500,000 Domain name

If you were told that a domain name was worth £500,000 would you believe it? If you were told that the domain name was a .co.uk would you believe it? Well it's now true.

The MD of Cruise.co.uk Seamus Conlon, has bought the domain name Cruises.co.uk for 560,000. He explained his willingness to pay such a substantial sum saying 'The word 'Cruises' consistently ranks at the top of Google, with 'cruise' just behind. We wanted the top positions so that when internet users are searching for cruise deals, reviews or news we are the first port of call.'

After a quick analysis of the top four 'cruise' keywords the table below was constructed:

This shows that approximately 50,000 searches are performed on Google per day for the phrase 'Cruises'. If one considers that 48% of those will click through to the first organic result in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) that's 24,000 clicks per day; which over a year is 8,760,000 clicks per year.

SEO - a better ROI?

Would Mr Conlon have been better advised to pay for an experienced SEO company to move his current site Cruise.co.uk up the Google rankings for the phrase 'Cruises'?

Having completed a quick review of his first site, the honest answer is yes, but obviously it wouldn't have been as quick as buying the competing site. It would however have been cheaper, and it would have brought him less publicity, which it is suggested would have been a good thing. Many SEO's are now aware of this market and can see how with a reasonably small investment they could outrank both Cruise.co.uk and Cruises.co.uk within Google.

In addition it would have helped to cement the position of Cruise.co.uk in the top of the SERPs.