A Broker Discusses the Components of a Valuable Premium Domain Name

Valuable premium domain names are the online equivalent of choice commercial real estate. From the main keyword to the URL extensions, each component of a domain factors into its value.

Let's take a quick look at the basic anatomy of a domain name and discuss some of the advantages a premium name can provide for your website.

Anatomy of a Domain Name

It's important to touch base on the basics of what constitutes a domain name. A thorough understanding of the anatomy of the name is necessary to appreciate the components that make up a valuable domain.

To begin, the actual domain name references the main page of the site. As an example, the United States Post Office URL is www.usps.com. In this case, the online domain is simply an acronym of the organization.

The value here is immediately evident. The domain name is short and directly relatable to the post office, which online browsers will immediately recognize. Equally important is the top-level domain (TLD) component, the extension that comes after the actual name, which in our post office example above is .com.

A Quality TLD Provides Instant Credibility

Instantly recognizable, a .com domain extension provides immediate authenticity in the mind of the searching public as a TLD. Other equally credible TLDs include the familiar org, gov, net, and edu endings. As you can imagine, these tend to be the go-to TLDs that people expect to see in a premium domain name.

That being said, there are always trending domain names that defy this general rule.

Domain Valuation is in the Eye of the Analytics

A number of factors merge to make a particular domain name valuable. Much like real estate in the real world, digital real estate offers a range of different curb appeals that will elevate an average domain name to premium status.

Other important features include:

• Popularity and traffic - Should your domain name be active and sport an impressive record in terms of site visitors, this will play an increased role in the valuation of your domain name. A domain broker will leverage that traffic and SEO score to the potential buyer as a positive selling feature.
• Brandability - The ideal domain name will provide immense value to a prospective buyer’s brand. To date, the highest selling domain name registers in at approximately $33 million dollars for ownership of Sex.com. Clearly, sex sells and so did this immensely brand able domain name.
• Keywords - SEO is the key to high internet search rankings, and a domain that includes pivotal words is bound to be scored higher and of more value than an untested, new name.
• Short Length — The briefer the domain, the more value attached by domain shoppers. The reasons are obvious. A short domain name is memorable, easy to type, and the word of mouth possibilities are heightened simply because of the ease of memory.

The Devil's in the Details: Domain Components

Understanding the components of a domain will help you identify what constitutes a premium domain name when you see one. As you can already see, there are a great deal of moving parts that you will need to consider when deciding on whether a particular domain name is right for your website.