In this post, I’ll outline a simple formula you can use to evaluate the type-in traffic potential of a generic keyword .com domain.   I thought this might be a useful exercise after reading DomainNameNews.com recent editorial on .CM Typo Traffic and plan to write a follow up post applying this formula to alternate domains like .cm.

Where do type-in visitors come from?

Generic .com keyword domains get type-in traffic from several different sources, namely visitors who…

• type in domains (e.g. cars.com) expecting to find a certain type of site
• use the URL box as a search box (since certain browsers append .com to keywords)

Determining keyword demand by Google monthly searches (MS)

The first thing I look at is the demand for the keyword.  I use Google’s keyword tool to determine ‘exact match’ monthly searches (MS).   Important: When using this tool,  change the match type from ‘broad’ to ‘exact’ or you will receive inflated numbers.

Direct Navigation Percentage (DNP) – estimating how  many people use direct navigation (type-ins) vs. search

Next we’ll need to determine the percentage of users who use direct navigation (DNP) instead of search.   For today’s example, I am going to use a ‘guessed’ percentage of 2%.   If you have a large amount of parked domains in a niche you can determine your industry percentage by dividing your total unique monthly visitors by the total number of Google’s estimated searches for your keywords.

The basic formula

Example: If Keyword Phrase, gets 5,000 Google searches per month and we estimate that 2% of users use direct navigation in this niche, the type-in traffic estimate for KeywordPhrase.com  is 100 visitors per month (5,000 x 2%).

Conclusion

Hope this post helps provide a starting point for evaluating keyword domains from a type-in perspective.  Future posts will concentrate on other contributing factors to domain value including development potential, SEO advantages and end user resale value.