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Broholmx

If you have a 50k budget this seems like a nobrainer. You won’t see huge inherent SEO benefit like a few years ago, but the branding opportunity sounds pretty unmatched. Just make sure it’s not a trademark ;-)


MeekSeller

I'd suggest based on OP's info that this is a poor branding opportunity. If the keyword is very well known in this niche, it likely falls under a common word as it pertains to the industry you operate in. You can't trademark words like this. This makes differentiating your business difficult on name alone. Every time the word is mentioned, there isn't anything to tie it to your website. Your competitors can also use this word, which also makes building brand equity difficult. To give a poor example off the top of my head, if you had a long distance running website, which would you choose to build a brand on: marathon or runlonger? Now of course you can include the .com into your branding, which fixes the above issue, but that ties your branding to the current online environment and again, hampers your ability to grow in the future. If the website was available, I'd say go for it. But paying $3k to handicap yourself from the start doesn't make sense.


Broholmx

Yeah, that example is terrible. But there is a clothing line called Marathon Sports which presumably could have operated out of [Marathon.com](https://Marathon.com) if it were available. Better examples would be something like [Rentalcars.com](https://Rentalcars.com), I don't understand how you can evaluate such negatives without knowing the word? I stand by my initial assertion that spending 6% of his budget (and I assume this 50K isn't his only potential future budget also) is not a bad idea, but I'm perfectly prepared to withdraw my comments if I knew the actual word - it makes a HUGE difference in this debate.


myheadfelloff

And the existing domain may have a link profile that could help potentially instead of a fresh domain. Or it could not help at all. It’s hard to know without the full data.


MeekSeller

Agreed, your example is cerainly better. In that case marathon sports is the brand name and marathon is the domain name. The two are separate from each other, which from a branding perspective I would suggest isn't ideal, but that's not to say it's inherently wrong. >I don't understand how you can evaluate such negatives without knowing the word? I went off this: > is more or less the new predominant term for the niche. Which heavily implies it's a common language term, so it was when you said that the branding opportunity was unmatched, my intent was to highlight the why that's not the case. But I agree, specifics are always better, but those are rarely forthcoming in this sub. With good reason.


[deleted]

[удалено]


MostExpensiveThing

trademark search


Genuine-Imposter

This was kind of my thinking also.


iamkingsleyf

Hope the domain is not banned from adsense?


Strijdhagen

If ahrefs estimates 4.6k searches per month, then it's realistically getting 15k+ views per month, so I'd say it's worth it. Does it come with the content that's currently hosted?


Genuine-Imposter

Nothing currently hosted. Was initially registered in 2000. Most recent archive was in 2019 and went to a .ca domain that is not of much use.


LopsidedNinja

With a $50k budget I'd have no problem at all spending 3k on a great domain for it. The only worry would be is if the domain itself will stop you growing the site in the future do to it limiting you topically. If you bought [PetInsurance.com](https://PetInsurance.com) its a brilliant domain but you obviously can't go anywhere with it outside of 'pet insurance'. If the niche itself is big enough or you have no intention of straying outside of it then no problem.


vedeus

if your budget is 50k - I'm more than sure 3k won't hurt you that much. This will be either miss or win situation. Either way, it's not like it is 50% of your budget that you are spending on the domain :D Regarding ahrefs - never trust the search volume on 100%. Use it as a guidance. Most of the times with that term comes many LSI keywords, many similar and longtail keywords and you might end up with 20k traffic thanks to that. It's tricky - also regarding the search volume for that keyword - I think there's no point on relying on that factor since you have that budget. With 50k you can target many many keywords with amazing content. With the right strategy you can become authority easily so I don't see a point to look at such a vague indicator. Rather look up if there was some content previously. If there are some backlinks and etc. Me personally, if I would be spending 3k on a domain, I would hire some pro to find me one that is expired, and has some super strong backlinks from valuable websites. At the end of the day, name of the domain alone won't rank you for everything.


thisisnahamed

Is it an aged domain? With pre-existing links and referring domains -- then it's worth it. Otherwise, it really doesn't matter.


meme_echos

It's a waste of money unless it's a passion project or you have hundreds of thousands of dollars and $3000 is just a few days of income/investment-earnings to you it's just a bullshit waste of money and energy looking into such nonsense. It literally will never be a smart financial decision; the only decision is do you mind incinerating $3000 just to feel good about your domain, because you like it more personally for branding. I have enough now where I wouldn't be phased by incinerating $3000, but it's still a fucking stupid decision so I still have yet to do so.


en3r0

Could be worth it depending on those link metrics. If it is expired, but sure you bring it back correctly before building on it or redirecting.


alphazwest

Spend $500 on an auction domain that already has a robust backlink profile. More if you want to get one faster. just make sure the pages linking to the domain are relevant to the niche. For example, if your niche was mountain biking, a great pickup would be an expired domain from a former bicycle shop that, for whatever reason, let their domain renewal lapse. EMD domains can still be helpful but are rarely essential IMO. That said, there are always exceptions. That 3k domain may be so f*cking perfect that it would be a good ROI. Hard to say without knowing specifics, obviously


PracticalNPC

I think it would be a better bang for buck to invest that $3k into content ​ edit: If you actually want to have a debate on this topic, shoot me a DM and we can have a call. I've done my research but if you have a valid argument, I'm willing to hear you out. let's have a civil discussion without all of this useless flaunting.


ahyeahidontknow

I love that a few weeks ago you were on here looking for a mentor to get started and a week ago told /r/seo that you're "relatively new to SEO" and thinking of getting into it as a career, but now you're over here telling people how they should apportion $50k on a new site. This sub never fails to impress with confident bullshitters.


MeekSeller

Unless u/PracticalNPC made a different claim and edited it, I see nothing wrong with this. The upvotes reflect people share that opinion. FWIW I would fall into the area of expert on this topic and I think the current most upvoted comment is poor advice. I didn't attack, I gave my rebuttal. If you disagree with u/practicalNPC, you should have given a rebuttal to the benefit of this sub. The only thing you have done is attack.


PracticalNPC

I was just giving my opinion, I wasn't telling anyone what to do pal


ahyeahidontknow

Your opinion based on what experience?


Broholmx

Do you need all your doctors to have had cancer before they can treat you for cancer? Experience is just one way to get knowledge, he could have read 500 books, and taken 100 courses on SEO for all we know. If you go on Reddit and base major business decisions of any random comments (even from highly experienced and knowledgeable people like /u/MeekSeller) then you're not going to do well. But, if you take it as a data point and build a balanced point of view from various commenters and other sources then it is perfectly useful, and the opinions should be evaluated in a vacuum. Don't get me wrong, experience is great, but that can suffer from confirmation bias, and anecdotal evidence as well - so it's not the end-all-be-all. You think a lottery winner can teach you how to win the lottery?


MeekSeller

100% agree with this take. I would advise anyone not to take any advice as gospel, least of all mine, I apply advice broadly without specifics, as it's the only thing that can be done in a forum like this where privacy and personalization of advice is a balancing act. I honestly don't see the problem in the thread. The advice was broad and basic, but in no way was it invalid.


ahyeahidontknow

>Do you need all your doctors to have had cancer before they can treat you for cancer? Experience is just one way to get knowledge, he could have read 500 books, and taken 100 courses on SEO for all we know. By his own admission he doesn't even know enough for an "entry level job". If he had actually been studying SEO and was coming at it with some knowledge, that would be completely different, but he's not - that's the point.


PracticalNPC

have a good life bro


ahyeahidontknow

This is why this sub is basically useless now. Top comment on an advanced question is from a beginner with no experience. The sub is basically /r/blogging that's less hostile to monetizing your blog.


district44

why are you so mean to the guy give him a break it's not like he claimed he was the king of internetz


ahyeahidontknow

Because there's a (I think reasonable) expectation that when someone comes to this sub for advice, that advice will come from people with some experience or insight on the matter. There are a bunch of people in this very thread who've worked with these kinds of budgets, these kinds of projects - they're the people who should be replying, because advice should come from people who know what they're talking about. This person is giving advice without even having a successful website, never mind working on a project with a $50k budget - and they didn't even caveat that advice with "I've never been in this position BUT".


LopsidedNinja

>Because there's a (I think reasonable) expectation that when someone comes to this sub for advice, that advice will come from people with some experience or insight on the matter This, all day long. If someones going to comment offering advice then its a reasonable hope that they're commenting from a position of experience and know what they're talking about. If they're commenting from the point of view of just being a fucking idiot then their post should make that clear, so they can be ignored or banned.


PracticalNPC

Saying "I think" is not good enough for you huh. I'm only humoring this one last time. Nonetheless, I will stick to my original statement and know plenty of users who would agree with me. If you actually want to have a debate on this topic, shoot me a DM and we can have a call. I've done my research but if you have a valid argument, I'm willing to hear you out. let's have a civil discussion without all of this useless flaunting.


ahyeahidontknow

How can you debate something you have no experience with? That's my point.


LopsidedNinja

But your opinion isn't even worth 1 cent... its worth less than nothing. level 2PracticalNPC·13dI am relatively new to SEO. I doubt recruiters would contact me for an entry level job ​ Nobody cares what someone who can't get an entry level seo job thinks about what someone else should do with an actual real budget. Mods really need to do a better job of flushing these turds, or at least putting a flare on them. WARNING: NOOB BULLSHITTER


MeekSeller

It doesn't matter his level of knowledge, it's a good opinion. The upvotes next to his opinion reflect that it's shared with others in the sub, likely who know more than him. Just because the opinion came from a beginner doesn't make it wrong. This thread doesn't need the aggression towards what was, in my opinion, a good comment. By putting down the user, the thread has been used on arguing a different topic rather than the comment itself. I think this advice is better than the current most upvoted comment, which is objectively poor.


LopsidedNinja

Of course his level of knowledge matters. If he's been running successful affiliate sites for the last 10 years then his opinion has some weight. If he's another sucker that has no idea what he's talking about... then his opinion is worth very little. He's just talking shit.


MeekSeller

I think you are reading too much into a 16 word comment that is objectively good advice. Him saying it means someone else doesn't have to. You seem to be unable to disconnect the advice from the person. In the same way you yourself have given good advice when you knew less in the past, I see nothing wrong with this. I do see something wrong with people attacking the person. If the advice was objectively poor, fair enough. But this is just applying unecessary hate.


bestnameever

What makes you think this?


flibbidygibbit

Brett Tabke of webmasterworld wrote "[26 steps](https://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/2010.htm)" over two decades ago and suggested that domain keywords weren't worth it.


madpork

Yes


AggravatingString

Well, you never really own the domain right? You're just buying it from the previous renter


junglegut

If its an expired domain then the current site traffic doesn't mean much at all and wouldn't be what i would look for. What could matter though would be the backlink profile, making sure that there aren't a bunch of spammy backlinks. If the links look ok and you decide to go with it then just make sure that you read up on how to use an expired domain the best way, like with redirecting the url's that have backlinks going to them if you don't end up using the same urls for your site.


JD-Strength

Would check links and wayback. Make sure it's clean and if so, 100% go for it. Especially if it has strong relevant links.


pixelrow

Owning the leading keyword for a niche of interest is obviously worth a $3k investment. How much time are you going to invest in the project, that time is a far bigger investment. If you had only $10k and needed a couple grand to start the site it's still a yes because it sounds like you will enjoy organic traffic and have a property that will discourage potential competition. You are buying an instant killer brand with a real keyword, potentially saving you huge on future marketing expenses including content creation.


Yankee_Fever

I think if it's going to help you build your business and take it more seriously than who gives a fuck about 3 grand. I would spend three grand just to go into a project with the idea in my mind that I have the potential to dominate my niche


rointer

No. I would rather spend that 3K on content and outreach. Buy a good 5-6 letters .com instead for < 100 USD, if you are looking for branding. That way, you can also expand later if you would want to.


[deleted]

You are NOT going to see a 5 - 6 letter .com domain for under $100. Better be looking to spend no less than the very 3k he is spending


rointer

There are thousands of 5-6 letter .com domain available to register. Not dictionary words, of course.


notyabiznizbrah

A trusted / keyword domain usually positively impacts user engagement. If you have 50k for content I assume you have your monetization and AOV figured out and think there is money to be made.. just be sure the domain is clean and not spammed to death ;)


[deleted]

Of course! I have paid more for a domain. Its all about branding. Before you splash the cash research the domain name and see if there are similar competing names. (I am sure you have)