Buy My Premium SCUBA Domain Name

This is a public service announcement because I don’t want people wasting money. I’ll be posting my marketing observations from the 2012 DEMA Show as soon as I get caught up with the work I wasn’t able to do while attending the show.

There is a gentleman posting to Twitter and most Facebook SCUBA-related Pages I’ve seen offering to sell his “premium SCUBA domain name”. Since I’ve bought and sold dozens of domains over the years, I thought I’d share why I have no interest in this domain.

Exact Match Domain

The domain is scubapackages.com. I’m not linking to it because I don’t want to change any of the reasons I explain here. The seller is promoting that the domain is keyword rich. A domain name full of keywords you want to rank for is called an Exact Match Domain (EMD). So if I was selling SCUBA gear packages or SCUBA travel packages, this would sound like a great domain to have, right?

Here’s the problem: Google recently began devaluing EMD’s. So if that’s your only reason for wanting this domain, you have an uphill battle to fight for search engine results.

What is Premium?

Here are the factors I evaluate to determine if a domain is “premium” and worth discussing purchasing:

• Age of domain: Search engines still favor old domain names. Be careful to buy domains that haven’t had lapses in their registration. This domain is roughly 10 years old, so that is good, but domain age is a relatively small factor when it comes to search engine (and business) potential. This domain has an aged domain, so there is some value here.
• Traffic: If a domain has traffic already, it’s much easier to capture that traffic into whatever site you build. Using a variety of tools, it’s quite obvious this domain has no traffic other than what he’s driving to it in his attempt to sell. This domain has no traffic, so there is no value here.
• Backlinks: One  major factor for ranking in search engines are the number of high quality backlinks (links from other relevant sites). This domain has no backlinks, so there is no value here.
• Existing site: If there is an existing site that I can just buy and transfer to my hosting provider, there may be some value there. I have to look at a lot of factors of such a site, but in this case it’s easy since no site exists. This domain has no site, so there is no value here.
• Traffic Potential: Using the Google Keyword Research tool, I can see that “scuba packages” is considered High competition with only 320 global searches per month. If 320 global searches per month (assuming you’re in the #1 position, hard when competition is high) excites you, we need to talk. This domain has low return on investment for traffic potential, so there is no value here.
• Vanity: Do I want to start a business called SCUBA Packages? Do I already have scubapackages.net and really want the .com? I’ve purchased a few domains purely for vanity, but only you can place a value on this. This domain does nothing for my vanity, so there is no value here.

Add on that my employers site already ranks #2 for the keywords in this domain so adding an extra domain would do very little to help boost that ranking.

Based on these factors, this domain has no value to me.

Extras

Some times a domain seller with throw in extras. Like the vanity item above, you need to determine based on your business needs if these extras have any value to you.

In the case of scubapackages.com, the seller has another domain name he plans to setup as a SCUBA social network and will offer included ad space for whoever buys the domain.

The domain for the SCUBA social network is identified as malware. There are plenty of “SCUBA social networks” that haven’t taken off including ones that have been around forever and those backed by giant names. Yes, something disruptive may make a dent, but based on what I’ve seen so far, I don’t expect much.

My Recommendation

If someone contacts you offering to sell scubapackages.com for $3,500 – $5,000, I’d politely say no unless you have always wanted scubapackages.com and have a spare $3,500 – $5,000 taking up space.