyway, for this reason I see little value in adding Au to general search terms (unless I am looking for something absolute specific).
 

Chris.C

Top Contributor
If you really think that's an option, you need to stop registering domains right now! :)

Here's what you should be doing:

  • Spend a lot more time reading these forums and listening to people who make real money online
  • Watch the expiry and aftermarket auctions every day to learn more about domain value
Heed that advice.
 

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