Ebola.com – How some domain names become so valuable

In-between news about the spread of the Ebola virus throughout Western Africa and into the US, a story snuck out about the sale of the matching domain name, ebola.com. According to reports, the website address was sold in a stock-and-cash deal worth $200,000 (£124,000). Usually domain names cost as little as £5 to register per year, so what is it that makes ebola.com so valuable?

Ebola.com is:

• Keyword-focused

  Historically search engines have given higher rankings to website address that contain the same keywords as those which are typed into the search bar. Google et al assume that because the keyword ‘ebola’ appears in the website address, there is a high degree of probability that the site also contains text about the virus, thus it is given a higher ranking in the results.

  If you are serious about investing in domain names to turn a profit, you need to consider the words that people will be searching for.

• Guessable

  People often still type ‘keyword’ + ‘.com’ into their browser bar in the hope of saving even more time that could be spent trawling through search engine results. These people assume that the person who owns the basic website address must be experts in their field and have the highest quality information to hand – in this case about the Ebola virus. The fact that people still do this helps to further increase traffic to ebola.com.

  A valuable domain name needs to be guessable, and preferably based around a single keyword.

• Popular

  According to Jon Schultz who sold ebola.com, 5000 people visited the site every day, despite there being very little by way of unique information there, just a collection of news articles relating to the most recent outbreak. For advertisers, a site that has a steady stream of traffic daily means that there is a good chance their adverts will be seen by visitors, increasing the value of the website.

  When buying a domain name that has already been registered, it pays to check how much traffic is already arriving at the site to which it is attached.

• Relevant

  Jon Schultz originally purchased ebola.com back in 2008, around the time the virus last made headlines. Even back then he paid $13,500 for the address because of the increased interest in the subject. However in the six years of ownership, little additional value was created until the latest outbreak. As interest in Ebola increased, so too did the price tag for the domain.

Like the stock market, domain prices can be significantly influenced by the news. If you can choose a domain name that is likely to end up in the headlines at some point, the more valuable it will be when the time finally comes.

It is also worth noting that Jon Schulz has invested in other virus-related domain names too, including birdflu.com – an address he expects to sell for even more than ebola.com at some point in the future.