irreparable damage

[julian]

Looking on DL these days, imho there are domains going for 5/10x less than they would have five years ago, yet .UK is confirmed, we're climbing out of the 'recession', but somehow the market is still nothing like it was before.

Sometimes I wonder if the market was only driven by this forum back in the day, things have definitely changed since then..

 

[woopwoop]

I did have the same thought a while ago, but really think the market will come around and the people who bought cheap will reap the benefits.

There is uncertainty of who will use .uk and how it will compare... That brings both risk and opportunity I guess.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

 

[aZooZa]

I think fortune favours the brave now...

 

[julian]

But at these prices one hardly has to be brave - like 5 years ago. I guess I'm trying to put my finger on what made a domain so much more valuable 5 years ago. Don't forget back then there was no 'proper' recession or any talk of .UK. What is the market trigger that creates greater value?

I think fortune favours the brave now...

 

[websaway]

Looking on DL these days, imho there are domains going for 5/10x less than they would have five years ago, yet .UK is confirmed, we're climbing out of the 'recession', but somehow the market is still nothing like it was before.

Sometimes I wonder if the market was only driven by this forum back in the day, things have definitely changed since then..

The only people who really understand domain values are domainers
and unless they are buying the market stagnates.
The whole issue of the secondary market is dictated by demand and liquidity.
The SEO industry, who were registering anything that had any keywords that could rank, were driving registrations higher and causing confusion around what really had long term value, these people have now virtually turned their back on domain promotion ( for obvious reasons ) and this has left millions of names that are not needed and cannot find buyers, domainers that were happy to sit on large portfolios of domains are now trying to offload them cheaply or letting them drop.
It's a massive shakeout and will have to take it's course before the uk market gets back to some sort of normality.
Meanwhile there is no reason why quality memorable short product or service domains should not retain their value and be traded in a somewhat lesser volume than we had become accustomed to.

 

[paymatters]

I think in the past a good generic domain guaranteed you traffic. Suspect no one guesses a domain anymore but goes to google and a generic domain doesn't guarantee a top 10 spot??

When I bought debtconsolidation and debtfree they went straight to the top of google and generated daily leads.

 

[julian]

So are we saying, now the seo value has been reduced for generic/keyword domains, we're seeing a more realistic market value.

If a generic/keyword type of domain is not giving you an advantage you could argue what's the point in paying top dollar for one..

 

[accelerator]

The biggest blow to .co.uk domain values was Google changing it's algorithm to remove the boost given to exact match domains. There are a few other factors, but I'd say that was the major one.

Rgds

 

[namealot]

Markets and taste change don’t think outside of the UK domaining community that co.uk / uk was an issue certainly many I spoke to in real business of those who knew which were few most didn’t care none cited it as highly influencing there decision to purchase a name or not?

More cited the dominance of “g” the rise of “brand power” (over 50% of all UK online sales are to a handful of brands) as most influential

With “G’s” needing to capitalise keep it shareholders happy they’ll slowly remove all the old advantages emd generic etc until its those with the deepest pockets who’ll list on the first page they know its where you list not if your generic etc after all who that spends $$$ uses the address bar?

Also the illusion if you weren’t online didn’t have this or that name your business would fail is starting to fade...

 

[foz]

With .uk decided, the element of what businesses will go with is still contentious.

Confusion between .uk & .co.uk will reign.

Put up with that or settle on a .com.

Some will jump ship to the later IMO.

Another reason to not seeing a lift in the current .co.uk aftermarket.

 

[sdsinc]

If a generic/keyword type of domain is not giving you an advantage you could argue what's the point in paying top dollar for one..

Brandability, credibility, memorable domains (important for advertising). There will always be demand for domains that exhibit these characteristics.

 

[martin-s]

Mail Online to change to .com extension
http://www.featuresexec.com/bulletin/news_article.php?id=22248

 

[tifosi]

Mail Online to change to .com extension
http://www.featuresexec.com/bulletin/news_article.php?id=22248

But you have to read the article to understand... any website with that much outside uk traffic should be considering a move to a gTLD even if the .uk is redirected.

It's a transitionary phase not just for .uk but for the uk and global economy. I'm getting a regular no of enquiries coming back with lowball counteroffers with the same 'overvalued domains / wtf' quotes.

It's still the case as ever that new businesses see the domain as a minimal investment and don't expect to have to buy it from someone else.

When .uk becomes mainstream and there's the realisation that one the whole the status quo hasn't changed and the .uk is tied to the .co.uk then things may change for the better somewhat.

 

[websaway]

Mail Online to change to .com extension
http://www.featuresexec.com/bulletin/news_article.php?id=22248

This is only good news. It shows a confidence in the traditional domain extensions rather than a reserved view due to the introduction of all the new gtld's.

 

[websaway]

Has there ever been a time when a business needed to use a domain name that clearly gave it credibility and which will speak volumes about what the business is and indicate that it is around for the long term.
A name that not only describes it's function but is also memorable, one that has easy recall so as to lessen advertising spend and reduce customer acquisition costs.

The public are going to be hugely confused over the coming years because of the new gtld's. Businesses need to nail their colours to the mast and say "no confusion here, this is exactly who we are, we are a .co.uk or a .com , we will not add to your confusion by having open ended extensions where you will not even know where the dot is supposed to be placed".

 

[paymatters]

So are we saying, now the seo value has been reduced for generic/keyword domains, we're seeing a more realistic market value.

If a generic/keyword type of domain is not giving you an advantage you could argue what's the point in paying top dollar for one..

Hi Julian

Yes exactly. We bought our domains for free traffic. In a sector where you can easily pay 40k per month for google Adwords anything that gave you free traffic had considerable value.

Agree a good brandable domain still has value but the free traffic angle no longer exists.

There is some value in a domain that increases your Adwords click through rate.

 

[addz123]

I think it's changes in Google that have led to a drop in value/demand of domains.

Google wants brands and EMDs have become much harder to rank. As such, no ones going for short .org.uk's or 3-word .co.uk's etc. Furthermore, webmasters/affiliate are now concentrating on developing one big site as opposed multiple satellite sites, which reduces buyers market even more. I'm guessing your average acorn user is now focusing on 2-3 sites as opposed to 6-7 in the past.

Finally, I think the .uk thing just gave everyone a fresh perspective on how investing in a premium domain isn't everything.

 

[websaway]

I think it's changes in Google that have led to a drop in value/demand of domains.

Google wants brands and EMDs have become much harder to rank. As such, no ones going for short .org.uk's or 3-word .co.uk's etc. Furthermore, webmasters/affiliate are now concentrating on developing one big site as opposed multiple satellite sites, which reduces buyers market even more. I'm guessing your average acorn user is now focusing on 2-3 sites as opposed to 6-7 in the past.

Finally, I think the .uk thing just gave everyone a fresh perspective on how investing in a premium domain isn't everything.

Money will still be spent so where do you think the optimum spend should be ?

 

[addz123]

Not sure what exactly you're asking?

 

[websaway]

Not sure what exactly you're asking?

Assuming there is a lot less money being spent on search engine advertising and on emd's to promote that method of promotion.
Where does the money originally allocated for that type of advertising go ?