How much is your domain worth
Your domain could be the name of the next big start-up or brand. But how do you find out what it’s worth? Learn everything you need to know about domain appraisal with this article.
You’ve had a great tie with your domain, and you were excited back when you registered it.
But now, you’re ready to move on to other things. In order to make the sale, though, you’re going to need a domain appraisal.
Much like a real estate appraisal, a domain appraisal tells you what your site is worth. Knowing your domain value helps to negotiate better with the interested parties. Here’s how to figure out your site’s value before you post it for sale.
Know What Makes a Domain Valuable
First, you should know what makes a domain name valuable.
A few common factors that affect your domain’s value include:
- Top-level domain, or the part of the domain after the dot (.com remains the most valuable)
- Popularity and traffic (if a site comes with a large audience, the buyer can immediately leverage it)
- Brandability (clear, memorable, unique domain name)
- Keywords (what keywords you optimize for and how you perform for them)
- Spelling (whether your domain name is spelled correctly)
- Length (the shorter the name, the more people are generally willing to pay for it)
You’ll need to keep these points in mind as you research similar domains to determine your domain’s value.
Research What Similar Domains Sold For
Once you assess your site’s performance on these key points, it’s time to do a bit of competitor research.
To figure out what others might be willing to pay for your domain, research what similar domains have recently sold for.
To do this, you’ll need to collect some data on recent domain sales (sort of like collecting real estate prices). Here, at iRegister, we report on weekly basis what has happened in the domain market. Another site which tracks recent domain sales is DN — they can tell you the highest reported domain sales of the past three weeks.
Use a Domain Appraisal Service
From there, you’re going to need a domain appraisal service.
This is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. An appraiser takes a look at your site’s good points and bad points and tallies it up to give you an estimation of what your domain name is worth.
These services are tremendously helpful because they do most of the difficult technical work on your behalf. The best-known domain appraiser is Estibot–it performs over 2 million appraisals on a daily basis.
That’s great news for you because it means they have the data available to back up their appraisals.
Find Out What People Are Willing to Pay
Now, what your site is worth and what people are willing to pay aren’t necessarily the same thing.
A domain that meets all of the criteria listed above might not have many interested customers. Conversely, a domain that meets very few of those criteria might sell like hotcakes.
The best way to figure this out? Put your domain up for sale using the appraisal price. This isn’t as drastic as it sounds–many sites allow you to do this pretty easily and set up a reserve price (the minimum price you’re willing to accept).
Need Help With Your Domain?
If you’ve found your way through the domain appraisal process and are selling your domain, there’s one step afterward that you’ll need to prepare for.
Your domain transfer.
Luckily for you, we make the whole process easy and approachable. Check out our site to find out more about how we can help.
