Domain value is the price you will have to pay to purchase a name for your website. This cost can range from a couple of dollars to 6 to 7 figures.
So, how do you determine the value of a domain name? That’s a hard question, but if you get the answer wrong, it can cost you thousands of dollars.
This is exactly why I decided to share with you my experience and knowledge on this topic that I have gained in my career as a Search Engine Optimization specialist and founder of The Affiliate Lab.
In this guide, you’re going to the information on the best domain appraisal services that have risen to the top!
Table Of Contents
How To Find the Best Domain Appraisal Services
Finding the best domain appraisal service can be difficult – you want to ensure you get the best service possible. However, some elements can help you make the right decision.
Market Demand for the Domain Name
The demand in the marketplace largely determines the value of a domain. So, it is important to evaluate the potential for the domain that interested buyers will purchase. Factors to consider include:
Domain’s relevance to current trends- Potential for future growth
- Number of competitors offering similar domains
Characteristics of the Domain Name
The domain name’s characteristics may include the following:
Its length- Its keyword density
- The extension (e.g., .com, .org, .net)
- The age of the domain
Longer domain names with higher keyword density and older domain extensions tend to have higher values. Additionally, the domain name should be easy to remember and pronounce. This can also have an impact on the value.
Domain Name Search History
The domain name search history can provide insight into the domain’s past, such as:
How long has it been registered- Previous ownership
- Previous usage for a website
- Any past issues related to the abandonment of the domain, such as trademark infringement or a lapse in payment
These insights can help you assess the accuracy of the appraisals and the quality of the services.
Domain Name Usage History
Appraisal services that consider the domain name’s usage history can provide a more accurate assessment of the domain’s current worth. The domain usage history will give you the domain’s past performance.
Here are some of the performance trends to look at:
- Its past usage
- How much traffic it received
- How successful it was
Additionally, The usage history can provide the domain’s age information to determine its current value.
Methodology for Choosing the Best Domain Appraisal Services
When choosing the best domain appraisal services, it is important to consider the following methodology:
Buying Domains vs. Selling Domains
If buying domains, look for services that provide accurate appraisals and competitive prices. This ensures you are not overpaying for a domain and getting the best value for your money.
If you are selling domains, look for services that can accurately assess your domain’s value and provide a fair market price. This will help you maximize the domain’s worth and get the best return on your investment.
Size of Domain Portfolio
The size of the domain portfolio is a crucial methodology in choosing the best domain appraisal service.
It also provides insights into market trends, which is beneficial when making decisions about the value of a domain.
Depth of Appraisal Report
A comprehensive appraisal report should include an evaluation of the domain’s market appeal, estimated value, and potential revenue streams.
The report should also include a thorough analysis of the domain’s history and usage and an assessment of its potential for future development and growth.
Assistance With Sale
Look for an appraisal service that will help you through the entire process of selling your domain. This can include helping with negotiations, setting up escrow accounts, and providing legal advice.
Some services may also provide marketing assistance to help increase the domain’s visibility and maximize its sale value.
1. Sedo
Sedo is a massive marketplace of domains. To better serve the domain marketplace, they’ve added several services, including appraisals.
This paid service ($99/report) treats each evaluation like a research project. Instead of providing you with existing data, Sedo passes your request to their on-staff experts who do a personal review of your domain value and niche.
Sedo’s expert looks at factors like search engine suitability, advertising effectiveness, and how much potential a site has to sell.
A custom report is prepared for you and delivered to your email a few days later.
2. Flippa
Flippa has a valuation tool that starts by asking how you want to monetize the site.
After you enter a site into its valuation calculator, you’ll be able to get a reading based on whether you want to use the site for:
- eCommerce
- Content/advertising
- SaaS
- Affiliate marketing
- Apps
This allows you to get a more personalized evaluation of your site.
While the tool will give you a calculation, Flippa is also known for its community valuations. Members can create and share their own estimates for sites based on their experiences of buying and selling websites.
3. Epik
Epik offers a free domain appraisal service and it that gives you an estimated dollar amount along with a rundown of both standard and uncommon statistics.
This is a decent tool to use if you’re looking for any of the following data:
- The language used on the website (by percentage)
- Average monthly searches for the name
- Average CPC
- Alexa and Google page rank
If you want to take the next step up, you can try the professional domain appraisal that they also have available ($399).
4. Estibot
Estibot offers a free tool that can offer you an excellent domain appraisal service. It collects a lot of data you can use to nudge a sales price.
From the homepage, you can enter any name and click to see a report card of data about it. You’ll learn:
- The last sale price
- The sale price of comparable domains (and the dates they sold)
- The search volume of the domain’s name
- SSL status
Estibot provides you with a fair market estimate for any website that you enter. That number is just an estimate, though. You can use the rest of the data to make your own call. In our opinion, this is one of the top domain appraisal services.
5. GoDaddy Appraisal Tool
GoDaddy has a light appraisal tool that may still cover all your needs. Simply type in any existing (or hypothetical) URL to get a free domain appraisal.
If GoDaddy determines that it is valuable, it will give you an estimate and some reasons. For example, the tool will analyze whether the name is memorable or whether it contains valuable keywords.
GoDaddy also provides a list of comparable domains sold. This information is drawn from the data that they have access to as a large domain aftermarket. Not all of this data may be available elsewhere.
6. Free Valuator
Free Valuator is a tool that calculates an estimate based on keywords, statistics, and website rankings.
That’s all pretty standard, but it has a couple of features you might not find anywhere else. For example, it has a crowd appraisal feature that lets you crowdsource opinions about the reasonable estimate for a domain. You’ll get a good idea of whether or not the community thinks a buy or sell is worthwhile.
While the basic service is free (with registration), you can also opt for a professional appraisal. This type is done by site staff and costs $69.
7. Domain Index
Domain Index isn’t the strongest tool, but it does provide you with a quick rundown of domain-related stats that are helpful when you are buying or selling. Some of this information isn’t easy to find with other services.
- The age
- TLD rating
- Language of keywords
- Monthly types-ins
- Whois records
You can perform a few searches without even registering, but you’ll need to log in and pay for some of the more advanced features—including paid consultations with experts in domain names.
8. Website Outlook
Website Outlook is a free tool that calls up more than twenty different metrics in order to determine the real value of your domain.
This domain value calculator seems to be geared toward the needs of SEOs. In any case, it gives you a lot of insight into how other popular SEO tools are interpreting the value of a domain. In addition to the standard metrics, it tracks:
- Moz rank
- Semrush rank
- Adwords traffic/budget
These metrics could give more ideas for how to monetize sites that you’re purchasing for SEO purposes. If you’re selling, they could provide some ideas on how to communicate the site’s worth to SEO-focused buyers.
9. $iteprice
$iteprice offers a no-frills domain appraisal tool that provides you with a rundown of data based on the information it draws from several different sites.
While it has many features in common with others on this list, it emphasizes ad revenue stats over other monetization methods. For that reason, it’s valuations are based on the assumption that the site uses Google Adsense.
It crawls individual sites to pull meta and site information, but it also draws from sources like Moz, Majestic and Facebook to put together an extended list of facts advertising revenue, traffic rank, and visibility.
10. StatChest
StatChest prides itself on having an exhaustive list of stats (hence the name). There are certainly some here that you won’t see in some other services on this list.
This service keeps track of many of the ways that the wider internet interacts with the site. For example, it tracks:
- Facebook’s share counts
- Facebook comment counts
- Tweets that use the name
- Pinterest pins that use the name
The final set of stats covers page speed recommendations. In cases where the tool finds bad practices (for example, render-blocking resources or overly-large images), it makes recommendations on how to improve page speed.
Get the Right Price for Domain Appraisal Services
If you’ve tested any of them so far, you may have noticed that each domain valuator on this list put out different estimates.
This isn’t a flaw. There is no firm rule for pricing a website. You have to know how to argue for the value. The stats you pick up from using several of these services can help make a better argument and get a better price.
If you aren’t yet satisfied with the value of your site, you have options. You can improve all of these metrics with what you learn at The Affiliate Lab. At the lab, we refine the most cutting-edge techniques into blueprints for how to build more successful affiliate sites.
