Buyer Beware: Buying Domain Name Based on Traffic Stats

Sadly there really is no accurate tool to use as a guide to how much traffic a domain name is actually getting, without actually owning the domain name and using a trusted stats provider. The simple thing to understand when buying a domain name is not to base your purchase solely on the reported traffic stats.

Traffic can be some domain names lone asset but the real factor in that traffic is the source providing the traffic and the quality of it! Does the domain name rank in the search engines for a popular term and that is where the main source is coming from? Maybe the traffic is "bot" traffic? Maybe somebody paid for some sort of traffic? Maybe a paid ad on a site is sending the traffic?

Really, there are a lot of ways to make traffic numbers appear much higher than they really are!

Although many of the most trusted domain name aftermarket providers like Sedo.com, GoDaddy.com etc often offer a "Monthly Traffic Estimate", that number really should mean very little to you and never should be the sole reason you are buying the domain name! Why? Because that traffic very well could be fake. That traffic could all be coming from a link on a popular site… what happens if that one link is removed? No more traffic. What if the domain name ranks high in SE’s for a popular term and loses that rank? No more traffic. What if the owner of the domain name that is selling purchases a cheap ad to get crappy traffic just to "make the traffic numbers look good"? It happens! All these things can and do happen.

If you are purchasing domain names simply based on traffic alone, that will not always turn out to be a wise choice and you are likely to get burned at some point, if not always.

A DotWeekly.com reader purchased a domain name mainly based on the keyword, but the added traffic reported would be nice. Right.org that was listed on Sedo.com and the domain listing page stated it had over 32,000 monthly visitors. After purchasing the domain name directly from the seller (not purchased on Sedo) and plugging in his own stats provider Google Analytics, Phil was a bit shocked to see the traffic stats for the domain he purchased were a lot lower than Sedo’s estimate. To the tune of about 31,700 LESS monthly visitors to what the Sedo domain listing page stated!

This wasn’t $100 purchase… the domain name was purchased for thousands of dollars. Mainly based on the keyword of the domain name this time and partly because of the pretty large share of traffic the domain name was "reportedly" getting, the purchase was made. After the money is spent, the hard truth came after really testing traffic stats for a month with his own stats provider.

Now Phil’s case is very likely repeated many of times but with most people basing the purchase solely on the reported traffic. Crappy keywords and No Traffic can become a useless domain purchase with really no true value. (look at GoDaddy auctions once with "estimated traffic" and you will see what I mean) A lot of people get all excited about a domain name reportedly getting traffic already and rightly so if it is Real and Quality but seeing a domain name listed  with a big traffic number saying the domain is getting xx,xxx monthly visits is great but it also as to be true because you are paying real money.

The keyword(s) should be the main reason you are purchasing the domain name! The traffic is a bonus and should highly be researched and tested if you can but again, without owing the domain name there really is not a tool to judge the traffic.

Now with the case of Right.org, was Sedo reporting the number incorrectly? Was the seller of the domain name pumping in "fake" traffic to make things look better? Did the domain just get a traffic surge that month because of a news report or typo traffic? In this case and from a reply  from Sedo… Phil reports the following:

"One of the things Sedo is apparently doing is counting requests to specific files (ie: images, videos, etc.) as visitors, even though a visitor never actually went directly to the domain name. Even when I take out those requests, we’re still left with a discrepancy of about 900 visitors per day."

So even though the traffic estimates on Sedo states "Visitors to this domain’s website" doesn’t always mean the visitor is actually going TO the site. There can be an old image or video or some other file that was visited without the visitor actually hitting the site.

Since this is the case, Sedo needs to be more clear with the traffic numbers they display. Same thing goes for GoDaddy.com traffic estimates on expired domain names. Where is the traffic really coming from is very important, as is the quality and I think a buyer has every right to see them to be able to make the best choice if the traffic raises the value on the domain name or not.

Seeing a number like 32,048 is much more appealing to somebody than 226 but do not let a high number like that fool you when you are spending your real money!

Luckily for Phil, his main reason for purchase this time was Keyword and not based solely on traffic. The thing Phil would like to see come out of this problem, is Sedo being more transparent with the stats they are providing and I couldn’t agree more! If the domain name is parked with Sedo, they should easily be able to provide much more than just a "number". If the seller doesn’t wish to have that data public, then the traffic number shouldn’t be allowed to be present on the domain sales page IMO!

Be sure to always use caution when purchasing a domain name with traffic stats. Most of the time, these stats can be inflated to help increase the value of the domain name for the seller, the quality of the traffic coming in is low or the numbers are just fake.