Premium domains for your business

Why buy a premium domain name

Have you ever searched for a domain name and discovered that it was already taken? Or maybe you found an available domain, but its price was much higher than all the others you’d seen before, and it had a “premium domain” label next to it? In that case, there’s nothing surprising about it – a premium domain is a domain that is sold at a higher price than regular ones.

In this article, you will learn more about premium domains, who needs them, what they are used for, and other important details related to them.

What is a premium domain?

A premium domain is a domain name that costs more than a regular one because it is in high demand. Such domains can usually be recognized by the following characteristics:

• they are short,
• they contain a popular keyword or brand name,
• in most cases they have a high price.

Despite their high cost, they are considered some of the most valuable domain names on the market. This is especially true if they contain commonly used keywords that millions of users search for online. For example, hotels.com or soundcloud.com. Descriptive, “speaking” domain names are inevitably valuable in today’s market.

Why do you need a premium domain?

Status. Owning a premium-class domain name is a symbol of authority. It shows others the level of your business and its purchasing power.

Branding. The name of your company and, accordingly, your domain name are often the first things people learn about your business. If you manage to buy a branded domain name that matches your company name, it will help you get more traffic and, therefore, more potential customers.

And if your domain includes a keyword, it gives people an immediate idea of what your business is and what you do. A premium domain can significantly help with SEO promotion.

Trust. Your domain name can help you gain more user trust.

Today, the internet has become a rather unsafe place: there are many phishing websites that are difficult for an average person to recognize. Because of this, people pay attention to certain criteria when deciding whether your company is trustworthy or not.

If you own a premium domain — that is, a short, catchy domain name without unnecessary elements (for example, a premium domain will never be called something like “shoppingonline23.com”) — then an authoritative domain name will give you a high trust factor.

Increased traffic. Some keyword-rich premium domains have the additional advantage of generating traffic from people who type the domain URL directly into their browser instead of searching for it via a search engine.

Resale value. Premium domains are a profitable investment. You are not just buying a domain for yourself at a high price, you are investing money into something that can be resold in the future, because premium domains retain their value and may even appreciate over time. So if your business does not bring in the expected revenue and doesn’t even pay off the cost of the domain, you can always sell the domain name.

Types of premium domains

There are several types of premium domains. Depending on their source and owner, there are two main types of premium domain names:

Registry premium domains. Domain registries often offer high-quality domain names in various extensions at a higher price. Although the price is higher, these names can be registered in the same way as standard domains. However, the registry sets prices for them based on different factors, such as the popularity of the keywords or the uniqueness of the name.

Premium names on the secondary market. A secondary market domain is a domain that has already been registered by another person or organization and is listed for sale by them at a higher price.

However, according to this definition, all secondary market domains would be considered premium, which is not entirely correct. Not all domains on the secondary market are premium, because not all of them have a high value.

There are no strict, universally defined criteria for deciding which domains will be considered premium. The decision is made entirely at the discretion of either the registry or the current domain owner. It is usually clear whether a domain is premium by the amount a potential buyer is expected to pay for it.

What determines the cost of a premium domain?

• Demand. Premium domains are significantly more expensive than standard domain registrations because they are in higher demand.
• Short length. Short domain names that use popular, commonly used words are easier to remember and to sell. They can help secure high search engine rankings and inspire more trust among potential customers. It is almost impossible to find unregistered, single-word generic domains or domains made up of only two or three characters.
• Uniqueness. Buying such a domain gives you a unique name that will reflect the essence or name of your business. This is especially important for brands, as having a premium domain name online is often a key part of their identity.

All this makes premium domain names rare, and because of these factors some buyers are willing to pay large amounts of money to own them.

Who doesn’t need a premium domain?

Despite all the advantages of a premium domain compared to a standard one, it is not suitable for everyone, at least because of its price.

Premium domains can be very useful for large projects and companies, but it is important to understand that their purchase is unlikely to have a positive impact on a small or medium-sized business. Why?

The answer is simple: given the scale of such businesses, buying a premium domain is often impractical. The cost of a single premium domain may be equal to their annual profit. It would be great if, after a year, the purchased domain pays for itself. However, most likely this will not be a particularly beneficial investment for a relatively small business — it is usually better to invest that money in business development.

It is much more effective to purchase a more affordable premium domain or even settle for a standard domain name and spend the saved money on SEO promotion of your business.

Premium domains are also not necessary for highly specialized businesses, especially in industrial sectors. For their potential clients or existing customers, the exact domain name the company uses is not that important. In a small niche, a good reputation and high product quality matter far more than a beautiful premium domain.

How to buy a premium domain

Buying a premium domain is slightly different from registering an unclaimed domain name. Since premium domains are usually already registered, you will have to contact their current owners.

Therefore, your first step is to find out where they are being sold. Most premium domain names can be purchased on registrar websites, for example, at Point Evans.

There are different ways to acquire a premium domain. For instance, you can buy it immediately when you find it on a specific marketplace — this is the simplest way. The price may be listed next to the domain, so you can just add it to your cart and buy it at the set price.

When buying a premium domain on the secondary market — for example, Point Evans has a “Domain Store” for this — you can make your own offer, because in many cases the price is not specified next to the domain name. However, this method largely depends on the seller’s decisions, so be prepared for your initial offer to increase significantly by the end of the negotiations.

If the owner is open to negotiation, don’t offer an extremely high price right away, but do show that you are serious. Your offer should not be sky-high, but it also shouldn’t be too low, otherwise you risk ending up with the most expensive premium domain in the world.

Sometimes you can see previous bids for the premium domain you are interested in. If that’s the case, use this information to decide on your own offer and make a reasonable bid to the owner.

Some premium domain owners who are interested in a quick sale or in increasing the price through competition put their domains up for auction. This method is not suitable for those who want to acquire a domain as quickly as possible, since an auction may last from a few days to several weeks, depending on the seller’s preferences. However, an auction allows potential buyers to gauge how competitive their bids are.

Potentially, buying a premium domain through an auction can save you some money. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that you will be able to purchase a premium domain at the price of a standard one, unless there are no higher bids. Most domain auctions set a reserve price (a minimum amount) that must be reached before any bids are considered valid. If the bids don’t reach this price, the auction is canceled.

Most of the bidding activity occurs in the last few hours of the auction, so be careful — there is a high chance of driving the price of a specific premium domain up too much during this period.

After the purchase, transfer the domain to your name if you bought an already registered one. On many marketplaces this is a simple procedure. You just create an account with the registrar and then receive the purchased domain name. Some platforms have made this process so streamlined that everything happens automatically as soon as the transaction is completed.