Domain Gold Rush:
Finding The Ultimate Domain Name

Ever wondered why some websites got placed on the first page of Google and all the major search engines for particular keywords, and why yours do not? Well, I don’t have all the answers, and if I had all the pieces I would be the wealthiest man east of the Mississippi river. However, there are a few reasons that are known to be a good first step towards getting your website listed on the first page of Google.

The system of determining which website to put on the first page of the search engine was the original problem that Larry Page, the Google co-founder, was trying to figure out in 1995 for his PhD dissertation. After working at it for several months and not getting anywhere, he recruited his partner Sergey Brin, a fellow Stanford Ph.D. student. Together they started a system called BackRub that was the basis of the current day Google.

Since then, the problem has not gotten any easier as the Internet has exploded and Google themselves have become on of the largest and wealthiest companies in the world. However, many other brainy people have been working on ways to figure out how Google works and how to reverse engineer the results produced by their search engine computers. Here are a few factors about selecting a domain that can increase your chances of getting your website listed on the first page of Google.

With the unlimited reach of the Internet, using a domain name based on a local keyword can prove to be a very valuable strategy. The benefit of getting credit towards your ranking for that keyword is a tremendous additional boost that can put your keyword beyond the reach of global competitors and franchised companies.

Domain Age – If you had selected your domain ten years ago, your domain would have an age of ten years today. For some unknown reason, search engines look at that piece of information and give your domain credit towards a higher ranking. However, if you try to buy the perfect domain today that will give you the benefit of geographic keywords, you will probably find that it has already been taken by your competitors.

Local Domain Name – Most aspects of Search Engine Optimization can be copied by your competitors. For instance, if someone wanted to get more links pointing to their domain name, they can go out and find services that will do that for them. They can always find website programmers to change their onsite Search Engine parameters. Because each domain on the Internet is unique, they cannot readily go out and get the domain name with the keyword in a way that will also represent their business properly. Using a geographic keyword in your domain name is an old secret that have worked for years and still work today. This practice is a carry-over from business names based on geography. With the additional trend towards localization on the Internet, and the proliferation of online map programs, this strategy is quickly growing as a gold rush equal in strength to the California Gold Rush of 1948.

Because most new domains purchased die a quiet death one to five years after been enthusiastically selected, you may just be the beneficiary to “catch” a dying domain moments before it’s deletion and be able to benefit from its age.

There a many “after market” domain name website resellers, including some of the popular ones, like Godaddy.com.To find aged domains, you can simply go to Google and search for “aged domains”. You will see an entire industry of online business just in the business of reselling “used” websites. One of the sites I use frequently to find cheap and valuable “Pending Deletion” domain names is namejet.com. This site allows you to bid on domain names that are about to expire. If you are fortunate enough to be the only bidder in the auction, the domain is yours for the base price of $69. If there are several bidders the action moves to a closed private auction where the better man wins. Good luck.

Domain Page Rank – Another key factor in selecting an aged domain besides the keyword in the name, and the domain age, is the Google page ranking factor. If this domain is already highly ranked by Google, you are halfway there towards getting your site on the first page of Google. Keep in mind however; you still need to be “better” than your competition in other ways.

Another benefit of buying a “used” domain is that you inherit whatever rank the previous domain owner had acquired.While most used domains do not come with any rank, if you are particularly looking for this advantage, there are always some on the market that already have significant rank. The ranking system ranges from zero to ten and it is not unusual to see used domains with a ranking factor of five hit the “Pending Deletion” list.

Now, the ultimate domain name selection strategy would take advantage of existing domains of all three domain name factors: Keyword in Name, Domain Age and Page Ranks. In addition, you would also need to make sure that the keywords you are targeting meet the Three Golden Rules of substantial traffic, commercial value and low competition.

If you are thinking that this is too much for one person to handle, and run a business at the same time,you are right. The problem of selecting domain names with all the critical factors for getting your domain listed on the major search engines has become a huge industry not unlike the California Gold Rush of 1824. In this malaise, there are big winners and losers every day. Don’t make the mistake and enter the gold rush with just a pick and a shovel. Just like Larry Page and Google, the winners are using the latest technology with massive computers crunching massive amounts of data every second. Do like Larry and get some help.

As you wake up in the morning, you check your computer to get the latest statistics on your online business. Today you decide to look at your website traffic. Website traffic is the lifeline of online businesses. An increase in website traffic means more profit-making opportunities, lead generation, product promotion, and in increasing sales, which will lead to increasing your business revenue. After all, what matters in the end are sales of your product and services which will lead to more revenue and move you closer towards your goals and dreams that you initially had when you started your business.

So how do you go about getting that traffic to your website? Here are some simple strategies that will help you to find the right keywords for your business that will bring more traffic to your website and increase your revenue. 

1. Choose a keyword with substantial traffic. You should sort the keyword list by volume of traffic per month or per day, to see which keywords already have substantial traffic associated with it. It is important not to choose keywords with very little traffic as you might well get it very quickly but will not prove very worthwhile.