Yes it does. However, cross check your stats through atleast two and preferably three keyword sources. Then track those stats for a couple of months or look at historical data. They are notoriously unreliable stats.

One of the old school tricks, is to run spiders that ping se's with keyword searches. Those keywords were often product names or keywords related to your space. That in turn would lead speculators to buy up keyword related domains and build affiliate sites. (This was how a huge chunk of the Pharma aff programs were built over a couple years times). moral: make sure you are looking at legitimate data.

On the other hand, at $7-8 bucks a domain, you can do some testing without big risk.

Thx!

I'm pretty used to SEO keyword research..so I always use 3 tools (sometimes 4) just to make sure and also know why overture's data is an overestimation and that wordtracker is said to have a cleaner data base, but does a huge extrapolation, which can be off, too, etc...

Somewhere, I read, that a word/phrase which has about 1,000,000 results in Google turned into a domain usually does lead to some traffic, etc...(given the right tld).

But I bet just like in SEO the number of results in Google isn't really a good measurement and some terms with 100,000 results in Google but nice search volumes and being a word someone is likely to type into the browser can do better than some with 1,000,000 results in Google, which few people search for?

In other words..is looking at what people search for a better way of estimating if there's some money in it than looking at the number of results?

Is there something like a certain ratio of type-in traffic per (REAL) search engine searches? Something like..for 1000 searches done for Google 1 or 2 people type it into their browser with the most-used TLD? (I know this must vary a lot, of course..)

It's my experience that industry keyword phrases are married to keyword search and therefore are married - to some degree - with direct navigation. It's common sense at work: If a popular generic phrase within an industry is "blue velvet widgets" there will be a direct navigation activity as well as that specific phrase appearing in the SERPs.

Start keyword search via industry channels.

Exceptions need to be made for highly spammed subjects.

Whilst I'd love to know traffic levels before registering a domain I tend not to sweat that issue and instead I focus on the converted-lead value to an enduser of direct navigation traffic and on the prospect of market growth for a traffic-targeting domain.

In layman's terms, if FuzzyBlueWidgets.com only gets 3 type-ins a year BUT if the sale of a FBW results in a $10,000.00 commission AND IF one of those visitors were to consume/purchase/lease/hire/whatever a FBW what is the value of that domain and it's traffic?

You might get 10,000 visits to a popular joke or stupidity domain and that domain might make $1,000/year versus 3 visits and $10,000/year. Which is the better traffic domain?

Keep in mind that domain parking may not make you $10,000/year but that may not be your end game. At some point, some savvy new entrant to the wonders of WWW traffic, may awaken to the idea that the domain you hold may produce very targeted and profitable traffic. To THAT enduser what is a domain that yields $10,000/year likely worth?

You may have to wait awhile. You may have to employ interim measures to increase your yield - such as offering a lead-gen partnership. You may wish to increase traffic by building a microsite and then, in time, flipping the site to an enduser-consumer of that traffic.

Traffic volume is only one factor to consider.

[edited by: Webwork at 2:30 pm (utc) on May 8, 2007]

Hi,

yes I know that traffic volume is only one thing to consider..it's obviously not any different from general internet marketing or SEO. I used to think its all about traffic when I first heard of SEO, but I'm definitely far beyond that point, now.

Actually, I'm only asking these questions, because I happened to realize that the exact match domain for a certain problem, I wanted to make a website for is available (it's not available in English, but in a foreign language, where it's also a common word ,though). I had heard the european markets were generally a bit behind in terms of SEO and I guess the same might be true for domaining.

I don't really think that domain name (or a few others I checked that are available) would make me money big time. But as domains are so cheap these days..if it can make me some bucks, why not? but then again, we'll see if it ends up making me any money at all hehe

But anyways: You seem to agree, that (talking traffic-wise again) it's not about how many results there are on Google. But more about how many searches are done for that term?

[edited by: Makaveli2007 at 2:42 pm (utc) on May 8, 2007]

Wordtracker is a good resource for identifying where the traffic is and what keywords may be likely to correlate with good type-in domains....any domain you might be looking to buy with good type-in traffic will already be on the after market, not sitting free somewhere. As such, the domain will most likely have some stats either because its a live site or because it is parked at a place like Sedo or Afternic. In the latter case - those two providers should provide traffic stats you can go from.

Personally, based on my own linited observation, all the analytical methods of estimating type in traffic are completely useless.

The only thing, IMHO that works is "kiting"

or looking at the results of parked domains up for sale, although those can be interfered with by the seller.

Looking at the actually results of some remarkable 1 word generic names, the actual type in traffic can be abysmal

conversely, some meaningless 3 letter domain could get shed loads of type ins because in means, or almost means something to lots of people in a country far far away, speak a language you probably don't understand

Bon chance

Yes sedo is a great place to loose ones illusions :)

Thank you!

To estimate the traffic I use this procedure

1. Get the searches made in Overture for your term
2. Search that in Google Trends
3. Do the same for 4-5 different keywords combinations, like Blue Widget, Red widgets and compare all in Google trends.
4. If you have any site which ranks No.1 for soem keyword then compare that keyword too in the Google trends with your new keyword you are researching.

You should be quite close

I have few EU language websites. I have found people searching for the .com even if they using the local versions of search engines.

I would suggest rather than capitalizing on just the type in traffic, go for a small website of 10-12 pages for that domain. Get some re-written content(if you want to make it fast), do some basic SEO and get some links. You would be surprised with the returns you get.

I don't know if anyone knows about these tools because their kind of new but if your interested in keyword forcasting tools and other new ones checkout.

[adlab.microsoft.com...]

As well the interface is the best I have ever seen.

I find that statbrain.com results can make sense.

They either set the estimate around 14 visitor/day - this is a sign that a domain is useless - or present a number 15+. If you get a 15+ number, you might have a valid estimate of the scale of the daily visitors number.

I have some typo domains. They receive about 50-80 daily visitors each. StatBrain estimates the traffic quite well.

Its figures for my developed sites are also non-nonsense.

Their 14 visitor/day figure is important to watch, because this is the number you get if you enter dsfsdfszdfdvxdvx.com or any other nonsense domain.

I like wordtracker and often start my search there. Scan for posts by Webwork in these forums, he has offered lots of great suggestions related to direct navigation domains.

Just a few months ago I was having breakfast with friends when the topic of music came up. I had an idea on a domain I suspected would get type in traffic so I checked it out (during breakfast). I thought it "too good to be true" that the domain was available but made the $6.95 investment. Using some ideas from bhartzer, Webwork, and my own magic, I had a website up by lunchtime that day. Less than 30 days later traffic was up to 400 uniques daily. Top it off the site just got a PR6 in the past few weeks. While this may be a bit off the topic my point is sometimes it pays to buy first (on instinct) and do the research later.

Keyword discovery has a feature to help you do that.

Find popular keywords and checks if the domain is available.

Haven't really it though as I'm not into domain buying.

I used GooD Keywords but then realized its not good enough so shifted to Adwords Tool its much better.