Navigational, Branded Search & Domain Names

One thing you tend to notice as an Search Engine Optimization Specialist is that a huge percentage of search referral traffic comes from branded search terms and/or URL's typed into search engines instead of the search bar. It's a frustration in analytics and reporting due to the need to filter out those pointless terms from statistics data. There is no challenge whatsoever in ranking for your domain name or branded terms

Some web sites see as much as 90% of their search referrals come from their company name and they think they are doing well at search engines when less than 10% of their traffic comes from search engines. Let me tell you that if your site doesn't see at LEAST 40 to 70 percent of its' TOTAL traffic from search, then you are doing very poorly.

There are two sides to this coin though. Domain names can contribute substantially to that total search referral traffic if they include your brand and/or major keywords in the URL. That's two different things. Brand or keywords in the domain name. And if your analytics tell you that branded terms are driving the majority of your search traffic, then you need to do some serious SEO work on your site. If your major keywords are in that domain name, congratulations, because that helps (incrementally) to rank well for those keywords. But by the nature of domains and the number of keyword phrases most sites should target, you can only do so much there.

If you Search for WebSite101, you'll see that we qualify for Google Sitelinks.

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Now this happens only with sites that would otherwise get linked from the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button on Google. There can only be one result for that button and that result gets those "Site Links" when you do a normal search.

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But recently I've been noticing several articles about navigational searches on brands and domains. ReadWriteWeb's story, which starts by discussing the recent Yahoo Special K Television commercials that suggest you "Go to Yahoo and search Special K" and gives further examples of people typing domain names or brands into search engines

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Here's a quote from Josh Catone at RWW on the navigational search phenomenon:

According to a Compete last fall, navigational searches make up about 17% of all searches on average, more on Yahoo! and Live than on Google. For well-known web sites, Compete found that about 9 out of the top 10 search terms for that site tend to be some sort of variation on the domain. Surprisingly, people actually often search for entire domain names rather than type them into their browser's address bar.

That kind of odd laziness that makes people type full URL's into a search box THEN click on results to make it a two step process instead of the single step of the address bar. If people tried typing Yahoo or Google or CNN in their address bars, they'd see that the rest instantly fills in for them if they've been there within the past few weeks and haven't cleared their browser history. But apparently everyone has developed the habit, find it easier to search a domain name than to go directly there. What odd behavior - but who knew that it would account for such a high percentage of search traffic? How much search traffic would Google lose (along with Adwords income) if people used the address bar when they know the domain name?

Does any of that make you think twice before buying your next domain? Come on - give it some thought, some serious thought. Keywords (not brands) are hard to rank for - so wouldn't keyword phrases make more sense in your next domain name? Look at the URL above in the address bar. I'd like to rank for WebSite101 Domain Name Tutorial. Hmmm.

Domain Names Owned or Hosted By Google Servers

I was a bit slow to pick up on this one due to some time off recently, but I just came across a list of domain names owned by Google - or at least listed as resolving to Google servers - which could be hosted sites as well. The list is below, but I'll continue to post thoughts on those names as started last month in an earlier post. Here's that list of sites resolving to Google servers.

Read this doc on Scribd: 0804 google domains

Dot Org Domains Price Increase Announced by PIR.org

According to Jacqui Cheng of Ars Technica, the Public Interest Registry has announced a .60 cent increase in wholesale prices for the dot org (.org) domain fee. This increase seems negligible to me and, like the cost of postage, seems entirely reasonable to increase. The fact that you can send written or printed communication across the country for less than half a dollar has always been fascinating to me - yet each time the cost goes up a few pennies, people wail about it. Each time a rate increase is announced for anything, people rail against the effect of prices increasing.

Guys, come on, it's sixty cents per year! Yes, it will cost domain squatters a bit more to renew their portfolio of profit-makers. Yes, it will cost true non-profits a few pennies for the domains they hold for true charity work - but just like postage - look at the value received. That name should represent the online identity of an organization. How much more is spent on signage, marketing collateral, branding and visibility for national organizations, press release distribution, PR and marketing, intellectual property protection and on and on. The cost of the domain is, by far and away, the least costly element of an online presence - even at twenty times current levels.

I've always recommended to clients that they consider extending their registration out to the maximum allowable 10 years in any case. Those who do that, including non-profits, not only decrease the likelihood that they'll forget to renew it or that their contact information will go stale and they'll lose it to forgetfulness or just plain negligence. Now I can add this additional reason - you are protected from price increases and lock in your identity for the silly low (wholesale) price of your $6.15 .org domain registration times ten.

And if you own any dot org domains, you still have until November 9th to renew them - you can have a fundraiser to cover that .60 cents. ;-) Just kidding around, but honestly, it's your online identity and worth the tiny cost.

Domain Front-Running Story at WebProNews

Domain Frontrunning is called a "Protection Practice" by Network Solutions and is discussed a domain frontrunning article by Jason Miller of WebProNews, and is interviewed on the SEO101 show from WebmasterRadio.fm with hosts Caroline Shelby and David Brown talking about the practice of reserving domains that are searched, but not purchased at the NetSol site. ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) frontrunning study (PDF) determined that Network Solutions was indeed doing that.

domain frontrunning SEO 101 | The Beginning SEO Podcast - Domain Frontrunning

If you'd like to skip the unrelated stuff, the domain conversation is from 10:30 to the 15 minute mark, then the commercials run until 17:00 minute mark until the 21:30 mark, a total of eight minutes of the good stuff.

NetSol admitted to the practice and backed off of it, but continues their "Protection Program" suggesting that if you call them, they would cancel the "Hold" they had placed on your searched domains OR that you could use their "Whois" search to find out if a domain was available without triggering the "Protection Program" or as we know it - front-running.

Apparently ICANN received over 150 complaints on the practice and determined that only a portion were actual cases of Frontrunning. This is month-old news, but interesting to hear it discussed by Miller, who thoroughly researched the article for WebProNews.