What is the value of a domain name?

There has been a spate of domain name sales recently that have broken the £600,000 barrier, including Candy.com and Call.com – both of which were brokered by Sedo.

The deals highlight how lucrative web addresses can be and why cybersquatting can be an expensive problem.

But what makes one domain name more valuable than another.

According to Lawdit's Zarbakht Khan, there are a number of considerations to take into account before valuing a domain name.

He claims that shorted domain names are more valuable than longer ones and that .com is far more valuable than any other web address suffix – followed by .org and .net.

Mr Zarbakht notes that domain names which contain generic keywords tend to command a large price tag, but they have to be clear to ensure that people do not make mistakes when typing them in.

According to the owner of FindaSeminar.com Scott Alliy, domain names must contain keywords and not just rely on branding.

Written by Debra Hastings-Henry