Type-in Traffic on the Decline?
There’s talk on Namepros today about how the Chrome OS encourages less type-in traffic — something which will no doubt continue in the future as both the Chrome OS becomes more popular (which should happen next year when the Google Operating System comes out) and more web browsers are designed with monetization in mind. Let’s face it — direct navigation doesn’t make anyone money except us and the search engines and the search engines would rather people go to them so they don’t have to share anything with us.
As it currently stands, search engines give a massive SEO boost for having the keyword in the domain. Plenty of research shows many visitors are hesitant about clicking links in “strange” extensions. Good domain names will always make for great domains to advertise - be it on television, magazine, online, etc. Good domains are more memorable and more trustworthy.
While I do agree that type-in traffic will likely decline over the next few years among current Internet users, suggesting that this will somehow affect the value of generic .coms (the suggestion a poster made on Namepros) is flawed. For one thing, more and more people are joining the Internet each day, meaning even if type-in traffic declines as a percentage, the amount of type-in traffic domains receive may actually go up. Second of all, generic .coms aren’t sold based on their revenue or type-in traffic. Sure, people might pay a bit less for a domain if it receives no type-in traffic, however most generic domains are sold based on potential, not based on a revenue multiple of what they make undeveloped.
The domains I see being most affected should we experience a large drop in type-in traffic in the future would be mediocre .com domains whose value lies in the revenue it derives from direct navigation traffic. Typo domains would be the biggest loser in my opinion, followed by long-tail domains which are great for development but would no longer be for domain parking.
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July 16th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
“While I do agree that type-in traffic will likely decline over the next few years among current Internet users, suggesting that this will somehow affect the value of generic .coms (the suggestion a poster made on Namepros) is flawed.”
-How could it not effect values? Other things may offset it but falling revenue on an asset is negative for values.
“however most generic domains are sold based on potential, not based on a revenue multiple of what they make undeveloped.”
-The vast majority of bigger buyers and paying names with PPC revenues. In there is less money flowing into the system that will effect spending.
July 16th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Isn’t it going to be about SEO one day?
July 16th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Hi Francis,
I think it already is for the top SEOs.
Example: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090708005346&newsLang=en