This is the third of a four post series on estimating direct type in traffic – the purpose of which is to come up with a reliable metric that can be used to assess a domain’s revenue parking potential. Results are based on the performance of 28 random descriptive domain names that were parked (using my DIY Domain Parking template) and monitored during January.
Part 3 – Number of Letters
This is one of the main factors that I consider when deciding on registering a domain name at present. I have capped the query within the database I use – when searching for potential deleting domains – to 22 letters as for me that’s the limit in terms of what I think someone might realistically type in to their browser address bar.
I’m expecting domains with fewer letters to have greater amounts of type in traffic when compared to those with more. How will CTR stack up though? Let’s go ahead and take a look..
10 or less letters
First up, type in traffic as a percentage of monthly exacts is high for domains with 10 or less letters (6.31%) compared to that seen when looking at all domains together (1.90%). This is as expected and it’s pretty much a given that this should be the case.
What’s interesting to note however is that type in traffic is not always higher for the domains with fewer letters. For example, the domains with 7 letters do not do as well as those with 10 letters in terms of type in traffic levels.
CTR is not as high as I would have hoped for (9.73%) and comparing this against the overall CTR for all domains together (13.50%) this is quite low although we need to remember that CTR for 2 word domains (which domain names of 10 or less letters generally are) was not as high as for 3 word domains and in this respect these findings resonate with those from my previous post.
11 to 13 letters
I was expecting quite a marked dip in the percentage of type in traffic as we move away from the domains with fewer letters but the amount for those with 11 to 13 letters remains fairly healthy at 2.69%.
The majority of domain names in this group are only made up of 2 words so an important point to note is that CTR is significantly higher (15.13%) than it was when looking at 2 word domains as a group (10.06%).
The 3 word domains of this length perform well in terms of CTR too, so perhaps 11 and 13 character domain names present us with somewhat of a sweet-spot in this respect.
14 to 16 letters
Type in traffic levels are getting lower as we move up in terms of domain name length. Internet users are expected to give us less type in as we move up in length so there’s nothing to be excited or worried about here except the fact that it has dipped quite significantly (0.60%) from the previous domain length we looked at (2.69%).
CTR is there or thereabouts in terms of what we would expect, as the greater length in domain name gives a greater level of targeting to the phrase and therefore ads that are displayed. The fact that CTR is lower for 14 to 16 letter domains (12.90%) than it is for those of 11 to 13 characters in length (15.13%) further supports the idea that the 11 to 13 range could be the one to focus on if achieving the highest possible CTR is your goal.
17+ letters
There are a few important points to note within the results for the 17+ character domain names. Firstly, as we would expect, there is a fairly low percentage of type in traffic against monthly exacts. However, the percentage (1.04%) is higher than that of domains with 14 to 16 (0.60%) letters which shows that these longer domains hold their own in terms of type in traffic with those that are slightly shorter in length.
CTR is at is highest across all groups (16.42%) and is almost double that of the CTR for the shortest domain group (9.73%).
It is also notable that 88% of the domains in this group achieved clicks, most likely due to the length of the domains making the ads displayed on them more specific. This is significantly higher than the next best performer in this respect – which was the 11 to 13 letter domains group – which had clicks on 56% of the parked domain sites.
There are four posts in this type in traffic analysis series, the last of which can be found below.
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